The Shuttle X50 AIO - Dual-Core Atom Goodness

Till All Are In One

Shuttle is more well known for their Small Form Factor (SFF) casings, so it's quite surprising to find them embarking on their first All-in-One (AIO) nettop. That said, their latest 15.6-inch Shuttle X50 AIO looks like a solid attempt for their first try, due mainly to a better choice of innards. That's right, unlike your standard Intel Atom based netbooks and entry level nettops which mostly pack a single core

Intel Atom processor, the Shuttle X50 opts for a more 'powerful' setup with a dual-core Intel Atom 330 processor.

This will give it a slight edge in the never-ending horsepower race against the normal netbooks and nettops that use the single core Atom chip like the ASUS Eee Top that we reviewed last year. We'll see how it does on our usual performance benchmarking page, but for now, we give you our picture walk through of the Shuttle X50 AIO nettop and specifications table for this lovely Shuttle machine before we examine it in further detail over the next few pages:-

Exterior Musings

Shuttle's 15.6-inch AIO nettop is a well designed machine, and you can tell right from the start that it's meant to be a machine that you can easily carry around. You can then flip the handle around and use it as a stand to prop the machine up. Once propped up properly though, you'll soon find that the X50 is a sleek machine that just begs to be touched. It's white glossy surface also does a good job of hiding fingerprints, so we've no complaints there.

Connectivity wise, the unit boasts of five USB ports that should get you plugged in comfortably and you'll also find the standard webcam and microphone on the top of the unit. A stylus is also included for those reluctant to use their fingers (or require more precision) though we're slightly surprised that Shuttle didn't bother to include any touch-centric user interface

(UI) with the X50, which means you'll be stuck interacting with the basic Windows XP interface.

That however, is far as you can go with it sadly, as the AIO machine does not feature multi-touch support. The Shuttle X50 also doesn't come with a keyboard or mouse, so you'll have to either scrounge both up yourself, or start getting used to the virtual keyboard and touch settings. Audio quality was fine, with volume at a decent level. If you're a fan of bright glowing blue light, Shuttle has also given it that glow at the bottom of the unit for folks typing in the dark.

Performance Pondering

The Intel Atom processors mostly have similar performance, so we don't expect to see great differences in the benchmark scores. To give you a rough idea of the Shuttle X50 AIO's performance, we've thrown in hardware of very similar configuration from our review of the Intel 945GCLF2 mini-ITX motherboard kit (integrated with an Atom 330 processor) and also the ASUS EeeTop (which uses a single-core Atom processor) for comparison.

From the PCMark05 performance, it's quite obvious that the Shuttle X50 doesn't fare any better than the Intel D945GCLF2 motherboard which uses the same Intel Atom 330 processor. It does however easily beat the ASUS EeeTop but there's not to big a gap between both machines. 720p HD video playback was also fine as can be expected of the dual core Intel Atom 330. This also bodes well when you factor in the 1366 x 768 screen resolution of the Shuttle X50.

Shuttled Away

The AIO movement may not be as strong in the market yet, but that doesn't mean that there's no demand for a good decent machine for this segment. The Shuttle X50 AIO is one of these machines that easily fulfills this niche with its adequate performance and decent price point of US$599 (~S$872).

There are however a few things that hold us back from highly recommending the Shuttle X50 AIO system and it's more to do with what you can do with this machine than say any design or hardware faults. While it's a slim and portable enough to move it about anywhere within your work or home, make no mistake that it's still meant to be used as a proper desktop system

. Considering that the system doesn't come equipped with a keyboard and mouse set for serious usage, you're left only with the touchscreen display for navigation. If you further scrutinize the touchscreen feature, it has no purpose-built application usage or proper user interface support on the OS level beyond mimicking the typical mouse actions. Thus the touchscreen implementation is just for casual, rudimentary use.

All's not lost however, as the Shuttle X50 AIO does have some saving graces. It certainly has a pretty design and is able to handle 720p HD videos much better than a normal netbook or a single core Intel Atom nettop. So if you're looking for a machine that you can easily squeeze into tight corners due to the lack of space, then try giving the Shuttle X50 a shot. After all, you might end up appreciating the benefits of this machine despite the shortcomings mentioned above. Just don't over expect its capabilities such as tasking it for gaming or heavy duty tasks as this is after all a very basic general purpose machine for the Internet world of today.

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