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Introducing the Asus VivoMini UN42 – a pint-sized PC, literally
The Celeron cost-cutter for us simple folk
Cloud control
Having used WebStorage before, it was annoying that my user ID was not accepted to sign in. It reported, "This WebStorage ID is already existed" [sic]. I know, it's my old account. I ended up trying to log in from the WebStorage website to find out what the issue was. It appears that as my previous WebStorage foray had long since expired, the account was now in limbo.
So, needlessly, I had to create a new account using a different email address. Come on Asus, if you're going to provide a cloud service, you could join the dots better than this.
Where Asus does excel is at system level and even at this end of the food chain the Asus AI Suite 3 provides some useful utilities to keep an eye on things, as well as making tweaks to USB charging, its 802.11ac Wi-Fi configurations and easy BIOS updating.
If you're not so interested in gazing at RAM speeds and would rather more conventional entertainment, then Asus provides a couple of audio utilities. You can fiddle with a graphic equaliser if you fancy, select presets and configure you audio set-up.
Audio options include a graphic EQ and various presets or a enhancements using Waves MaxxAudio
If you prefer an easy option, the AudioWizard, powered by Waves MaxxAudio, will tailor the sound to the type you choose; recording, movies, music, gaming and speech. As you're not trying to make poxy laptop speakers sound listenable, the results should satisfy in everyday use on headphones or a hi-fi. If the VivoMini is destined to become a living room PC then you'll find screws in the box if you want to mount it on the back of a monitor.
The Reg Verdict
Admittedly, the unappetising 32GB SSD in this base model did colour my experience of using the Asus VivoMini UN42. In short, building a Windows PC around this this capacity is best avoided, as Windows updates will inevitably eat too much of it.
Presumably the thinking behind this is to match a Chromebox on cost, but Google's OS doesn't store apps on its SSD and Asus can't seriously think that Windows with Bing is a comparable system.
That aside, the VivoMini UN42 is an exceptionally quiet mini PC with a low power consumption that, as Asus states, is for "everyday home computing". If you don't stray too far from that notion, you should be reasonably satisfied, assuming you invest in a larger storage option or go barebones instead. ®