Intel Compute Stick review: An entry level PC in your pocket, but comes with its quirks

Intel Compute Stick review: An entry level PC in your pocket, but comes with its quirks

Small form factor PCs have been around for a while now. We have seen companies such as Asus and ZOTAC releasing small form factor PCs for years now and more recently Intel had released its Next Unit of Computing (NUC) as a compact form factor PC with an Atom processor. While the category is old, there hasn’t been much adoption on the consumer front in terms of sales. For most people a computer still means a desktop or a laptop at least.

Intel announced the Compute Stick earlier this year at Computex, which is basically an entry level computer on an HDMI stick. This is quite a unique form factor for a small form factor PC. At first glance it resembles any other media-player on an HDMI stick such as the Chromecast, but offers much more in terms of usability. Let us have a look at how the Compute Stick fares.

You have to hand it to Intel for making a complete working PC inside such a small form factor. We are so used to seeing PCs in a box form factor, with just the dimensions getting smaller, that the Compute Stick design is refreshing. Of course, it is reminiscent of other product categories no doubt – but to get a PC inside this compact form factor is commendable.

The Intel Compute Stick measures 147 x 85 x 72 mm and weighs just 340 gram. That makes it easily portable and you can carry it in your back pocket. It is made of hard plastic with a glossy top finish and matte finish on other sides. There are openings on the top and sides to let the heat dissipate. Intel has also bundled in an HDMI extender, in case the HDMI port on your TV or monitor is difficult to directly attach the Compute Stick to.

Intel’s Compute Stick comprises the Intel Atom Z3735F processor which is clocked at 1.33GHz with the burst frequency going to 1.8GHz. It is a quad-core non-hyperthreaded processor. It comes with Intel HD graphics. The processor is paired with 2GB of DDR3 RAM and also has 32GB of onboard eMMC storage. The Compute Stick comes in a 32-bit Windows 8.1 OS with Bing variant as well as in a Linux variant. On the connectivity front, you get Wi-fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 4.0. If you get the Windows 8.1 OS variant of the Compute Stick, then you naturally get the option to upgrade it to Windows 10 OS as well.


We got the Windows 8 version for review. When it comes to connectors and ports, on the right hand side you have a microSD card slot whereas on the left hand side there is the single USB port, a microUSB port for power and further down there is the power button. The Compute Stick will require USB power for it to turn on. You can either use the spare USB port on your TV or in case your monitor has a USB Hub. Else Intel bundles a external power adapter for the USB cable.

Performance

Considering the Intel Compute Stick is targeted more as a secondary or tertiary computing device, the raw performance numbers aren’t that great. For instance, Cinebench R11.5 gave a score of 0.8. The data transfer speed on the 32GB flash storage maxes out at 147 MB/s for sequential read and 45 MB/s for sequential write. In short, it is at par with Intel Atom Z3735 processor sporting devices such as the Micromax Canvas Laptab. But we are talking two completely different product categories.

However having said that, the Windows 8.1 OS runs smooth on the Compute Stick. We did not notice any laggy experience while using the OS. Simple tasks such as surfing the web, working on word and excel documents, watching full HD videos on streaming sites works fine with the Compute Stick. You can even load HD movies onto your microSD card and play them off the Compute Stick without issue. For streaming the CPU usage hovered around 25-30%, but for HD playback it was around 10%. Gaming is best avoided. Apart from using it to do basic tasks, you can use the Compute stick to convert your regular TV into a smart TV.

Bluetooth connectivity is a bit of an issue as we faced many instances where we just lost connectivity. Plus if you are going to use your TV as a monitor, the Compute Stick is attached behind the TV and it can be tricky if you do not have a spare USB port. If you are using your spare desktop monitor to connect the Compute Stick, one USB port on the Compute Stick may feel limiting unless you do not have a USB hub on you. It is annoying to make a decision of either using keyboard or mouse to make the initial setting – if you want to setup bluetooth. An additional USB port would certainly help.

Verdict and Price in India

So who should go for the Intel Compute Stick. Well, that is a tricky one to answer as this is an entirely new product category in a way. The advantage it offers over the incumbents in the small form factor PC space is its sheer size. At Rs 9,999 price point, you are getting an entry level PC if you already have the supporting peripherals such as the keyboard, mouse and monitor. As compared to streaming devices such as a Chromecast or Teewee2, you can do much more on the Compute Stick such as office related work, surfing on a popular browsers in addition to consuming media. The challenges lie in limited connectivity ports and non-reliable bluetooth connectivity.