Asus Revealed Their Haswell-powered Chrome OS Desktop mini-PC

Gabriel Roşu / 11 years ago

Asus has revealed a long-teased machine based on Google’s Chrome OS under the name of Chromebox. The specs for Asus’s ChromeOS-powered box-shaped PC are just enough for a tiny, web-surfing PC, and just about it.

The Asus Chromebox is said to feature a choice of CPUs from the Intel Celeron 2955U, Core i3-4010U, and Core i7-4600U processors. There is apparently room for just 2GB of RAM. DDR3 at a maximum frequency of 1600 MHz. There is also a 64 GB SSD included having the latest M.2, also known as NGFF, spec. Along with the SSD, Asus has strapped in a 100GB Google Drive subscription free for two years ( it being $4.99 per month when it ends, or the price currently available after two years if it changes ).

Moving on to the other features, the Asus Chromebox comes with a 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity card, having v4.0 of Bluetooth if you want to sync your smartphone or use any peripheral gadget with it, such as headset, mouse or keyboard. It also has a Gigabit Ethernet port to support ultra-fast interenet speeds.

When talking about display compatibility, the Chromebox comes with a HDMI port, DisplayPort and four 3.0 ports. Looking on the front of the ‘box’, we see a card reader for quickly accessing your camera’s memory drive and downloading your pictures fast and easy.

Asus has said that the Chromebox will start to ship somewhere around mid-March and will cost around $179 for the basic model, meaning the one that comes with the Intel Celeron 2955U. There will also be an option to add a wireless keyboard and mouse to your purchase, bumping the price up if choosing to do so.