Z83pro Fanless Mini PC, 4GB+64GB/ 4K/ HDMI Output/Intel Cherry Trail Z8350 Quad Core/HD Graphics/2.4G+5.8G WiFi/Gigabit LAN/BT 4.0 (4GB+64GB)

After a bit of a rough start, I finally got this thing to do what I needed and it's doing it very well. I purchased this fan-less PC to operate a digital data display, so there were a couple of features it boasted that were a must for me. In the end, the features advertised were all accurate.First, and foremost, the BIOS had to be capable of automatically powering back up after a power failure. It is advertised that it does, but if you read the reviews you might get confused as to whether this is true or not. I can confirm that, on the new product delivered to me on January 18, 2018, the BIOS does have a setting that allows for this. When it is set, it does this perfectly.Secondly, the unit had to be able to support 1920 x 1080 High Definition graphics while rotated in portrait mode. The unit also does this perfectly. The unit also had to come with a fully licensed versions of Windows 10. I will tell you that this unit comes with Windows 10 pre-installed, but you will not find a Microsoft hologram, or a Product Key, or anything that indicates you have a legitimate Microsoft license. I did confirm that the license is activated and that activation is supported by a digital key. This is legal, and legit, however it also means that if you ever have to wipe it clean and reinstall it - you will have to contact the manufacturer. That's not such a big deal... as long as that manufacturer is still in business when you need this. The jury is still out on how I feel about this. If you try to use one of the scripts intended to reveal the Product Key, it will return an encryption string with only the last four numbers readable... so you can't even record it using that method. As for now, the license is legitimate and the product works. It is for this reason alone that I gave the product 4 stars instead of 5.Performance of the product is quite good for what it is. The unit stays a reasonably cool temperature, even under heavy graphic load. It comes with the power supply (a wall wart), and an HDMI cable. The manufacturer doesn't burden you with much paperwork at all - leaving most of questions to be answered by Googling them. Don't expect to receive answers from the seller or manufacturer, they will direct you to "Minis Forum" self-help web forum for all questions.The sound appears to be adequate. I am not able to review much about the video and audio features because I'm simply not using the product for that purpose. I can say that I have tested both video and music, just to be sure it worked - and it does. I realize that may not be helpful in a review, but I'm being honest, I just haven't put those features to the test.The price of the product seems to bounce around like lottery numbers. When I first considered the product it was $119, then two days later it was $139, I purchased it at that price. It was delivered in two days with Amazon Prime, but as I write this review the price has changed again to $145. I guess you have to take the stock market approach and hope you catch it at a decent price.Would I buy it again? Look, the product works and appears to be everything as advertised. I'm still a bit hung up on not having an official Microsoft Windows product key to substantiate that I truly have a legally licensed copy of the operating system that I can do with as I please. I might buy it again if I were desperate for the hardware to support another project, but if another seller / manufacturer came along with this same item, with a fully licensed, hologramed product key that was printed on a card with full privileges... I would probably choose that instead. By contrast, the Intel Compute Stick does come with the license literature, hologram, and fully disclosed product key. You be the judge on how important that is to you - especially 2 years from now after the manufacturer is gone or un-reachable, and you need to reinstall your OS.UPDATE: January 24, 2018:After contacting the manufacturer, MINIS FORUM, and being directed to their internet forum, then registering to enter the forum, then posting a request for the Windows License key - the manufacturer did provide the Windows License Key to me via email. While this did resolve my concern, it required a lot of effort to obtain something that should have been included with the device since it was advertised as an active Windows license. I do wish they had been more customer focused.As for the re-seller:, Plater, I wish they had also been more customer focused by taking a little more responsibility for the product they are importing and selling to customers.UPDATE July 9,2018The Windows License is confirmed to be BOGUS. While it worked when I received the license key from the seller, Microsoft just released an update to Windows, which rendered the license key INVALID. I contacted Microsoft and after three representatives digging through data they revealed that it is an OEM trial license which only works for the exact version (older version) of Windows 10 at the time it was installed on the hardware. Any subsequent major updates to Windows require that you purchase a full license for $110. I can no longer use the product for what it was intended for. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SELLER: "Platter", they are not giving you the full story on the Windows license you think you're getting.

It is amazing what can be crammed into a very tiny box these days. It's not a gaming or media center PC nor does it pretend to be. Inside is an Atom processor chipset, which means it can't do much beyond basic use but will make a pretty decent centralized backup/file storage server, which is what I'm going to use it for. It's also cheaper than a standalone Windows 10 Pro license so I got a complete computer AND Win10 Pro for less than what it costs for just the license. The fanless design is a huge plus for me - no moving parts which means one less thing to go wrong and less noise.I am docking one star because, for some reason or other, the onboard file storage is unreliable. fopen() system calls which should never fail occasionally fail when using this device's onboard storage. I'm going to guess OS timeout/delay issues paired with SD card-style storage are to blame. In other words, someone didn't read the requirements for the Windows OS when they designed the hardware. Yes, SD cards/Flash storage and the hardware to use them are cheap but they also don't meet the minimum requirements for any device on which a monolithic OS is stored. It's not smart design. Linux might be more stable, but I unfortunately need Windows to make my backup solution work (I've already got a Linux mini-PC which works well so it would be pointless to put Linux on this hardware). Simply retrying failed operations seems to "fix" the issue but it is slightly concerning that the hardware is not as stable as it should be. The hardware itself seems fine or I would return the device (e.g. no random shutdowns, BSODs, or the like) and, in the worst case, I can offload various system calls to an external drive that I know is good. The Windows kernel has certain expectations for certain devices (especially the boot device) and there could be some BIOS funkiness too that's causing the problems. Those things can be bypassed by using external storage. No one should have to do that though.

Quite pleased with this a as a little HTPC. It does bog down at times if it's trying to do too much (decompress and play 1080p on the fly while downloading in the background, etc.). But for the most part it's been a good value. Runs Kodi and Plex servers well. Good choice for streaming YouTube, Netflix in a browser to a HD TV, etc.But... the very small storage available natively is a problem. Even after putting all new files, docs, apps, etc on either an SD card or external (USB3) storage, the on-board storage is so limited that Win10 can't run larger updates where it needs 8Gb or so of scratch space. With only about 5Gb empty after basic services are running, Windows does not have enough free space to use as swap space during updates. As a result, this little device is getting left behind in terms of security patches, etc.

The good: For a Z83 device this is probably as good as it gets. Kodlix has an active support forum, they respond to requests and they make the drivers for Z83-F freely available. They are one of the few vendors to do this. If you're looking for a mini Windows device that supports auto power on, is 64bit and stable this is the one to get.The bad. These devices are essentially dead end /obsolete out of the box. The reason for this is the meager 32GB of space. After setup I'm seeing between 12-14GB on these. That is however BEFORE you try to do a major Windows update like the Fall Update. That update requires more space than these devices have. There is simply no easy (nor reliable) way to do the Windows Fall or Creator updates on these devices. You can try to use the external storage option, however I'm 0 for 3 on that. I've yet to see that actually work on a Z83 device.So if you're aware of that going into it and are ok with that limitation this is a great deal. If not then you're likely out of luck as I've yet to see a device in this class at this price range with more than 32GB of storage that support auto power on.