ECS Introduces LIVA Z Mini-PC Line With Intel Apollo Lake SoC

We have reviewed ECS’ mini-PC’s before and noted it for its efficiency and compact size, ideal as an HTPC or kiosk unit. That was more than a year ago so now ECS has something new up their sleeve: the LIVA Z Mini-PC. Inside is Intel’s next-generation Apollo Lake SoC, a significant upgrade compared to the hardware found inside the previous LIVA X in terms of efficiency, performance and multimedia handling.

The Apollo Lake System-on-chip now natively supports H.265/HEVC Ultra-HD 4K hardware-accelerated decoding and playback. A very stressful feat for older generation units, even powerful desktop Intel i5 and i7’s but Apollo Lake can handle these handily without using up too much resources. As with previous LIVA mini-PCs, the LIVA Z is passively cooled and quite compact, but it packs a lot of features as well.

Users have the option of dual-Intel Gigabit LAN, four USB 3.0 ports, three of which are Type-A and one is Type-C on the front, and internal storage can be upgraded with M.2 connectivity or a pair of SATA SSDs. Display output provided includes HDMI and mini-DisplayPort out but a kiosk version dubbed the LIVA ZE is also available which has RS-232 VGA connectors.

Specifications: