Conclusion

The Rikomagic RKM M36 is a strange beast. It wants to be a cheap and fun micro PC, but not at the expense of overall performance. Thanks to the oversized chassis that allows for a bit of airflow, the CPU can sustain high clocks under load, which is not the case with extremely small stick PCs.

The trade-off is obvious – the M36 isn’t a very compact device, it’s about the size of an Intel NUC. More room also means more connectors, so you get a couple of extra USB ports and an Ethernet socket. This might be good news for small offices, although many home users have ditched wired networks years ago.

Dual boot is a mixed bag. While the ability to run Windows for serious stuff and Android 4.4 for a bit of fun sounds good, you also lose a lot of storage. With 32GB on board, this is a big deal - 64GB of internal storage would be a selling point for many users. Then again, if you don’t plan on installing a lot of applications, and if you don’t download a lot of stuff, it’s not too bad. You can still do some light office work in Windows, then run Kodi or Popcorn, then reboot into Android for some WoT Blitz (The M36 also has an appropriate name for the latter, although it lacks a 90mm gun).

The asking price is $154 with free shipping, which means the RKM M36 is a bit pricier than most Bay Trail mini PCs. However, it ships with a somewhat faster processor than these entry-level models, and it does not throttle nearly as much, so for a $20-30 premium you get a bit more sustained performance.