
Originally Posted by
irneb
Apart from W10 it actually works pretty awesomely. It's very similar specced to an entry level laptop / notebook, so pretty good for minor work. 1.3GHz Atom dual core, 2GB DDR3 RAM at 1333MHz, WiFi N, Bluetooth 4, one USB2 port, built-in 32GB flash running at around 30MB/s, one microSD/SDHC/SDXC slot for up to 128GB cards. Spec-wise, it's actually one of the top end stuff for these types of things.
Though with the hassles I've got with W10 it's mostly useless as you move the mouse, sit and wait, click, sit and wait, wait some more, click again (since nothing seems to happen), wait a bit longer, and make coffee, come back - and you've got two sessions of the same program running (because you've clicked twice).
As stated, when I ran it using Ubuntu (and mind you that's with the full Unity desktop, not something like LXDE/Mate/Gnome, which is actually pretty graphics intensive) it felt like a pretty decent computer. No lags, no hassles, every graphics effect like shadows, animated dragging, hover highlights, animated window openings, etc. ran smoothly without any stuttering. Could even open several programs at once (Firefox, LibreOffice Write + Calc + Draw, Thunderbird emails, Empathy chat, etc. all at the same time ready for Ctrl+Tab swapping) On W10 I have to turn off all those special effects, and only run one single program at a time, else it's even worse.
Another issue I have with W10, this thing comes with an internal flash disc of only 32GB. W10 itself uses up around 15GB of that, so not a lot of room for actual programs (especially if you follow the rule of trying to stay below 50% usage). And it's not a simple task to rather use the SD card for extra storage - e.g. installing programs to it is not a non-tech exerience, neither is moving your MyDocuments (and other) folders over. The Ubuntu install (including all those programs mentioned above) only takes up 4GB of space. If I install all those things in W10, I use an extra 2 to 4 GB worth over and above W10's 15GB.
I'm sorry to say, steer clear of these things if you cannot get something like a Linux / Android / OSX on it. Microsoft does NOT make an OS which works properly on anything less than a 2GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB disc (those are ABSOLUTE MINIMUMS). Graphics-wise, the Intel Graphics built into their newer CPUs (even the Atoms) seem to be enough, unless of course you're going to play 3d games.
What does work well even with W10 and its Defender hogging the system: Remote Desktop into another computer. That way this thing is nothing more than a KVM, i.e. you could have bought something at a 1/10th the cost to get the same job done.
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