Asus has announced a new fanless addition to its family of Chromeboxes: the Asus Fanless Chromebox. Like Asus’ previous models, the Fanless Chromebox’s compact size is designed to be mounted to the back of a display or desk to save space in size-conscious work environments. Perhaps unintentionally, it also looks almost exactly like a wireless router.
The Asus Fanless Chromebox dimensions come out to about 8.15 x 5.82 x 1.26 inches, which gives its aluminum chassis a small, rectangular shape. But the real wireless router aesthetic comes from the ridged design on the top of the box and the two adjustable antennas on the back.
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Inside, the Chromebox features either a 10th Gen Intel Core or Celeron processor: you can choose between an Intel Core i7-10510U, an Intel Core i5-10210U, an Intel Core i3-10110U, or a Celeron 5205U. It also offers up to 16GB RAM and up to 256GB SSD storage.
Depending on the configuration, the Chromebox offers different ports, with the major difference between the Celeron and Core models being the number and type of USB ports: the Celeron model has a mix of two USB 2.0, one USB 3.2, and one USB-C port, while the Core models have three USB 3.1 and one USB-C port. All configurations have two HDMI 2.0 ports for connecting to displays and one microSD card slot for adding extra memory.
Asus says the specs of the Chromebox, along with its fanless design, should let it power up to three 4K displays while running Chrome OS (and Android apps from the Play Store as well). With a starting price of $399, the Asus Fanless Chromebox could be a solid desktop Chrome OS experience — just don’t buy a wireless router by mistake.
The Asus Fanless Chromebox will be available in the US in February 2021.
