MSRP: £169.99
What is the Hannspree Micro PC?
This is very likely the smallest computer you’ve ever seen and it runs the full desktop version of Windows 8.1. To use it requires a display with an HDMI input and it will set you back somewhere around the £150 mark at the time of writing (March 2015).
And therein lies the potential issue with the Micro PC - it is competing on multiple fronts against devices dedicated to their disciplines. So how it will it stack up fighting on several fronts? Let's see...
Why would you want one?
We can think of a number uses for such a portable computer but this being AVForums, our primary concern is how it can perform as a media PC. The size and lack of fan make it an ideal candidate for such duties, provided the overhead of the operating system doesn’t unduly affect performance. In a similar vein, you could also use the Hannspree Micro PC as a micro server, running something like PLEX. For more serious applications, it might make an excellent thin client for remote desktop usage for when you’re away from the office and, likewise, it could be the ideal companion for a business trip for the likes of Powerpoint and media presentations. Alternatively, you could perhaps even think of it as a beefed up version of the windows mobile experience.And therein lies the potential issue with the Micro PC - it is competing on multiple fronts against devices dedicated to their disciplines. So how it will it stack up fighting on several fronts? Let's see...
Design & Connectivity
What can we say here? Well, the Hannspree Micro PC essentially resembles any number of HDMI or USB dongles out there but, tiny as it is, it’s larger than most of them. Its piano black chassis measures, more or less, 11cm in length and, perhaps more pertinently, it has a width of nearly 4cm. That means, if you have a number of HDMI connections vying for space behind your display, then it might be more than a squeeze to accommodate it. For that reason Hannspree includes a HDMI extension lead adapter so should have no practical difficulties fitting in to your set-up.
Seriously small
Aside from the obvious HDMI terminal, the Micro PC has a rudimentary set of physical connections. There’s a singular USB 2.0 port, a micro USB input for the included USB charging cable so you can power it from a USB port on your TV. There’s also a Micro SD cart slot so you can expand the on-board storage capacity and there’s a small power button near the HDMI end of the device. WiFi, unfortunately, is restricted to the 2.4Ghz spectrum when we would have preferred 5Ghz compatibility for a better chance of Wireless HD video transmission. The Hannspree is compatible with Bluetooth Version 4, which is better news as it will mean low energy consumption for both it and any connected devices.
Hannspree Micro PC Specification
The reason this thing is so small is because of the Intel Bay Trail-TZ3735F within it, which was originally designed for lower end tablets, so we’ll have to see if it has enough power for the tasks we need it for. It’s a Quad Core CPU, with the cores, that are based on the new Silvermont architecture, are clocked to 1.33Ghz – and up to 1.83Ghz in Turbo mode - and it provides 2Mb of cache. Intel has increased the performance per clock by about 50 percent and together with 22nm low-power design, it is supposed performance and energy efficiency that have been significantly improved over its predecessor. There’s also 32GB of fast EMMC memory on board (24.8 GB available out of the box) and 2GB of DDR3 RAM available. The Hannspree Micro PC comes pre-loaded with a full version of Windows 8.1 installed with baked-in language support for English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.
Media PC Performance
Obviously the Micro PC has no optical disc drive nor any audio outputs outside of the HDMI connection so our testing was done using networked or locally stored content. For our media software, we installed the latest stable build of Kodi (XBMC) (14.1) as we feel it’s the most versatile and capable one out there. It also played very nice with the Minix A2 Airmouse, we have in our possession, to give it that authentic remote control feel. We used various codecs, containers and frame rates, fed to one of our review 1080p TVs we know to handle them spotlessly. Files were played directly from the in-built memory, via USB storage and over the network using SMB sharing.
The results, for such a relatively low end processor, were mostly very good indeed. Via Kodi, the Micro PC was able to correctly lock on to all the 1080p24 files we tested it with, including those with MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264 and VC1 codec with bitrates up to 40 Mbps over the network but, predictably, our test file encoded at 120Mbps required it to be played either directly from the built-in memory or via USB storage. That’s as much a limitation of our home network as it is the device. In terms of audio, the Hannspree is certainly capable of passing through Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 via HDMI but 7.1 and HD audio must be sent as PCM in order to work with your receiver.
