Introduction:
These days SFF PCs are gaining momentum. The trend is slowly moving towards smaller and more power efficient computing. The Zotac ZBOX Pico is a smartphone sized box that is a complete PC running Windows 8.1. It obviously comes at a cost and some sacrifices are made, but there is a certain group who would really appreciate such a device and completely fills their needs.
The ZBOX Pico measures 4.6"x2.6"x0.8" and is a complete PC with a quad core Atom Z3735 processor, 2GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 32GB of internal flash memory and comes with Windows 8 32 bit pre-installed. It has built in wifi and bluetooth, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 HDMI port and 1 micro SD card slot.
Unboxing and a Closer look:
Lets take a look at what we get in the box and a closer look of the mini PC itself.
In the box, we get the device itself, a VESA mounting bracket, a power adapter with interchangeable socket plugs, a recovery disc and a user manual.
Now for the device itself, its pretty much as large as a smart phone, just thicker.
When powered up, the Zotac logo lights up. In the front we got a Micro SD card slot, which supports up to 128GB.
Some connectivity options here. Here are 2 out of the 3 USB 2.0 ports on the device, 3.5mm headphone jack and an Ethernet port.
Here we see another USB 2.0 port, HDMI port and the power connector. This USB port is ideal positioned for connecting a USB adapter for wireless a keyboard/mouse.
Overall the device is really light and feels well built. The plastic on the top has also a glass feel to it and the lights make it look great. Also note, the size makes it fit perfectly in the pocket, as advertised
.
Now that we know what it looks like on the outside, lets take a quick run of how it performs. First up, some CPU benchmarks.
CPU Performance: Intel Atom Z3735F Benchmarked
The Intel Atom Z3735F is a part of its Bay-Trail line of SoCs based on their Silvermont architecture, which is a completely new architecture coming to the Atom series. Intel's main goal intention was to compete with other mobile SoCs so had to cut down on power usage, the Z3735F has a TDP of just 2.2W. It supports up to 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, which is what we have got here.
As mentioned before, its a quad core processor with a clock speed of 1.33GHz with a turbo speed of 1.83GHz. It has 2MB of shared cache and HD 4000 Integrated graphics. The Z3735 is not a top of the line processor in this series, there are chips that at higher clocks (1.49GHz, 2.39GHz turbo) and support more RAM (up to 4GB). Although I think the slightly higher clocks and extra RAM would be useful, I would not pay a very premium price for it as the gains might be just marginal.
Today, we will be running a combination of tests to stress both single threaded as well as multi threaded performance, in both real work and synthetic tests.
Cinebench Single and Multi Threaded
.7z Single and Multi Threaded
3DPM
Browser Based Benchmarks
Including some browser based benchmarks as well. I have also included benchmarks of the Nvidia Tegra 4 , which was on the Zotac tegra note I had reviewed earlier. Since it was running on Android on a completely different browser, the comparison is not completely fair and take it with a pinch of salt.
BrowserMark 2.1 :
Google Octane:
Overall the CPU performance is not bad. Its obviously not the fastest thing around but is competitive in the mobile arena. Just goes to show that these mobile SoCs are getting really powerful and can take desktop workloads at a very low cost, size and power consumption.
Graphics Performance: Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics
This system ain't meant for any serious gaming, but I was just curious what it would be like. So I tested it out with 2 games, Street fighter 4 and F1 2013. The resolution was set to 1280x720 and all settings we set to low.
Street Fighter 4:
F1 2013:
These results are kind of expected, no surprises here. Maybe if you want to play some older games (AoE 3 maybe?) it might be able to handle it.
Real Life Usage and Target Audience
Well I will be a little honest and say that benchmarks, for this class of products are rather meaningless, its not nearly as bad as what they make it look. The ZBOX Pico is not designed for high performance, but for daily workloads.
The device comes pre-installed with windows 8.1 32bit, so after about 10 minutes of initial setup, we were ready to go. I wrote almost all of this complete review using this system, so I had about 5-10 tabs opened at all time, some music in the background and some images opened as well. It was a fairly satisfactory experience and no real slowdowns. Another great thing that I found with the device were great boot times, which was surprisingly quick at around 14 seconds from the time I pressed the power button to the windows home screen.
Watching 1080p HD BD Rips was no problem, CPU usage stayed at around 5%-8%. Video streaming was not too bad. Streaming 1080p video on youtube was not perfect, there was a little amount of stuttering and CPU usage hovered between 70%-100%. At 720p, there were no issues what so ever.
The device did get a little warm when streaming, which is specially impressive as it is completely passively cooled. Heat is at times an issue with PCs of this size, but not with the PICO.
As you probably figured out, the ZBOX Pico is not for everyone. Here are some scenarios where I think it would be a great fit:
1. Simple HTPC: Just hook it up to your TV and a wireless keyboard and mouse and you have a full HTPC. If you think your better off with a smart TV, I would any day save that extra cost and buy one of these. You smart TV ain't gonna say smart forever. Having a desktop running a full version of Windows OS really makes things more flexible and you can do a lot more with your TV.
