Intel Compute Stick Review: Don’t Buy It
Who wants a cheap HDMI stick that can turn any TV into a full Windows computer? Everybody, right? That’s what we thought. Oh god were we wrong. When Intel announced the $150 Compute Stick at CES, we figured it could become the ultimate miniature PC for all kinds of people. Too bad it’s terrible. Theoretically, there are loads of things you could do with a computer this tiny. You could work from it, of course, or browse the web from your couch. Watch Hulu without a subscription. Stream games from another computer. My editor Sean Hollister was excited to load Steam on it, plug in an Xbox 360 wireless adapter, and play lightweight games like Nidhogg buy app reviews with buddies on a big screen without lugging a console around. I was dubiously optimistic I could turn the Stick into a Kodi media streamer, accessing videos from my desktop PC over my home network. Do some of these things work? Sure. But using this under-equipped PC is a giant pain in the ass—to the point that it’s pro...