Hands-on: The $300 Kano PC, a “build-it-yourself” Chromebook competitor
Kano #Kano
Enlarge / This almost fully-assembled shot of the Kano PC lacks only the back cover and the magnetically-connected folio case with keyboard and touchpad.
Jim Salter
Specs at a glance: Kano PC OS Windows 10 Home CPU Intel Celeron N4000 RAM 4GiB DDR3L (not upgradeable) GPU Integrated Intel UHD600 HDD Foresee 64GB eMMC (not upgradeable) Display 11.6″ touchscreen at 1366×768 Ports 1 USB-C (charging)2 USB3 type A1 microSD card slot1 3.5mm headphone jack1 HDMI Cooling Passive heat sink Charging USB-C (charger included) Connectivity Dual-band Wi-Fi 5 + Bluetooth 5.0 (Intel Wireless-AC 9650) Price as tested $300
Last week, we covered the launch of Kano’s new Windows-powered build-it-yourself PC. The Kano PC is an extremely chunky 11.6″ tablet/laptop form factor PC with both specs and a $300 price similar to low-end Chromebooks—but instead of running ChromeOS, it offers a full Windows 10 experience.
This isn’t our first rodeo with extremely low-cost PCs, which sometimes disappoint us beyond the level their meager specs imply. With a dual-core, 1.1GHz Celeron CPU, 4GiB of RAM, and eMMC storage, it’s clear enough on paper that the Kano PC won’t be anybody’s first choice for a “serious laptop”—but the real question is whether it credibly competes with similarly specified Chromebooks. The answer is “absolutely.”
Our only real issue with the Kano PC has nothing to do with performance but with the extremely funky form factor, which both raises and answers the question: “What if tablet, but 2.5 times thicker and heavier?”
Unboxing Kano PC
Kano put a lot of focus into the initial unboxing and setup experience, and it pays off. It’s not fancy, but whenever there’s an opportunity to generate a little excitement, Kano takes it.
Jim Salter
A little pocket with Kano PC’s installation and setup guide peeking out greets you—or your child—upon first opening the box.
Jim Salter
With the first layer of shipping foam removed, the back of the Kano PC—less battery and speaker—greets its new owner.
Jim Salter
The front side of Kano PC’s tablet has a temporary screen protector with a fun educational message on it, including Cartesian coordinates for an arbitrary point.
Jim Salter
The entire contents of the Kano PC box, unpacked. (Mystery Science Theater mug and assorted tools not included.)
Jim Salter
Although there’s nothing pretentious about the unboxing experience of Kano PC, it’s obvious the team spent significant design time and effort to make it as kid appealing as possible. Interesting line diagrams and drawings adorn every surface. If your kid is at all excited about getting this device, Kano is determined they’re not going to lose that excitement along the way.
The contents of the box amount to a fairly sizable pile, once unpacked. Hardware includes the Kano PC tablet itself, a snap-on front cover, an ultra-thin case with integrated keyboard and touchpad, a speaker and battery, and the USB-C power supply. The power supply itself also requires a tiny bit of assembly—its design is also modular, consisting of the charger and a set of US 110V prongs which slide onto the charger’s bare contacts. We usually see these come with a range of adapters, but the Kano PC only arrived with the US prongs—presumably, Kano PC kits delivered elsewhere will include whatever prongs are appropriate to the purchase location.
In addition to the hardware, you get a surprisingly thick and educational setup guide, two sheets of stickers, and a “Kano PC Compliance Leaflet” outlining your one-year warranty.
Putting Kano PC together
Every page of the install guide has enormous photos and an educational blurb or two. We found it both simple to follow and engaging.
Jim Salter
Little touches like this consistently wowed us. What makes a PCB layout schematic more enticing? An included magnifying glass, that’s what! We also appreciated the bright yellow, easy-to-read bubble labels.
Jim Salter
Thanks for the warning, Kano… but if we’re being honest, I’m gonna yank that thing before I ever even power the PC on.
Jim Salter
Note the thick plastic posts in the insets for the speaker (left) and battery (right). Matching wells in those parts snap snugly down.
Jim Salter
In addition to snapping them into their insets, the speaker and battery must be plugged into the motherboard (with standard 2.5mm audio and USB-C jacks, respectively).
Jim Salter
The bottom of Kano PC features a five-pin data connector for the keyboard and touchpad integrated into the slim folio case, along with deep rectangular wells for tabs on the case.
Jim Salter
Connecting the folio case to the tablet was a surprise—it’s quite strongly magnetized and literally leapt into place with no guidance needed.
Jim Salter
We continued to appreciate the care and effort put into the initial setup experience while “building” the Kano PC. A cynic might scoff at the fact that the device only needs to have its battery and speaker inserted and plugged in, its front cover snapped on, and its folio case attached. But that’s enough for a kid without PC-building experience to find engaging—especially with the brightly colored step-by-step guide, which goes out of its way to be approachable and educational without pandering.
There weren’t any major surprises along the way, although the speaker was a little fiddly to properly insert into its inset and the front cover was frankly kind of a bear to snap on. Less-confident kids will likely need parental assistance with that front cover; it’s not fiddly to line up, but it needs SERIOUS grip strength (or a ton of enthusiasm) to entirely snap into place all the way around.
The one real surprise—likely because we stopped reading the guide before getting to that point—came when we attached the tablet to its slim folio case. There’s a five-pin data connector which gets data from the case’s integrated keyboard and touchpad to the tablet, and experience with business-grade laptop docks led us to expect it to be a pain in the butt to line up right.
In reality, the connector is magnetized—strongly magnetized—and the case will literally leap up off the table and onto the tablet in correct position once the two are within a quarter-inch of one another.