Android PC in a tiny, little box

The Portable Android 4.0 Mini PC is a tiny little device which will plug into any television with a HDMI port and allow you to run Android apps.

Setting the device up was a doddle – the biggest issue was that the unit we got had a British plug and we had to hunt around for a converter. Once we had power the unit just worked. A HDMI cable was provided, but for obvious reasons we had to provide our own keyboard and mouse.

The Mini PC comes with built-in WiFi so an internet connection presented no issues. Once we were running, the first screens were mildly confusing: The built-in apps that appear first are Chinese which means I (a) have no idea what they are, and (b) wasn’t interested in them when I could work out their function. Once you have Internet, though, you can just download whatever apps you want from the Google Play store.

The unit ran fine, although we did seem to have occasional hiccoughs when streaming videos so I am thinking that you might want something a bit more powerful if you were thinking of this as a discrete media device – and in any case Chromecast is coming. But if you’re looking for something to work with Android on the big screen, or just complete portability, or a device to hack around with, this is a good choice.

We played with a review copy from the lovely folk at MobileZap.