Android On The Desktop
There are three distinct characteristics of the Net'sPC2 not found on other Android-based devices: the mouse, the keyboard, and an external display. Let’s examine how Android copes with such foreign peripherals.
Mouse
General sluggishness and other performance-related issues aside, Android is still clearly designed for touch-based input.
For instance, in most traditional desktop-based graphical operating systems, major elements are typically clustered around a main dock or menu for quick and easy control. In Jelly Bean, the search, apps, navigation bar, and indicators reside in the four corners of the screen. While placing the primary UI elements far away from each other is a good call when gripping a tablet with two hands or holding a smartphone in one, this introduces a ton of additional cursor travel when you're using a mouse.
This is partially made up for by Kaser's utilization of the right mouse button. Since Android has no context menus, the right mouse button doubles for the on-screen back button. While we appreciate the gesture, this also means that tap-and-hold is still a necessity.
Tap-and-hold, which is much closer to Android’s equivalent of a context menu/right-click, requires a click-and-hold as you navigate the Net'sPC2. Superficially, this isn't a big deal. But the additional time it takes to move objects around the home screen is a pain. On the Kaser, you have to click-and-hold-then-drag to move an object. In Windows, a simple click-and-drag is sufficient.
Likewise, closing apps and dismissing notifications in Android requires a slide (or swipe or drag) on touchscreen devices. On the Net'sPC2, you have to do a whole lot of awkward clicking and dragging to accomplish these basic, core operations.
The final mouse-related oddity is definitely the most frustrating: highlighting. Because Android was developed around a touch-based input paradigm, the OS employs a pair of brackets (or handles) for highlighting. After all, fingertips are far too imprecise to accurately select portions of text. Even though the Kaser has a suitable precision pointing device at its disposal, you’re still forced to utilize the highlighting brackets. In practice, you have to first click-and-hold to bring up the brackets, and then slide each bracket to the beginning and end of your desired selection. In the end, this is a roundabout way of doing something that's very simple to accomplish on a PC.
By themselves, none of these issues are deal-breakers. Together, though, they add up to a ton of additional mousing above and beyond what you would need to do in any of the major desktop OSes.
Keyboard
Unlike the mouse, the keyboard is really a non-issue for Android. Smartphones with physical keyboards have been around for as long as Android itself. While lag is present, this is probably due to the overall performance of the product, not Android or the keyboard (shoddy as it may be).
Display
The third major difference between the Net'sPC2 and handheld Android devices is its use of an external display. Typically, anything Android-flavored comes with a built-in touchscreen, which means a fixed resolution. Interestingly, the YF810-8G provides support for multiple resolutions. While we couldn't take a screenshot that includes the HDMI settings, if you were to scroll up, you’d see options for 480i, 480p, 720i, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. However, not all of these options are legit. We'll explain that later on.
When we choose 1080p (VGA or HDMI), we receive a crisper image on our native 1080p display. Unfortunately, since Android doesn't operate on a multi-window desktop interface, you don't get the benefit of more screen real estate. Sure, you can choose between small, normal, large, and huge font sizes, but the icons, bars, and other on-screen elements are static. This means you’re stuck with comically oversized icons, even on a large desktop monitor, regardless of the screen resolution.
While Android isn’t exactly the optimal OS for mouse input or large display output, let’s see where this ARM-based nettop stands, performance-wise, against similarly-priced handheld Android devices and low-end x86-based PCs.
