not bad reviews and someone has put how to upgrade it below
Well, what an amazing little laptop. I've been in or around IT for over 30 years and believe me this represents the best value I've ever seen. You need the Pentium with 4Gb to have a real Windows 10 laptop, i.e. one that will multitask and do Microsoft Office. People are reporting that the Celeron 2Gb model is working fine. I'm surprised, and maybe Windows 10 has now been tweaked for tablet sized devices. I'm a bit old school with PC/laptop specs and Windows. The main issue is the size of the disk, at 32Gb it is really too small for a comfortable Windows 10 experience, especially if you want to run Microsoft Office.
Here's the procedure I used to upgrade the laptop SSD.
- Buy an M.2 2242 240Gb (don't get less than 128Gb) SSD to fit into the spare M.2 slot under the laptop [this will become your main drive, so choose carefully and spend wisely]. The SSD is faster and more stable than the removable microSD card, as it runs as an integrated disk rather than an add on card.
- Buy this and slot it into the machine 'before' you switch it on for the first time (should work if you slot it in later I guess, not fully sure how the Microsoft licensing works). When fitting, remove the plastic spacer where the screw is after removing the cover. I didn't know what was stopping the new SSD drive sitting down properly until the plastic spacer moved. And use a very small screwdriver for the cover screw.
- Then when you set up Windows for the first time, log into Windows using a Microsoft Account (to register the laptop as a 'licensed Windows 10 machine', including the new SSD).
- Do not try to upgrade Windows from the Spring 1703 (currently delivered version) to Fall 1709. [I tried to keep Windows on the 32Gb drive by moving the swap file, user directories and OneDrive to the new SSD. It upgraded to 1709 but my user profile corrupted. It's not worth the hassle. Just buy the bigger SSD and slot it in.]
- Download the Windows 10 OS software from Microsoft on to a USB stick (google how to do it). This is already at the Fall 1709 version.
- Plug in the Win10 USB stick and Restart. Press F7 during boot to get the boot menu and select the USB stick.
- Boot into the Win10 setup and choose 'INSTALL'. After a few screens you get the option of where to install. Choose the new SSD you installed (should be partition 1 or 2, depending if you formatted it. Look for the size, it should be over 200Gb if you installed an SSD of that size).
- Install Windows 10. Log into Windows using the Microsoft Account you used at 3 above. Bang, your laptop is now running off the new SSD with a licensed copy of Windows 10 (picks up the license from your previous install at 3 above). Install the other apps you need and continue your setup of Windows.
Now you have a fully working laptop, without a compressed (CompactOS)/meagre drive. OneDrive also works well for me these days and I turn on 'Files on Demand' in Settings so that I only download files I need (since I usually have WiFi/internet). An Office365 subscription ups your OneDrive quota to 1Tb per user (that's good value).
You will probably need another main PC to do your heavy work, unless you just use browser/email and light office work. But as an easy to use lightweight laptop, the iOTA Pentium is great.
For this price, there is not a lot to complain at, other than the small SSD main drive. But if you add a new SSD as above, you have a great value lightweight/ultrabook laptop. I think the above upgrade should be part of the iOTA FAQ, it took me several hours to work it out myself.
21.5-Inch all-in-one desktop with a full HD display that delivers stunning visuals
Expandable storage via SSD or HDD, lets the whole family keep all of their media in one place
Big on connectivity – With 5xUSB, micro SD and HDMI ports, you can easily connect all of your favourite devices
Integrated stereo speakers and microphone, so you can enjoy TV, music, movies, games and video calls with ease
Wireless keyboard and mouse included
iOTA BASE 21.5" FHD All-in-One Desktop PC (Black) - (Intel Quad Core 1.6GHz Processor (Burst 2.24GHz), 4 GB RAM, 64 GB eMMC Storage, Windows 10 Home - Amazon Exclusive
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