Acer's Chromebox Ideal For Budget-Conscious Users, SMBs
Following its success in the chromebook market, Acer is now entering thechromebox market with its new CXI Series. In an announcement on Thursday, the company indicated that this new device will be ideal for small to medium sized businesses, the education sector, and consumers looking for a bargain.
"The Acer Chromebox CXI is ideal for budget-conscious users who don't require a mobile platform and who are either invested in or want to leverage the affordability and security of the Google Chrome operating system," an Acer representative told Tom's Hardware.
According to the specifications, this Acer chromebox includes an Intel Celeron 2957U "Haswell" processor, up to 4 GB of DDR3-1600 memory, 16 GB of internal storage and an SD card reader for adding 32 GB of additional storage. Network connectivity includes Wireless N, Bluetooth 4.0 and Gigabit Ethernet.
The Chromebox CXI also provides four USB 3.0 ports (two front, two back), two of which can charge a connected smartphone or tablet. There's also HDMI and DisplayPort video output and a combo audio/microphone jack.
The device itself measures 6.51 x 5.12 x 1.3 inches, which makes storing the device out of sight extremely easy. The Chromebox CXI comes with a VESA mount so that customers can attach it to the back of a monitor, on a wall, and so on.
So what makes this chromebox an ideal choice given the number of low-price chromebooks and Windows-based thin-and-light laptops that are on the market?
"Ideal for institutions and business customers, the new Acer Chromebox CXI is Citrix certified to deliver virtualized remote desktops and applications through a single platform and can be a thin client. It's a very competitively priced option for budget-conscious users who don't require a mobile platform and who are either invested in or want to leverage the affordability and security of the Google Chrome operating system," Acer told us.
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Google introduced the very first chromebox back in February, and that device had an Intel Core i7-4600U processor, either 2 GB or 4 GB of DDR3-1600 MHz memory (over two SO-DIMM slots), a 16 GB SSD, a 2-in-1 SD card reader, Wireless N connectivity and more. Asus ($166), Hewlett-Packard ($179) and Dell also revealed their chromebox intentions.
Available late next month, the Acer's Chromebox CXI will be offered in two flavors: the CXI-2GKM, with 2 GB memory for $179.99, and the CXI-4GKM with 4 GB memory for $219.99. Both versions will be bundled with the VESA mount and a Google-approved mouse and keyboard.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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BlasterX "...and security of the Google Chrome operating system"Reply
Lol, be prepared to be a bigger ad target. -
damianrobertjones No. Simply no. These things will NEVER sit within a business that I manage. I'd rather buy a second hand desktop from eBay.Reply
Why? All those years of AD and GP, getting everything just right then dropping a few of these things into the business only to, probably, index everything on the network then send to Google.