Belinea o.max 5 XS review

It might look like an Apple Mac mini crossed with a Star Wars prop, but the o.max 5 XS is a compact PC that comes with Windows Vista Home Premium.

You also get a handy Media Center remote control and a TV tuner, so it would be more than happy sitting under your TV, letting you watch and record Freeview or analogue broadcasts. And Media Center (a standard feature of Vista Home Premium) can do a lot more, serving as a jukebox for your music, photos and videos too.

It's a shame there's only one TV tuner, as you can't watch one programme while recording another, but in many respects the o.max 5 XS is the ideal media centre PC. Apart from being small and attravailable, it runs so quietly that you'll never be annoyed by whining fans during quiet movie moments. Then there's the fact that it'll easily connect to modern HD TV sets, since it comes with an adapter to convert its DVI output to HDMI; all you'll need to add is an HDMI cable. This transmits both image and sound, keeping cable clutter to a minimum.

Media Center has a more attractive and easier to use interface than any standalone digital TV recorder, and its built-in electronic programme guide provides two weeks' worth of information, while most Freeview boxes only give you seven days. If there's no Freeview coverage where you live, you can switch to analogue and still get the five terrestrial channels. The o.max even comes with a tiny TV aerial that connects to a socket on the back, but we weren't surprised to find it was close to useless; you'll need to use the supplied adapter and plug in a proper roof aerial.

There's also built-in wireless networking, so you can get an Internet connection via your wireless router wherever you choose to put the o.max. Even if you never plan to use it for web browsing, you'll need to be hooked up to get TV programme guide information, and of course there's also the prospect of downloading TV shows from services such as BBC iPlayer or buying movies from sites like Apple's iTunes Store.

We were pleased to find that Belinea have thoughtfully integrated the remote control's infrared receiver into the front panel of the PC, so you don't need to add a bulky external USB receiver.

The installed 160GB hard disk is on the small side for storing lots of TV shows; there's room for about 60 hours or so, leaving space for some photos and MP3s. It's not a huge flaw, but the o.max isn't so cheap that we can easily forgive it.

Judge me by my size, do you?

Fortunately, performance hasn't been skimped on. We wouldn't expect a PC like this to have a dedicated graphics card suitable for the latest 3D games, and sure enough the integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics chip wouldn't touch our 3D benchmark test. The main processor, however, is an Intel Core 2 Duo T2450 running at a reasonably nippy 2GHz and supported by a generous 2GB of RAM. This combination brought the Belinea to a score of 132% in our 2D (general) benchmark, which is enough to keep Windows Vista and everyday applications running smoothly.

One reason for the slightly high price is that, in order to fit them into the tiny case, pretty well all the o-max's components are borrowed from the laptop world, which inevitably makes the o.max 5 XS more expensive than a similarly specified desktop PC. This also helps to explain why surround sound, a standard feature of most PCs these days, is missing: there's only a stereo speaker output, so you'd need a separate surround sound amplifier (as well as a set of speakers) to get the most out of 5.1 movie soundtracks. If you can live with these compromises, the o.max 5 XS is a great media centre PC.

Author: Jim Martin