Tuesday, February 4, 2014

ASUS bringing new Chromeboxes in March, priced from $179

ChromeOS in box form, and the entry-level models carry a great price

ASUS has taken the wraps off their new Chromebox line, and are hoping the perfect form-factor and the right price will get people interested.

They are releasing three different models, each with a different CPU. The entry level model will come with a capable Intel Celeron 2955U CPU, and should serve the casual user. For folks who need a little more oompf, there will be a model with the core i3 4010U, and in select markets (read not the USA — Boo!) they will offer a core i7 4600U model. The i-series machines will also support 4K UHD display output.

The rest of the hardware is what you would expect. 16GB SSD, 2GB or 4GB of RAM, USB 3.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wifi and 10/100/1000 Ethernet, display ports, full size SD card slots — basically everything you need on a small Chrome desktop or HTPC setup. The RAM is listed as paired SO-DIMM, so it looks to be upgradeable. No word on the disk drive yet.

Pricing is where they seem to shine. The entry-level model will start at just $179, and availability is expected in March. no word on pricing for the CPU upgrades, but hopefully they follow suit and are affordable.

We've been telling you that Google is serious about ChromeOS — maybe even more so than Android. As manufacturers continue to build devices, and Google continues to improve the operating system, we think exciting times are in store for those ready to adopt it.

One of these is on my radar for sure — what say you?