ECS LIVA Mini-PCs at CES 2018

It's evident that conquering the small form factor market was one of ECS's New Year's resolutions. The Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer used CES 2018 to reveal their multiple LIVA offerings to the public. The updated LIVA lineup is mainly powered by Intel's low-power Gemini Lake SoC platform with integrated UHD Graphics 600. The LIVA One is currently the new kid on the block. Consumers can choose between a Celeron J4005, Celeron J4105 or Pentium Silver J5005 processor. This mini-PC has one SO-DIMM DDR4 slot, a M.2 slot to accommodate 2242/2280 SSDs, and two SATA 2.5" bays. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.2. Consumers have a tough decision to make on the video outputs though. The LIVA One either comes with a HDMI and DisplayPort or a HDMI and VGA port.

Similar to the LIVA One, the Z2 employs a Gemini Lake processor. However, the Z2 incorporates an extra SO-DIMM DDR4 slot, thus allowing it to support more memory. In terms of storage options, the Z2 is sold with a 32GB or 64GB eMMC SSD, but it has a 2.5" bay for additional storage. Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.2 is provided by the onboard wireless combo card, while a pair of HDMI (1.4 and 2.0) ports are available for connecting monitors, TVs and projectors.

With a footprint of 70mm x 70mm, the Q and Q2 are the smallest members of the LIVA family. The LIVA Q utilizes an Apollo Lake SoC processor, while the LIVA Q2 exploits the newer dual-core Gemini Lake Celeron processor. There are two variants available to consumers, one carrying 2GB of LPDDR4 memory and another with a more generous amount of 4GB. Regarding storage, one can pick a 32GB or 64GB eMMC SSD to go with the desired model. Due to the their diminutive bodies, both the Q and Q2 lack a 2.5" bay, but instead rely on a Micro SD slot (maximum 128GB) for storage. Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1 are present on both mini-PCs. Finally, the Q provides a HDMI 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 port for video output, while the Q2 only comes with a single HDMI 2.0 port.