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Pipo has managed to produce a nice little piece of kit and I have to say, it does everything we expected from it. The X7 ticks all the right boxes as long as you are not too demanding. It's true that there are some shortcomings, but none of them are deal-breakers.
We liked
As a geek, I have to say that I appreciated taking it apart and looking at this machine's insides – a thumbs up for that. I liked the fact it shipped without any bloatware – which might have a negative impact on the user experience – but Office 365 Personal is here which is worth £50 (around $75, AU$95) by itself. It ran totally silent thanks to the lack of fan, which makes it ideal as an HTPC.
We disliked
The X7 isn't perfect though, and if there's anything Pipo could do to improve the device, the first thing would be to swap the USB 2.0 ports for USB 3.0 ones, and upgrade the Ethernet port to GbE. Pipo might also want to consider putting the power supply unit inside the computer to eliminate the need for a bulky external plug. Lastly, how about a VESA connector should you want to shove the device behind a monitor or television.
Final verdict
Should you buy it? Yes, if you can. The device is not on sale in the UK at the time of writing although you can import it from a fair few online retailers. Those looking for a more powerful alternative might consider a NUC (Next Unit of Computing) like this Intel one.
If you want something more portable, a tablet like the Pipo W2 – which is slightly more expensive – might be a better option. It's worth noting that Pipo is likely to launch an HDMI dongle running Windows in the near future. It already sells Android-based affairs and there are no technical challenges that would prevent the company from doing the same for Windows.
