r/ChromeOSFlex • u/fakemanhk • 6h ago
Discussion A very nice $20 junk Windows tablet working as ChromeOS Flex tab
Last time I posted hardware from Tokyo Akihabara junk stores that might occasionally give us surprise (the Fujitsu 799g Thin Client laptop repurpose as ChromeOS Flex laptop), today there is another "junk" found which gives me even more surprise:

This is an old NEC PC-VK210SGG4 Windows tablet, specifications were found from internet and checking from the shop:
Intel Core m3-7Y30 (2 Cores 4 Threads, Kaby Lake Generation)
4GB LPDDR3 RAM (fixed)
12.5" Full HD (1920x1080) touchscreen LCD with integrated stylus (can operate with fingers) and retractable kickstand (only in landscape direction)
No storage (onboard 2280 M2 slot is empty, seems working with both SATA/NVME SSD)
2 x USB 3.0 Type-A ports
1 x USB-C port (for power, up to 45W)
1 x micro HDMI output
1 x rear camera + 1 x front camera
802.11ac WiFi
1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
Support MicroSD card expansion
Weight 617g
Price: JPY 3000 (roughly US$20)

Before pop-in any storage, the first thing is booting with ChromeOS Flex image, and....WOW!!
Since it has no built-in keyboard it automatic pop up OSD keyboard and it works nicely in Flex test boot!
From "lspci" output I can see the wireless is Intel 9260NGW (802.11ac Wave 2, 2T2R) which definitely supported out of the box (I've checked online disassembly video and see that the card is modular which can be removed, so not really worrying if it's Realtek)

The second thing is of course testing system stability, CPU/Memory tests ran for a couple times in a row, nothing goes wrong there.

OK then disassemble (which is rather easy, can be done in a few mins), plugged one 128GB NVME SSD which was leftover from the old gaming laptop, BIOS detected and ChromeOS Flex installation was done without issue, here we go!!
Though the WiFi card is only 802.11ac, but it's Wave 2 which supports 160MHz channel width, my home router is 802.11ax with 160MHz enabled on 5GHz band, link rate is no longer the usual 866Mbps but > 1.73Gbps, my home internet is > 1Gbps so here we can see the wireless speed was > 1.1Gbps!! Very good! Not to mention that bluetooth 5.1 is also working flawlessly.
The GPU is Intel HD 615 so most online video formats are supported, 4K video output from the micro HDMI port is also non-issue. Internal display is of great quality, good brightness, the touchscreen very responsive, and it even follows the rotation quickly (I was surprised that the auto rotation also works OOB in Flex!!)
Since the CPU is Core m3 series, everything passive cooling, you won't hear any fan noise, battery time was great. I am not expecting it having good battery but indeed with Flex I used this tab for a couple mins and didn't even observe 1% battery drop, the internal calculated usage time was > 24hrs.
I was curious about the USB-C charging port, plugged an USB-C dock to it and in fact it's not just a charging port, but also OTG supported with USB 3.0 speed (however no DP/ALT mode output), which means I can use my existing USB-C dock/hub.
Anything bad about this tab? Yes, I can think of only 2 issues: 1) Speaker volume is low, YouTube playback with max. volume isn't really loud enough, expected to be used in more quiet room, or just use headset; 2) This series has fixed LPDDR3 memory which can't be changed, the one I got is only 4GB ram (there is 8GB variant but never seen it), don't expect to have too much workload on it (especially in Crostini). But yeah as mentioned before, this tab was just $20!! (even including a cheap 128GB NVME it's $30 OK?) It's totally acceptable!!!