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Android PCs, are they worth it? (AOC A2472PW4T Monitor Review)

2014-07-10
this video was brought to you by NCI X great technology selections and service so we have Android on our phones on our tablets and that is an excellent mobile operating system without standing user experience so what happens when you combine the stationary device with a mobile OS well you get an Android PC for this segment we're not only reviewing this aoc 24 inch Android PC but really trying to answer whether or not Android makes sense for this form factor and to get the specs out of the way this twenty three point six inch display houses Full HD resolution and this model will set you back around five hundred dollars so you are getting an IPS panel with a built in system so an Nvidia t-33 which is a Tegra 3 quad-core SOC clocked at 1.6 gigahertz two gigabytes of memory a gigabytes of built-in storage with only five gigabytes usable on our unit support for Bluetooth Wi-Fi b/g/n and touch controls in Windows and it is running an outdated version of Android jelly bean 4.2 now the whole point of this Android PC is the user experience and the lack of support for even Android 4.3 is already disappointing and I doubt we'll see support for latest version of Android rolling out anytime soon so the form factor is also a little strange having this dual bezel design first a glossy outside frame then the inside screen bezel making this monitor actually larger than most 24-inch panels the outside frame also exhibits a lot of flags and it seems like the glue used here is pretty weak with the portion below the front-facing camera has completely come off on our unit we have an 8 megapixel camera at the front capacitive touch controls at the bottom right that I wish were physical buttons so we get on-screen display controls like color presets brightness sharpness and all the rest plus the arrow keys adjust the volume while in Android mode and can also be used to access sharpens controls there are no buttons on the outer shell just a silver accent surrounding the large housing and on one side we have two USB 2.0 ports for monitor use only audio jacks and the micro USB port for OTG devices when in Android mode the backplate is piano gloss with a nice curvature to it and built-in stereo speakers that are just okay for some audio but I would not rely on it and this is where we find the rest of the connections including an Ethernet port USB power for those side USB ports really uncomfortable SD card slot it's right below the stand so good luck accessing it and the power plug that's needed for operation as this does not have a built in battery we also have full-sized HDMI and VGA ports for external monitor use as this is the monitor after all the aluminium stand here is very basic and is very sturdy very nice to see that there only two positions so the standard mode and the low mode we also have a small plastic strip at the bottom of the stand which is meant to stabilize the monitor along with these rubber inserts at the bottom but they do pop out easily and actually lost one of them making the AIO really slippery on the desk and actually very uncomfortable to use with touch now I'm happy to see 75-millimeter VESA mounting holes allowing additional flexibility and integration of this panel into your desk environment so now comes the question of Android user experience with this form factor and right from the start I could clearly see how unfitting this combination is there are many features unoptimized for this 24 inch size like the massive keyboard that you cannot scale down so typing in this thing is just ridiculous there is potential here I mean there's enough area to include the full numbers line and all the special characters somewhere around but in this state it's unproductive and inefficient luckily you can connect the Bluetooth keyboard to go around this and it will actually been considerate of aoc to include a mouse keyboard bundle plus imagine connecting a Bluetooth game controller for some casual and your gaming which would be pretty sweet second are the back home and multi window buttons at the bottom left corner that they're just awkward to reach every time the touch interface can be used by anything I actually like that I think that might be useful however touch registration is not precise meaning if I hover to three millimeters away from the surface of the display it would still register that touch command so imagine needing to select a specific portion of the text only to start playing catch the cursor and so it's really unpleasant and so based on all that I was seriously relying on user experience to win me over only to be utterly disappointed with sluggish performance laggy animations apps take a while to load and I just found browsing the web on my phone a lot quicker so if the UI was silky smooth and perhaps would see a specific skin to work with this form factor I would maybe consider the possibility of Android fitting within desktop a iOS but this attempt from AOC is quite disappointing from an Android PC perspective monitor wise you are looking at a pretty decent color reproduction and contrast with excellent viewing angles although it is quite reflective the ability to use this as a standalone monitor is appreciated through the HDMI and VGA ports but the lack of height adjustment stand as you get on most monitors today is I think a deal-breaker and I don't think that this Android PC would be more suitable versus your standard regular monitor and perhaps Android on your phone or tablet as a separate device to me the best thing about this Android PC is actually the screen it's vibrant bright enough and the stand isn't bad either with quality form and two main angled positions and I'm really glad to see 75-millimeter face and mounting points although everything else from the for Android performance with unoptimized UI like awkward placed on-screen buttons and Jake handing on-screen keyboard inconvenient capacitive power button terrible SD card placement and not really a seamless transition between monitor use and Android use where there's about a 30 second wait between system power on the outer frame also exhibits a lot of flex plus a dual bezel design makes this monitor larger and then it needs to be and also touch registration needs more work so yes this looks like an almost complete flop from a user perspective and I think Android is definitely more fitting on mobile devices instead of such attempts to bring Android to a desktop scene and realistically if you do have this hooked up as a monitor why not just browse the web and enjoy social media through more comfortable means rather than sluggish Android PC but let us know in what situations you think this Android PC would actually be useful in as we all have our preferences as always thanks for watching don't forget to subscribe for more similar content leave your comments down below and we'll see you in the next one you
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