Why You Can Trust CNET BenQ nScreen i91 review: BenQ nScreen i91
BenQ's nettop looks affordable on the surface, but you're still paying a premium for a low-powered desktop machine.
Design
BenQ's take on the nettop is, on the surface, remarkably similar to Asus' Eee Top concept, albeit without the touchscreen in-built. This means you get a remarkably iMac-style machine in white and black plastic with a minimum of accessories, or for that matter set-up routines to undergo.
BenQ nScreen i91
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The nScreen's key visual feature would have to be its incredibly retro volume knob, which protrudes a full centimetre from the front bottom right of the screen, and doubles as a volume control and the power knob. On the right side of the screen you'll find brightness controls, while the left-hand side houses headphone and microphone jacks, two USB ports and a multicard reader. All the rest of the nScreen's ports reside at the back, and are mounted such that you've got to plug everything in vertically. This isn't so much of a problem for the network or power cables, which on most systems may as well be welded into place, but it is more of a problem for the four USB ports, as finding the exact right spot while leaning the screen forward is a tricky prospect.
Aside from the all-in screen, BenQ also provides a USB keyboard and mouse in the same white plastic colour as the back of the nScreen. The mouse is contoured for right-hand use, but as for the keyboard ... well, we'd throw it out if we were you. It takes most of the bad parts of the newer Apple iMac keyboards, and cranks it up to 11, with cramped keys — the arrow keys are a particular speciality and a spongy, unpleasant feel. It's standard USB all the way, though, so replacing it shouldn't be too tricky.
Features
Nettops have typically been associated with Intel's Atom processor line, but BenQ plays in the alternative camp, equipping the nScreen line with AMD Sempron 210U 1.5GHz processors. Two models are available; the 21.5-inch i221 (AU$1199) and the 18.5-inch i91 (AU$899). The i221 also comes with a side-mounted handset for VoIP calls, but as we tested the cheaper i91 variant (where it's a paid-for extra) we were unable to test this particular function. Graphics come via an ATI Radeon X1200 128MB chip, with 1GB of on-board RAM, 160GB of hard drive space and 10/100 Ethernet and standard 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. Six USB 2.0 ports are provided, although as noted, four of them are in the back and vertically mounted, which makes them challenging for any kind of USB hotswapping. An in-built 1.3-megapixel camera covers Skype duties — it's preinstalled and set to boot at start-up. In keeping with Microsoft's licensing rules, the operating system of choice is Windows XP Home.
As with other nettop options, the one key ingredient BenQ leaves out of the nScreen's recipe is an external optical drive. We get why netbooks don't ship with optical drives, but for a nettop we're less convinced, as there's never a power issue to speak of, and it seems to us a matter of vendors economising and presuming those that need them will just put up with trailing cables and an external USB burner, such as the Asus SDRW-08D1S-U External DVD-RW drive.
Performance
We really didn't like the nScreen's keyboard much, which was a pity, because otherwise the experience of using the nScreen's hardware is mostly agreeable at a light computing level. In our benchmarking tests, the nScreen scored 1863 PCMark points and 303 3DMark points, noting it solidly as a lightweight productivity machine, but certainly not something that you could arguably game or video edit on. That's solidly in line with the kind of figures we've seen from other nettop style devices.
Using the nScreen for basic computing tasks certainly work as you'd expect, and there's a reasonable argument for a "simple" computer that doesn't involve lots of cabling or connections for a sector of the market. At AU$899 for this base model, the nScreen certainly outclasses the Eee Top for value for money. At the same time, as soon as you put it up against any of the big box makers desktop systems, the value falls away pretty sharply. It only took us a matter of minutes to find an AU$899 system for sale online that came with a monitor, twice the memory and storage and a much more capable processor and video solution. The practical upshot is that you're paying a premium for convenience and small desk space, and it's a premium paid both in cash and computing power. We can't see that this is all that viable a trade-off for a system that's going to be resolutely desk bound in most instances. As perhaps a kitchen computer or similar there's a certain argument, but that's a very niche audience.