The Sumvision Cyclone Mini PC stick is rather amazing, giving you a fully FULL Windows PC in a tiny form factor.
Excluding the HDMI connector it’s only about 10cm in length, a far cry from the bulky desktops you see in offices. It packs in decent specs for the price:
- Windows 8.1
- Intel Quad-core Z3735F 1.83 Ghz
- Intel HD graphic
- Micro SD card slot (up to 128GB)
- 32GB storage
- 2GB DDR memory
- 8.02.1.1/b/g/n wireless
- HDMI 1.4
- Bluetooth 4
The Cyclone also packs in a small external wifi antenna, 1 full sized USB port, and 1 micro USB port.
Included with the Cyclone Mini PC was a HDMI extender, useful during setup as the stick was a little too wide to use with the spare HDMI port on the TV due to other HDMI connectors.
The Cyclone Mini PC is powered externally and not via the HDMI connection, a power supply included. You’ll need to think about where you position all of this as if the power supply is pulled you’ll find it can easily be disconnected from the Cyclone Mini PC.
The ridged design is to help with heat generated, and the Cyclone Mini PC can get rather warm, so if things are a bit packed around the back of your TV I’d recommend using the HDMI extender or plugging into your amp to keep it in open air.
You’ll need to provide a wireless keyboard/mouse, in the video below you’ll see the highly recommended Sumvision Wireless Air Mouse which is both a keyboard and mouse and is brilliant for the livingroom.
Windows 8 is OK on the TV, the desktop mode is a bit small but tablet mode is OK. Windows very quickly flagged that the Cyclone Mini PC can be upgraded to Windows 10 and it’s recommend you do so as soon as you can as the interface is a massive improvement over Windows 8.1. Set Windows 10 to tablet mode and combined with an airmouse this is a brilliant interface that is much easier to use than Windows 8.1.
Being portable and HDMI you’re not restricted to TVs, you could plug this into a projector and with full windows that would mean you don’t need to carry a laptop about. The tiny size also makes the Cyclone Mini PC a good choice for those travelling who still want access to streaming services on the go.
The inclusion of a micro USB port means you’ll need to either use a USB hub to connect more than one device, or make use of an adapter cable. In the review video you might notice the use of a cable, the airmouse receiver is in the full USB port and an Xbox wireless receiver dongle plugged into the micro USB via the converter cable.
Although the Cyclone Mini PC is capable of playing games it’s not really a strong point, you’ll see in the below video that games work and are playable but they’re not overly smooth. This is to be expected with such a tiny PC, after all a decent graphics card dwarfs this tiny stick.
However, thanks to Value the Cyclone Mini PC has the ability to play games as good as your gaming PC…because it’ll stream them from your gaming PC! Using Steam in home streaming the Cyclone Mini PC was able to play any game, without any lag, with the graphics all set to max, on a TV. The main PC, located upstairs, did all the hard work, the Cyclone Mini PC put the game up on the TV. Steam in home streaming works brilliantly.
The Cyclone Mini PC is a brilliantly compact portable computer. If you already have a decent gaming PC this is a fantastic way of liberating your Steam collection and playing it in your living room. If you want to give you TV some major smarts, this gives you access to all the applications you could want. The Cyclone Mini Micro PC, when upgraded to Windows 10, makes similar Android boxes and sticks rather redundant.
Available from Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/1WosSPE
