Elios EPoS

Elios EPOS

With the introduction of the second edition of the Elios terminal, Aures really do have an EPOS hardware solution that tackles the entry level requirement head on. When we reviewed the original Elios about 18 months ago we had reservations about the fixed screen angle and the operating temperature of the CPU fitted.

However, with version 2 of the Elios, Aures made the screen fully tilting, upgraded the standard memory to 1Gb, and they’ve priced it exactly at the entry level budget most of our smaller independent retailers are working at.

Essentially we think the Elios is a great entry level terminal. It’s been around for over a year so we are happy about the reliability of the hardware – it’s still fairly new, but any initial glitches will have been sorted by now. Here at Touchretail Towers we like that sort of thing.

The appearance of the Elios is not much short of stunning – really slim and sleek, with one of the smallest CPU components of any EPOS terminal on the market. The CPU is a version of the Aures Ineos unit, which we reviewed and as stated above we originally thought it operated at a warmer than normal temperature. But Aures have cleverly attached the Ineos fanless CPU to the metal base of the Elios terminal, which acts as a great heat dissipation system. And the hard disk is located separately from the motherboard, again to minimise heat generation. Leaving the Elios running for a few days results in the metal base feeling warm to the touch, but that’s all – exactly as it should be.

The chipset of the unit delivers a clean-looking screen graphic, with nicely formed on-screen characters and images. The Elios also comes with the Aures HSD software which monitors certain system status levels, such as operating temperature and voltage. The HSD software is capable of emailing alerts, but on initial investigation you need to have an email server set up on the same network to benefit from this aspect. For more information on the Aures HSD monitoring software see our dedicated article.

Touchretail Verdict: Aures Elios EPOS terminal