Product Listing

ASUS Nova P20 Mini PC

By Aloysius Low - 23 May 2008

Exterior Design

Exterior Design

As we have previously noted, the console design is aimed at the home user market, and believe us, the Nova P20 would fit right at home next to your current living room setup with its glossy piano black finish. Like the Shuttle X100 and X200, the Nova P20 can be placed either flat down or straight up, though we prefer the straight up look.

When placed straight down however, the odd protrusion located at the top becomes a pen holder, though if you stop to think about it, the "pen holder" is really there to stop people from blocking the vent and the resulting explosion (we jest).

The Nova P20 can be placed two ways. Straight up or...

...Flat down. When placed flat down, the top ridge becomes a "pen holder". Note the minimalistic flat surface of the front panel that has no protruding buttons. In any case, the pen and the CD should give you a scale of the Nova's size.

The front profile is quite minimalist in design with no protruding buttons. Instead the Nova P20 makes do with capacitance-powered touch sensitive buttons for the power button and eject button of the slot-loaded DVD writer. The Nova P20 also uses the same slot-loaded DVD writer as the X200, so that means you can burn dual layer DVDs to your heart's content. Last but not least is the infrared port for the remote control, which is located just above the power button.

The rear panel also remains equally sparse, with just 4 USB ports, one DVI and LAN port, and three audio jacks. The Nova P20 also comes with a S/PDIF converter which will allow output for 5.1-channel surround sound, so you don't need to rely on the puny built-in speakers that come with the unit.

Seen here are the 4 USB 2.0 ports, three audio jacks, one DVI out and a LAN port. Sure, the number of connectivity options available on the Nova P20 may disappoint, but there are ways to get around this limitation...

We're kind of disappointed at the lack of other connectivity options though, since the Nova P20 is running on Intel's X3000 integrated graphics, so it's capable of handling HD content. A HDMI port in this case, would have been good to have. Luckily, the Nova P20 does come with a notebook docking connector (otherwise known as a port replicator) for further expansion/connectivity possibilities.

The Nova P20 comes with a docking connector, which allows for future expansion should you ever need it. We can't help but chuckle at the subliminal image of a face.

Last but not least is the Windows Media Center based remote control for times where you like to sit back and watch videos on your monitor.

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