Introduction

From the ECS website:

Founded in 1987, ECS, the Elitegroup Computer Systems, is a top-notch manufacturer and supplier of several families of computer products in the industry. With almost 30 years of experience, ECS not only produces high-quality products such as motherboards, desktops, notebook computers, graphics cards and other mobile products, but also provides customized computer programming and hardware/ software design service for a wide variety of customers.
More than two decades, ECS has overcome a great deal of obstacles encountering new businesses and has experienced the joy of significant growth and development. ECS is strongly committed to develop cutting-edge technology in order to generate innovative products under environmental friendly designs. ECS comprehensive system of quality control provides our clients with reassurance and fosters long term cooperation.

Formed all the way back in 1987 as Elitegroup Computer Systems, ECS has become an industry-leading OEM that just so happens to extensively moonlight in the consumer market, offering mini-PCs, laptops, graphics cards, motherboards, tablets, and IoT devices. Even if you have never purchased an ECS branded product, you have likely used or owned one that was manufactured by them. ECS continues to be on a path of further diversification, which means it comes as no surprise that they continue to release more products that fall into the Internet of things category as it is still a growing market.

In today's review, I focus on the ECS LIVA Q; while similar to the LIVA Z, this offering comes in an even smaller form factor. Utilizing an Intel Celeron N3350 with 32 GB of eMMC storage, it is full of features in a tiny package. That said, let's take a closer look and see what the LIVA Q is all about!

Packaging and Contents

The LIVA Q comes in a box that is 14 cm long, 12.8 cm wide, and 9.5 cm thick. The top shows off the system and mentions the included Windows 10 operating system. A short list of connectivity options is also present in the bottom-left corner. Moving to the left side, the system specifications and UPC code have been put there. Meanwhile, on the right side, another list detailing the specifications and connectivity options can be found, including a mention of the system's tiny dimensions of 70 x 70 x 31.4 mm. It really is a "Pocket-size PC".


Opening the box shows the ECS LIVA Q placed neatly in the middle of the packaging. The rest of the parts are placed around or below it by the way of cardboard pieces that create partitions.


The bundle is very much bare bones, but does include everything necessary to power up the system and mount it to the back of a TV. I will say that it is quite funny to see a driver disc included for such a system.

• LIVA Q
• Power brick
• VESA mounting plate
• VESA screws
• Driver disc

A Closer Look

Looking at the top of the LIVA Q gives one an impression of a clean and understated design; a solid black with "LIVA" in orange and nothing else. Flipping the unit over, it's similar to the LIVA Z in terms of construction with just a few screws holding everything together.


The front of the unit has a power button along with a USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port. Meanwhile, extra storage is handled via the micro SD card slot, which is on the left side and allows for a maximum of 128 GB of extra storage. Finally, the rear of the unit has a Gigabit LAN port and HDMI 1.4b out along with a micro USB 2.0 for power. A later revision will have HDMI 2.0 support, but currently, the limitation is the N3350 which does not inherently support HDMI 2.0.


A Kensington lock is located on the right side. Other than that, you won't find much else here.