ECS LIVA Review: The Nettop Rises Again

Concluding Remarks

Coming to the business end of the review, it is clear that ECS must be applauded for trying to resurrect the nettop by cutting the appropriate corners while delivering a better performing machine (compared to older nettops) in a fanless chassis. The absence of SATA and SODIMM slots reduce the BOM cost and the eventual end-price for consumers (which is the reason the ECS LIVA is cheaper than a Bay Trail NUC). The use of a micro-USB conenction for power gives rise to interesting use-cases. For example, a TV with an USB port delivering around 10 W of power should be enough to run this unit for almost all common tasks.

On the flip side, the LIVA kit does have aspects that can be fixed by ECS. One of our major peeves was the positioning of the two USB ports. The placement between the micro-USB power inlet and the HDMI port makes it very difficult to utilize the USB ports (particularly for thick thumb drives). One or both of the USB ports need to be either in the front or on the sides. In addition, the Celeron N2806 SoC inside the LIVA kit doesn't have Quick Sync enabled. At the same price point, Intel has a new stepping which includes Quick Sync (the Celeron N2807). Quick Sync can enable some interesting use-cases. It would be good on ECS's part to integrate a Bay Trail-M part with Quick Sync enabled in the LIVA kits. In terms of storage, 32 GB of eMMC turns out to be very less after installing a couple of Windows updates. 64 GB should be the minimum, particularly since flash storage needs plenty of free capacity in order to maintain performance.

Back to the bigger picture, the question here is obviously the effect of LIVA on the nettop category. ECS has managed to put out a product which delivers better performance per dollar and better performance per watt compared to previous generation nettops. The category itself (small, underpowered machines used for basic computing tasks) has received a boost thanks to Chromebooks (and, in turn, Chromeboxes). The potential market for the LIVA could be further expanded if ECS were to get Chrome OS to run on it (though I personally prefer the flexibility offered by Windows), or if Windows were to be supplied for free (given that Microsoft is essentially not charging license fees for certain classes of products now, in order to compete with the Chromebooks and Chromeboxes). The ability to run Windows on this miniature unit, while being fanless in nature, should prove to be a great selling point for the unit. I do hope ECS will make note of some of the suggestions above (particularly with respect to the motherboard / chassis design) for future products in the LIVA lineup.