Shuttle XPC Nano NC02U5 Review

Today we’ll be taking a closer look at the Shuttle XPC Nano NC02U5, and putting it through its paces to see just how functional it is around the home. A big thank you goes out to Shuttle for providing us with this NC02U5 unit, and here at FunkyKit we’re still thinking up more and more innovative ways to use it!

Barebones systems have gotten smaller and smaller in recent years, and taking it to the extremes you can now get PC on a stick nowadays. Back 20 years ago, a dominant player in the barebones market was Shuttle with their XPC range. Slap in a CPU, a memory stick and hard disk and you were away using the onboard sound and graphics. Further down the line, barebones got more and more powerful with the introduction of a graphics card slot and expansion bays, I remember fitting in a 5.25″ bay Cooler Master CPU watercooler in one of mine! With modern wifi connection speeds and USB speeds, gone are the optical bays, and now come with built in work horse mobile processors that can breeze through your everyday computational tasks.

Established in 1983, Shuttle Inc. is headquartered in Taipei Taiwan and is a global information technology and manufacturing leader. Established as a manufacturer of computer motherboards, Shuttle utilized highly regarded Research and Development capabilities and patented cooling technologies and expanded to offer computer products. Today, Shuttle XPC computers consisting of consumer and commercial products including; Cube (mini-tower), Slim (1.3L and 3L), Nano, and All-in-One PCs. Shuttle also offers Digital Signage Media Players, Notebook Computers, and Tablets.

Shuttle has also invested years in software development for both Digital Education and Home Automation applications. Shuttle’s turnkey solutions now include EDUPAL Digital Education and SMARTVILLE smart living.

Shuttle boasts an extensive worldwide network of subsidiaries, resellers, partners, and suppliers.

XPC Nano NC02U5

Let’s take a quick look at the blurb from Shuttle’s website:

A palm-sized 4K portable PC-NC02U series

The XPC nano is Shuttle’s smallest product lines with only palm size. Shuttle’s new NC02U series is next generation of NC01U series with support Intel® Skylake-U platform technology. This series comes with a selection of processors ranging from Celeron, to the Core i7 and supports up to 32 GB of DDR3L 1600 low-voltage memory. With integrated HD graphics, the series is capable of playing 4K/Ultra HD content. Compared to NC01U series, NC02U series uses new mechanism design for easy installation of memory module and storage. This case can accommodate one 2.5” HDD (up to 15mm) to provide its more flexible storage capacity without volume limited. This series offers plenty of I/O ports in spite of its small size: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB3.0 (Type A*1, Type C*1), USB2.0, RS232, M.2 slot and Intel® Gigabit Ethernet as well as built-in 802.11 b/g/n wireless network. The NC02U series is VESA mount ready to make it easy to blend in anywhere: home, office, storefront, and more.

When you factor in that the NC02U5 can play 4K content and has the Skylake i5-6200U processor, this little beast seems to pack quite some punch!

Specifications