Guleek i8 hands on review, excellent windows desktop with battery

The Guleek i8 is a mini desktop computer with a built in battery. This makes it one of the most unique desktops around. It is as small as Zotac mini PCs but has a 3000 mAh battery inside too which allows you to move it from one place to another without shutting it down.

The Guleek i8 is a compact computer with windows 8.1 operating system and is powered by Intel bay trail processor.

Guleek i8 video review

As you can see, this is basically a mini laptop without a display. It features 1.8 GHz Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and a fanless design.

On the ports front you get 2x USB 2.0 ports, a micro USB port (for charging), a micro HDMI port, a headset jack, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. It measures 5.9″ x 3.2″ x 0.4″ and weighs about 8.5 ounces.

Here is what we did not like about it:
– Doesn’t have a network port;
– The power socket is right next to the USB sockets, should be on the back;
– You can find tablets for the same price with bigger batteries, a screen, and more storage.

Guleek i8 review While the support for controlling the device with a Android device gives it some interesting niche uses as low cost media center, simple auto uploader/downloader, basic streamer, converting a monitor or TV into a simple net computer, basic server, kiosk system

This would be interesting paired with one of the old Motorola Lapdocks from the Atrix/Bionic era. The lapdock itself is powered and would provide nearly everything else that’s missing: Display, keyboard, trackpad, audio (possibly), and maybe some extra USB ports. Roll your own networking? Just Velcro the thing to the back of the lid and route the cables into the dock ports like with any other stick PC.

Guleek i8 Not sure why everyone is comparing it to a tablet. It's very similar to an Asus X205TA netbook, except that has a bit more storage memory. Personally I think having the dual screen option is worth the extra money

Verdict – It’s really pointless when consumers can spend less and have a fully portable system with dual functionality. This mini PC would only work if it was on par with prices to the ARM devices. If you need a dual display option you can buy a Asus Vivo that runs Intel 4th Gen. It supports THREE displays connected at once, runs Linux and Windows and is almost the same price as this mini PC. And has USB 3, Ethernet “yada yada”. I just don’t see the market appeal if its priced the same as a tablet.