Recently I spent some quality time testing (and tearing down) the new Asus Chromebox small form factor Chrome OS PC. This little 5x5-inch brick runs
Not bad. But is it all that? And though there has been a rush on Chromebooks as of late, does this latest incarnation of Google device actually pose a threat to
From a hardware perspective, with a 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM and an SSD on board, this thing flies through Google's light-weight UI with apps in a browser approach. It boots in well under 10 seconds and it's virtually silent. Under load you might hear the faintest of whir if you put your ear up next to the machine, but you literally have to try to hear it. Since Intel's Haswell Core i3 architecture runs so cool, and the machine's power supply is an external AC adapter, there's just not a lot of heat to dissipate.
Granted, the Chromebox's internal Flash storage is a little meager at only 16GB total but you also get lots of expansion capability with its four USB ports and an SD card reader slot. Toss in the aforementioned 100GB of free Google Drive storage and, at least in terms of bulk file and media capacity, you have plenty of room to grow.
If you're daring enough to remove four screws found under the rubber skids on the bottom side of the Chromebox, you'll gain access to most of its internals. The CPU is on the top side of the PCB and it's not upgradable since it's soldered down to the board. However, on the bottom side view that you see above, you can upgrade the SODIMM memory to 16GB if you wish, or drop in a higher capacity SATA
I step through the internals a bit here in this hands-on and walk you through the Chrome OS and related apps a bit as well.
So, as you can see, a device like the Chromebox doesn't completely replace all the functionality of a full-fledged desktop PC but it can service a vast majority of typical mainstream requirements. Google productivity apps, like Docs, Sheets, Slides and GMail are getting more pervasive in the enterprise and education, so devices like this are a natural thin client approach to providing a utility computing solution. And as a public kiosk, a Chromebox could get the job done with better intrinsic security because it's not wide open to installation of executables, though it's still susceptible to web-injected malware obviously.
That said, Google's OS-in-a-browser approach does take a bit of getting used to. The first time you hit the Google Chrome store and find that many of the apps are simply internet shortcuts to pre-qualified online apps, it's a bit underwhelming. However, over time, I found just using the Chromebox to get some email work done, watch some video media or stream music was actually a pretty satisfying experience. And I could even mess around with some basic gaming like Angry Birds, etc. if I had the urge.
The Asus Chromebox is an interesting beast. There are a multitude of usages and applications that you can envision for a device like this and what's perhaps more interesting is what the open source community could do for it and the Chrome OS as Chromeboxes become more commonplace. And with recent reports that Google and VMware are looking to offer the ability to run legacy Windows apps virtually in Chrome with VMWare's Horizon View, there could be new opportunities in the enterprise as well, beyond just Google apps.
It's no wonder Microsoft is already positioning to thwart Google's latest device and OS bundle play, slashing Windows 8.1 licensing fees at the low end of the market. Linux has taken a big bite out of Microsoft in the data center over the years and with Google's infrastructure and software as a service prowess, Chrome devices could be the next big threat for Redmond in the consumer and enterprise markets.
