ASUS VivoStick PC-on-a-Stick Delivers Cherry Trail And Windows 10 For $129
Intel really lit a fire under PC OEMs when it launched its Compute Stick earlier this year (you can read the Hot Hardware review right here). The tiny little mini PC fits in the palm of your hand and packs in a Bay Trail-based Atom Z3735F processor. We’ve seen the world’s largest PC OEM, Lenovo, come out with its own interpretation and now ASUS is bringing its own sleek offering to the table.
The ASUS VivoStick does away with the hard edges and complete lack of style presented by the Intel Compute Stick and the Lenovo ideacenter Stick 300 by adopting a smooth shape and gentle curves. If the Intel Compute Stick is a slab-sided Mercedes G-Class, the VivoStick is more Porsche Cayenne.
The VivoStick also one-ups Intel’s offering with the inclusion of a 14nm Cherry Trail-based Atom SoC with 2GB of RAM and Intel HD Graphics, which should help with regards to performance and power consumption. ASUS has also ditched the microSD slot in favor of a USB 3.0 port which sits right next to a USB 2.0 port — the Intel Compute Stick only comes with a single USB 2.0 port.
Other features include 802.11n wireless along with Bluetooth 4.0 support. In addition, you’ll have access to 32GB of onboard storage (although you can always expand upon that with the two USB ports). And instead of coming preloaded with Windows 8.1 with Bing, the VivoStick sports Windows 10 — warts and all.
ASUS is currently displaying the VivoStick in Blue/Gold, Black/Black and White/Silver, and it will be priced at $129. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have any indications of when exactly the device will be available.
