In the early hours of April 1st, an announcement from Asus – which turned out not to be an April Fools prank came through. The announcement was for a cheap, ChromeOS powered HDMI dongle that would allow you to turn any monitor with a HDMI port into a working computer.
The applications for the Asus Chromebit range from digital signage to kiosk PCs, or a cheap, yet reasonably powerful desktop PC replacement. Originally planned for release in the American ‘Summer’, but Asus has just advised the dongle will finally be hitting the market in Q4. The Chromebit will be available in three colours – Blue, Orange and Grey/Black, though Asus hasn’t announced which will be available here.
Chromebit Specs:
- OS: Chrome OS
- CPU: RockChip 3288-C
- Memory: 2GB LPDDR3L
- Graphics: Integrated Rockchip® Mali T764 (Full HD, plays up to 1080p)
- Storage: 16G eMMC
- TPM (Trusted Platform Module): YES
- Wireless: Dual Band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth V4.0
- Interface: 1 x HDMI ; 1 x USB 2.0; 1 x DC-in Jack
- Power Supply: 12V, 1.5A, 18 W Adapter
- Dimension: 123 x 31 x 17 mm
- Weight: 75 g
How much it will be when it arrives, and where you’ll be able to purchase it from aren’t yet known but more details will be available closer to launch. The Chromebit was originally announced at US$99, however there has been speculation that it could drop even lower in price by launch – we’ll find out soon.
I’ve been considering buying the Intel PC on a stick, which is now selling around $180.
Need to bypass the steaming pile of cow dung and molasses that is the Samsung TV’s “Smart Hub”.
This might be a better/simpler way of doing it, using Chrome OS instead of another Windows device in the house for me to maintain.
I like the idea. It comes down to this Rockchip CPU.
These things are never fun if they are underpowered.
The RockChip 3288 is an A-17 quad core up to 1.8 GHz so it should be ok for speed for video but around the level of a smart phone from a few years ago. I would think there are other more powerful Chinese devices that are probably also cheaper on Ebay. That said they would only be running android where this is running Chrome OS.
as long as i can cast my video i’m happy to buy this assuming it will support 4k display