2. Browsing/Office use: It works well for simple uses like browsing, emailing, simple spreadsheets and other light weight tasks. I am sure there are users who use it for just that and with this, not only do they save on money, but with almost no footprint, they save on space as well. Its great for people with a home office setup, the pico comes with a mounting bracket, which you can use to mount it on to a VESA supporting monitor. Using it for MS office should not be an issue as well, as long as you don't deal with large data sets.
3. Downloading and streaming: Since the power consumption is really low and does a good job in media streaming, its a good option if you are a download junkie. You just need to hook it to an external USB hard drive and your good to go.
4. Education/Programming: Its performance is enough if you are does some light programming work or for educational purpose.
I am not too sure if there will be a lot of folk who would want to carry it around in their pocket, but that can certainly be done with the pico.
Now that being said, there are some caveats.
1. Very little disc space: I got the 32GB variant, which had a usable disc space of 20GB. If your not cautious, you will run out of it very quickly. You can use a mico SD card (up to 128GB) and expand the storage, but that has its own limitations.
2. Non upgradable: This is a slight bummer, the hardware is not upgradable. You can't add more RAM or swap the internal HDD (its flash based, embedded). I understand that the device cant support more than 2GB of RAM and that zotac can't do anything about it as that is a platform limitation.
The Verdict:
Zotac has done a lot of things right here. The ZBOX Pico is compact, completely silent, has decent performance at an affordable price of Rs 15,000. The power consumption is great and even though the benchmarks make it look poor, its very much usable for daily tasks. Currently, there are not a lot of options if you are looking for a compact PC. You have Intel NUC based systems that start off at a similar price point (~Rs16000 without OS), but are much larger in size but with slightly better performance and upgradable RAM and HDD. You also got the Asus VIVO PC, which are slightly more expensive but have more features and quality.
I would give it a 8.5/10, its a great device for people who use their PCs for general entertainment, some light productivity or even purely educational purpose.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ZBOX_PI320_2-1024x780.jpg
These days SFF PCs are gaining momentum. The trend is slowly moving towards smaller and more power efficient computing. The Zotac ZBOX Pico is a smartphone sized box that is a complete PC running Windows 8.1. It obviously comes at a cost and some sacrifices are made, but there is a certain group who would really appreciate such a device and completely fills their needs.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DSC02171-1024x679.jpg
The ZBOX Pico measures 4.6"x2.6"x0.8" and is a complete PC with a quad core Atom Z3735 processor, 2GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, 32GB of internal flash memory and comes with Windows 8 32 bit pre-installed. It has built in wifi and bluetooth, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Ethernet port, 1 HDMI port and 1 micro SD card slot.
Unboxing and a Closer look:
Lets take a look at what we get in the box and a closer look of the mini PC itself.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ZBOX_PI320_9-1024x780.jpg
In the box, we get the device itself, a VESA mounting bracket, a power adapter with interchangeable socket plugs, a recovery disc and a user manual.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ZBOX_PI320_14-1024x780.jpg
Now for the device itself, its pretty much as large as a smart phone, just thicker.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSC02172.jpg
When powered up, the Zotac logo lights up. In the front we got a Micro SD card slot, which supports up to 128GB.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSC02165.jpg
Some connectivity options here. Here are 2 out of the 3 USB 2.0 ports on the device, 3.5mm headphone jack and an Ethernet port.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSC02167.jpg
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSC02166.jpg
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSC02166.jpg
Here we see another USB 2.0 port, HDMI port and the power connector. This USB port is ideal positioned for connecting a USB adapter for wireless a keyboard/mouse.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/DSC02169.jpg
Overall the device is really light and feels well built. The plastic on the top has also a glass feel to it and the lights make it look great. Also note, the size makes it fit perfectly in the pocket, as advertised
.Now that we know what it looks like on the outside, lets take a quick run of how it performs. First up, some CPU benchmarks.
CPU Performance: Intel Atom Z3735F Benchmarked
The Intel Atom Z3735F is a part of its Bay-Trail line of SoCs based on their Silvermont architecture, which is a completely new architecture coming to the Atom series. Intel's main goal intention was to compete with other mobile SoCs so had to cut down on power usage, the Z3735F has a TDP of just 2.2W. It supports up to 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, which is what we have got here.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/baytrail-1024x691.png
As mentioned before, its a quad core processor with a clock speed of 1.33GHz with a turbo speed of 1.83GHz. It has 2MB of shared cache and HD 4000 Integrated graphics. The Z3735 is not a top of the line processor in this series, there are chips that at higher clocks (1.49GHz, 2.39GHz turbo) and support more RAM (up to 4GB). Although I think the slightly higher clocks and extra RAM would be useful, I would not pay a very premium price for it as the gains might be just marginal.
