ASUS VivoStick TS10-B017D Intel Atom Z8350

First off, like most of the reviews here, this thing is impressive! I bought this blindly looking for a small computer to run linux. I didn’t do any research first, just ordered it. When it arrived, I was amazed at how well it ran Windows 10. I hate Windows 10. I let it run it’s updates, tried a few things, then went straight to work disabling Cortana and setting as many privacy settings to off as I could. I wanted something to use until I could get a functioning distro running. I have no interest in letting M$ into my house / life anymore, but that is topic too broad for this review. All I can do is to ask you to research them and their telemetry gathering methods and make your own conclusion…The lack of a micro sd on this did not bother me. Most memory stick ports on computers are routed through a standard USB port. Regardless of how great a memory card you have, the performance will always be capped by the limits of the bus it is running through. My real main concern was the USB 3 connection and if or how well it would or could handle a UASP connected SSD. I’m here to say that it handles it surprising well. So much so, that it out performs the internal drive that comes with it - and you can boot with it too! I used this enclosure and hub: Inateck 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure External Case for 9.5mm 7mm SATA/HDD/SSD with 3 Ports USB 3.0 Hub, UASP Supported, Tool-Free(FE2007) It really adds some dimension to what you can do with this Vivostick. A word of warning though, it must be externally powered and the power must be applied before booting up the stick. The enclosure will not swap power on the fly and the Vivostick will sputter/crash if it has to supply it.I used Ubuntu Mate 16.10. I got the distro from Ian Morrison’s site. Even though his images were designed to operate on the Compute Stick, they worked fine of the Vivostick. He commented that a couple of things were still broken like wifi. I know the posts were a little dated and may have been fixed since, but everything including wifi works on the Vivostick. I’d like to mention that if you do find use in his images, please do what you can to support his work. Also, if you’re interested in booting something other than Windows on this device, you must disable fastboot in the BIOS. I plan to keep this updated as I go. I hope you find it helpful.

I have 5 of these purchased fall of 2017, operationally I love it no problems streaming or playing videos which is what I bought it for. The 2 problems I have are, 1: it will only operate using the included power supply I have tried numerous others including TV's, and it will not work. 2: I have yet to be successful at upgrading to the latest version of Windows 10 as of April 2018, insufficient hard drive space. The latest version of win 10 requires all of the upgrade be done using C drive only. As received there is only about 4gb on the hard drive of useable space available, windows takes up the rest. The win 10 upgrade requires 8 - 10 gbI have purchased similar devices from other manufactures that have 64Gb hd and the upgrade is slow but no problems, also no issue's with the power supplies

Windows can't be updated normally because of too little storage, so I have to mess around a bit with additional memory stick and removing stored previous system version to make it done. Otherwise it works fine. Good for streaming netflix and youtube to tv. 2 USB ports are really useful (most of this devices only have 1). Of course it's not a speed demon but for web browsing and streaming it's ok.

UPDATE:Windows just performed its first automatic update, and the first thing to 'hang' is Microsoft Edge.1.) For whatever reason, MS wants me to know that Edge is best optimized for this VivoStick, yet EDGE has hung twice on this brand new hardware.2.) Microsoft Edge 'reset' my preferences without permission. I had installed WPS Office because I was tired of being asked to purchase Office 365 every time I needed to view a .pdf file. Mind you , I'm not trying to do anything but read a pdf. Still, every time I am asked to buy 365 before I can view a document. I don't think it is right that Edge universally overrode my preference.3.) WIndows has applied 3 updates in 2 days, and I'm already running out of storage. Edge let me know that it was storing previous versions of Windows, and that I could delete them to free up space.Original Post:It's hard to know where the problems split on this product. Knowing whether the issues are with ASUS or MICROSOFT are difficult to identify. On one hand, you could argue, hardware with such minimal specs has to be the reason why mundane tasks take so long. OR, it would also not surprise you to believe it's a foolhardy-attempt to reduce Windows 10 down adequately to function within the limitations of a 'stick' computer.Either way, I'm not a power user. Straight out of the box, this device took 5 minutes to get to a Blue Screen of Hype, then took another 3 minutes to show the setup page. After entering my preferences, the device needed 3 more minutes before Desktop arrived. Promptly, the device reacted slowly to keyboard and mouse input, and needed a reboot.After a couple of restarts, things got a bit better, but I was disappointed that the Internet access was slow. I have 200 Mbps Time Warner, with the wireless router sitting 1 foot from the WinStick. Pages should have loaded faster than a public Wi-Fi experience. My other portable devices(tablet and deactivated smartphone) have faster browsing.While I have yet to customize my WinStick, certain things do not make sense. For example, my viewing preferences won't stay in 'Thumbnail' once I close a window. Every time I re-open my Pictures folder, the view is an 'List' regardless of my preference. Another annoyance is Explorer Edge. I prefer to browse the Internet with Internet Explorer, but opening IE prompts a message that" Edge is better optimized for web browsing. " Maybe, but if that were the case, why include IE at all? And IE is not even visible from the desktop environment. It was only offered as an "Open With" option that I came across accidentally, so I had to "Pin" IE to the taskbar in order to find it again. Explorer Edge may be optimized, but I don't care to have anything other than a web browser open when I am web browsing. Is that wrong?Here's another annoyance. Office Mobile won't allow spreadsheets to be viewed unless you give permission to have your document converted by MS online service. Why? Doesn't converting a native document seem redundant?The overall experience is one of an aging Windows pc that has grown slower over time. I wasn't expecting that with a brand new device. Even updates take longer. My last shutdown prompted an update, which only completed 30% before turning off. The last 70% took place at the next start-up.Really?