In a more general sense, in terms of using it as a media device, there were some frustrations. Bluetooth performance, for one, was very substandard and we experienced frequent cut-outs that meant we couldn’t really use it to stream audio to any of our Bluetooth speakers. This is something we do frequently, both in the course of reviews and when we’re tapping away at a keyboard, so a proper nuisance. WiFi performance also wasn’t especially good and when we had a few active devices using the network, HD video streaming suffered – especially anything direct from a browser, such as Prime Instant Video – you’ll need to install Silverlight to run that properly by the way. As a local media streamer, however, it generally worked very well and ran a light install of Kodi with commendable speed.
In a more general sense, in terms of using it as a media device, there were some frustrations. Bluetooth performance, for one, was very substandard and we experienced frequent cut-outs that meant we couldn’t really use it to stream audio to any of our Bluetooth speakers. This is something we do frequently, both in the course of reviews and when we’re tapping away at a keyboard, so a proper nuisance. WiFi performance also wasn’t especially good and when we had a few active devices using the network, HD video streaming suffered – especially anything direct from a browser, such as Prime Instant Video – you’ll need to install Silverlight to run that properly by the way. As a local media streamer, however, it generally worked very well and ran a light install of Kodi with commendable speed.
It does lots of things well but not one single thing so well you'd feel compelled to buy it on standalone grounds
General Performance
Using either Internet Explorer 11 or the latest build of Chrome, web browsing was a perfectly acceptable experience, with most pages loading with good speed but more complex and/or image heavy sites could lag more than we’d like. If we were using it as a business device, or applications that are likely to be input heavy, we’d obviously want to hook up a dedicated keyboard and mouse as it’s no fun typing emails or using a spreadsheet with anything less. That kind of eats away at the idea of it being an ideal travel companion but if you want a little device for working out of the office, from home, the Hannspree Micro PC works perfectly well with Remote Desktop. Despite some vague claims in the marketing that the processing is up to gaming, you can really forget about it. We hooked up a XBOX 360 pad to the Hannspree and even simple games from app store struggled to maintain framerate and fluidity.
Hannspree Micro PC Video Review
Conclusion
Pros
- Fast boot up
- Low power
- Silent
- Runs most apps well
Cons
- It doesn't excel in any one thing
- Poor Bluetooth
- Only 2.4Ghz WiFi
- There are already direct competitors costing less
Hannspree Micro PC Review
Should I buy the Hannspree Micro PC?
We honestly can’t answer that as it is so highly dependent on what you want it for. We were primarily exploring this device as a media player/streamer and, for the most part, it performs those tasks pretty well. It runs a light install of Kodi/XBMC perfectly acceptably and if you have networked storage, the possibilities open up even more. In terms of streaming apps, there’s decent native support under Windows 8.1 but other platforms will give you more. Of course, the Hannspree also offers the back-up of fully functional web browsers but our experiences of streaming HD material through them on the Hannspree weren’t great. The lack of 5Ghz WiFi compatibility certainly doesn’t help but we wouldn’t attribute it all to that, as we’ve experienced similarly poor performance via much more powerful machines. Much more unforgivable is the poor built-in Bluetooth transmitter which rendered it useless, to us, as a streamer for Tidal and Spotify.But that’s just looking at one use-case scenario and if you’re intentions for it are more varied, then the Hannspree is a more appealing product. For those who find themselves frequently remote working from home, the lower power/high transportability combination is quite compelling and the Hannspree Micro PC functions well as a remote desktop for relatively little money. The apps - and all the other flexibilities Windows 8.1 offers - then just become a bit of a bonus and the compromises much easier to tolerate but we still get the sense that this is a device stuck in the middle of several product types without really doing enough to be chosen in any.
So what else could I consider?
If we compare the operating system, which is the defining factor of the Hannspree as a media platform, to the likes of Android/FireOS, iOS and Roku’s proprietary software then there are plusses and minuses in all cases. Using an Airmouse is all well and good but you can’t really beat a system designed to be totally remote control friendly and the extensive use of gesture control isn’t quite the lean-back experience we’d like. Native apps are also an area to consider so, in terms of TV streaming media boxes, if we do a like for like comparison you could probably argue that Roku has the edge over the rest, when it comes to what we consider the real big hitters. The Apple TV is lacking, in the UK market, so doesn’t capitalise on the reach of iOS. The Amazon Fire TV is a real contender with the added bonus you can sideload many Android apps and the dozens of Android TV boxes out there offer all manner of flexibility not afforded by the rest, albeit at the expense of some apps – e.g. Netflix and YouTube not running at Full HD and others, e.g. BBC iPlayer plagued with issues.And if you want the Windows experience with a business travel companion save up for a Surface Pro.
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