Review: Viewsonic VOT120 mini PC

Viewsonic's VOT120 crams a full PC into a tiny compact box, smaller even than some external hard disk drives. The system is well suited for those needing a low-cost PC for basic tasks such as web surfing, email, and editing documents, so long as buyers do not expect too much in the way of multimedia performance.

Available now, the VOT120 is basically a "netbook without a screen" according to Viewsonic, as it has the same hardware specifications as the popular category of mini laptop, but fits it all into a box measuring just 13 x 11.5 x 3.9cm in size.

The other notable thing about the VOT120 is the price. At £200, it could almost be an impulse purchase for consumers, although potential buyers should note that it does not come with a keyboard, mouse, or monitor – these must be supplied separately.

Viewsonic also said the VOT120 can be bought for even less - just £155 - without an operating system, for those who want to install Linux or some other platform instead of Windows.

Like a netbook, the VOT120 is based on Intel's 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor and has 1GB of memory and a 160GB Sata hard drive, with Windows XP Home edition pre-installed.

This specification means that the system is perfectly capable of running applications such as Microsoft Office and most other tasks, and we found this to be the case, although the single-core Atom processor does not deliver the performance of the dual-core chips found in most PCs today.

What lets the system down is the integrated graphics of the Intel 945GSE, which means that the VOT120 is not suitable for playing graphic-heavy games, although watching web video is perfectly fine.

The VOT120 could probably serve as a basic PC for small businesses, although potential buyers should note that it comes with Windows XP Home edition, which lacks some features of the full XP Professional, such as the ability to log on to an Active Directory domain.

Power is supplied by a separate mains adapter, similar to those that come with laptops and Viewsonic quotes the power consumption as just 13W when operating and 0.98W in sleep mode.

Because of its small size, the VOT120 appears peppered with I/O ports. As well as the power switch, the front features two USB ports, microphone and headphone jack sockets and an external SATA (eSATA) port. The latter is for adding an external hard drive and allows for higher data transfer speeds than USB, at least until USB version 3.0 becomes widespread.

At the rear of the case are two further USB ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, and DVI video output to a monitor. Because there is no VGA connector, we had to use an adapter to connect the system to a monitor, but found the VOT120 could display resolutions up to at least 1280 x 1024 on the 19in monitor we tested it with.

There is also a Kensington lock slot, enabling users to secure the system against theft by chaining it to a desk, for example.

One neat feature that Viewsonic has provided is 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, which is unusual in a desktop system but gives users the flexibility to locate the VOT120 virtually anywhere within wireless network range, rather than having to site it close to an available Ethernet port.

Unfortunately, this proved somewhat unreliable on our review model, and continually lost the connection or else reported it could not find any wireless networks in range, despite the fact that a laptop sitting nearby was having no such problems.

Included in the box with the VOT120 is a miniature stand that holds the system unit upright on a desktop, so that it takes up the bare minimum of space. Viewsonic also offers an optional £15 VESA mounting bracket that allows the system to be affixed to the back of a monitor.

Also in the box are a system recovery/driver CD, and a user guide and installation CD, but these require an external optical drive before they can be used with the VOT120.

Unlike many other systems we have seen, the VOT120 did not come overloaded with ready installed applications and utilities, allowing users to make their own choices. A copy of Trend Micro Internet Security is just about the only third-party software we noticed.

For those needing slightly more capabilities, Viewsonic will be offering more mini PC models from October. The VOT132 has a dual-core Atom processor and Nvidia ION graphics supporting HDMI and DVI outputs, plus a clip-on DVD drive, while the VOT530/550 models are almost exactly the same size as Apple's Mac Mini and include a DVD (530) or Blu-ray drive (550).