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Acer’s final announcement as it pertains to the Chrome OS crowd came in the form of the next generation of Chrome OS desktops. Like the recently announced Chromeboxes from CTL and HP, the biggest changes on the inside of the Acer CXi4 are the upgrade to 10th Gen Comet Lake processors and the addition of a second HDMI port to support dual 4K monitors. You’ll also get the speed boost of Wi-Fi 6 and the stability of Bluetooth 5 which will result in the best connectivity ever slapped into a Chrome OS mini PC.
These are the same specs we’re going to see on just about every other Chromebox launched over the next few months. What’s interesting about Acer’s latest model is the design. The Chromebox CXi3 was a rounded, pill-shaped device that looked very cool sitting on a desk in its cradle. My only issue with that model what how unusually difficult it was to open up if you wanted to upgrade the RAM or storage. Still, I liked the aesthetic. The CXi4 has taken a much more utilitarian approach with a return to the boxy look of previous Chromeboxes. I’m sure that there was some market research somewhere that showed users didn’t really care about how a mini PC looked as many are likely to mount it to the back of their monitor. Honestly, if I were to use a Chromebox long-term, that’s exactly what I’d do and I’d never see it.
Acer’s Chromebox CXi4 will arrive in the first quarter of 2021 in North America with a starting price of $259.99. This will presumably come equipped with the Intel Celeron 5205U CPU and 4GB of RAM. In what very well could be a typo, the Chrombox is listed to launch in the EMEA for 569 Euros. The other explanation could be that Europe will not get a Celeron model but perhaps a Pentium Gold or Core i3 as the entry-level option which would result in a higher price. We’ll reach out to Acer for clarification on this pricing. The Chromebox CXi4 will also have an Enterprise variant that comes preloaded with the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade. The starting price for this model will be $409.99. Learn more at Acer.
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