Today, we will be running a combination of tests to stress both single threaded as well as multi threaded performance, in both real work and synthetic tests.
Cinebench Single and Multi Threaded
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/zbox_cinebench.jpg
.7z Single and Multi Threaded
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/7z.jpg
3DPM
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/3dpm.jpg
Browser Based Benchmarks
Including some browser based benchmarks as well. I have also included benchmarks of the Nvidia Tegra 4 , which was on the Zotac tegra note I had reviewed earlier. Since it was running on Android on a completely different browser, the comparison is not completely fair and take it with a pinch of salt.
BrowserMark 2.1 :
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/browsermark.jpg
Google Octane:
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/google_octane.jpg
Overall the CPU performance is not bad. Its obviously not the fastest thing around but is competitive in the mobile arena. Just goes to show that these mobile SoCs are getting really powerful and can take desktop workloads at a very low cost, size and power consumption.
Graphics Performance: Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics
This system ain't meant for any serious gaming, but I was just curious what it would be like. So I tested it out with 2 games, Street fighter 4 and F1 2013. The resolution was set to 1280x720 and all settings we set to low.
Street Fighter 4:
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SF4-1024x577.jpg
F1 2013:
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/f1_2013_zotac_zbox.jpg
These results are kind of expected, no surprises here. Maybe if you want to play some older games (AoE 3 maybe?) it might be able to handle it.
Real Life Usage and Target Audience
Well I will be a little honest and say that benchmarks, for this class of products are rather meaningless, its not nearly as bad as what they make it look. The ZBOX Pico is not designed for high performance, but for daily workloads.
The device comes pre-installed with windows 8.1 32bit, so after about 10 minutes of initial setup, we were ready to go. I wrote almost all of this complete review using this system, so I had about 5-10 tabs opened at all time, some music in the background and some images opened as well. It was a fairly satisfactory experience and no real slowdowns. Another great thing that I found with the device were great boot times, which was surprisingly quick at around 14 seconds from the time I pressed the power button to the windows home screen.
Watching 1080p HD BD Rips was no problem, CPU usage stayed at around 5%-8%. Video streaming was not too bad. Streaming 1080p video on youtube was not perfect, there was a little amount of stuttering and CPU usage hovered between 70%-100%. At 720p, there were no issues what so ever.
The device did get a little warm when streaming, which is specially impressive as it is completely passively cooled. Heat is at times an issue with PCs of this size, but not with the PICO.
As you probably figured out, the ZBOX Pico is not for everyone. Here are some scenarios where I think it would be a great fit:
1. Simple HTPC: Just hook it up to your TV and a wireless keyboard and mouse and you have a full HTPC. If you think your better off with a smart TV, I would any day save that extra cost and buy one of these. You smart TV ain't gonna say smart forever. Having a desktop running a full version of Windows OS really makes things more flexible and you can do a lot more with your TV.
2. Browsing/Office use: It works well for simple uses like browsing, emailing, simple spreadsheets and other light weight tasks. I am sure there are users who use it for just that and with this, not only do they save on money, but with almost no footprint, they save on space as well. Its great for people with a home office setup, the pico comes with a mounting bracket, which you can use to mount it on to a VESA supporting monitor. Using it for MS office should not be an issue as well, as long as you don't deal with large data sets.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ZBOX_PI320_12-1024x780.jpg
3. Downloading and streaming: Since the power consumption is really low and does a good job in media streaming, its a good option if you are a download junkie. You just need to hook it to an external USB hard drive and your good to go.
4. Education/Programming: Its performance is enough if you are does some light programming work or for educational purpose.
I am not too sure if there will be a lot of folk who would want to carry it around in their pocket, but that can certainly be done with the pico.
Now that being said, there are some caveats.
1. Very little disc space: I got the 32GB variant, which had a usable disc space of 20GB. If your not cautious, you will run out of it very quickly. You can use a mico SD card (up to 128GB) and expand the storage, but that has its own limitations.
2. Non upgradable: This is a slight bummer, the hardware is not upgradable. You can't add more RAM or swap the internal HDD (its flash based, embedded). I understand that the device cant support more than 2GB of RAM and that zotac can't do anything about it as that is a platform limitation.
The Verdict:
Zotac has done a lot of things right here. The ZBOX Pico is compact, completely silent, has decent performance at an affordable price of Rs 15,000. The power consumption is great and even though the benchmarks make it look poor, its very much usable for daily tasks. Currently, there are not a lot of options if you are looking for a compact PC. You have Intel NUC based systems that start off at a similar price point (~Rs16000 without OS), but are much larger in size but with slightly better performance and upgradable RAM and HDD. You also got the Asus VIVO PC, which are slightly more expensive but have more features and quality.
I would give it a 8.5/10, its a great device for people who use their PCs for general entertainment, some light productivity or even purely educational purpose.
*techverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ZBOX_PI320_2-1024x780.jpg
