Even though many are saying that the desktop PC is dead, Asus in conjunction with Google has come up with a relatively revolutionary mini-computer that goes by the name of Chromebox. There are several Chrome laptops on the market now but this is the first series of mini-desktops. What’s a mini-desktop? If you know what a Mac Mini is, then you know what the term means. An Apple TV box is about the same size. Here’s what the new Chromebox looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the features list may sound a bit technical, keep in mind that everything is in the box except storage. In other words there is a very small hard drive included in the base price, 16 GB, barely enough room for your holiday photos and a movie. Google offers two years of storage online, 100 GB, but even that is a minimal amount these days plus you have to upload and download your data when you want to interact with it. Unless you have a fast Internet connection, you’ll spend your time moving data around instead of actually doing work.

All of the ports are there, everything you need to attach a keyboard, a mouse, Ethernet or WiFi plus the two new-ish monitor ports; HDMI and Display Port. As for storage, you would have to add an external hard drive which would solve a lot of problems but unless you are using a USB 3 drive, it’s pretty slow moving things around.

What’s the price? Let’s see:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right now, at NCIX anyway, the price for the lowest entry in the series is $216.00. In the U.S., the price is about $180.00, given the difference between USD and CDN. For that you get the Celeron processor, 2 gigs of RAM and the 16 GB solid state drive that we mentioned previously. The OS ( Operating System) is Google’s own. We’ve used it on a Chrome laptop and it’s fast, stable but a bit confusing if you’re coming from Windows or a Mac. Everything is done online, which isn’t a problem in itself, but  those 16 GB of storage get eaten up pretty quickly if you do even a moderate amount of photography.

If you’re looking for something to plunk beside your HDTV to watch Netflix or one of the other myriad of apps out there, this basic box is a decent, but not spectacular, deal. If you’re looking to replace your big old desktop, you’re probably better to look elsewhere. We’re not saying that Windows 8 is better than the Chrome OS, it isn’t by a long shot, but a normal PC will give you lots of storage space with the plus of being able to work offline by times. We think the Chromebox is great for non-techies who use a limited number of applications, mainly email, Facebook and other social apps. Everyone else should think of something a bit more expensive with at least a 500 GB hard drive.

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