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In recent weeks there has been what seems like a sudden influx of small form factor computers entering the market, and today we get to see another one courtesy of chipset manufacturer VIA.

The Taiwanese company which makes pretty much every sort of PCB you can imagine, have today announced that they intend to launch a brand new small form factor desktop computer which will be running Google’s Android operating system, which goes by the name APC.

The actual form factor of this computer is a bit different to the usual mini ITX, instead the new APC will use a Neo-ITX board instead. The board itself is quite comprehensively spec’d, it features a full size VGA  port along with HDMI, 4 x USB 2.0, a gigabyte Ethernet connection and also a micro SD card slot. It is powered using VIA’s WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC which is clocked at 800Mhz, it also has 2GB of NAND flash and 512MBG of DDR3 SDRAM.

Now, as you’ll probably be aware, Android is not really designed to be used with desktop computers, therefore the version of Android installed on the APC, which happens to be 2.3, has been optimised to allow better keyboard and mouse inputs. As well as having Android 2.3 installed, the APC will have a handful of apps pre-installed too, although at the moment we’re not quite sure what apps they will be – but expect the usual such as browser etc.

Along with the APCs small form factor and fairly respective spec, something else worth noting is the power consumption on this small Android based computer. When at maximum load, it only consumes 13.5 watts of power, and 4 watts when idle – quite impressive indeed.

So, if you want to get your hands on one, VIA will be accepting pre-orders soon, and the APC is expected to start shipping early July 2012.

Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
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