These days HDMI based streaming sticks seem to be the one of the major attractions as far as portable devices are concerned. When it comes to streaming sticks, there are quite a hand full of devices currently available in the market including the Google Chromecast, the Roku Streaming Stick, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick or the not so long ago released Mozilla Matchstick. Not the ones to be left behind, its now time for Intel, the world’s leading processing chip manufacturer to come up with their own little handy version of these handy little devices. The company, at the recently concluded CES 2015 in Las Vegas have unveiled the Intel Compute Stick, a 4-inch HDMI dongle that can convert any HDMI enabled device into a fully functional computer running on either Microsft’s Windows 8.1 or Linux. Just attach a wireless USB mouse and keyboard on the device and you’re good to go.
As far as the device’s specs are concerned, don’t let the size of this little monster fool you. The Compute Stick running on Windows 8.1 out of the box sports a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage catered together with a Micro SD card Slot support for additional storage up to 64GB, Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth 4.0. The Windows enabled device would be available later this year at a retail price of $149. The Linux variant on the other hand includes the exact same quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor found in the Windows 8.1 version together with 1 GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage with a Micro SD card Slot support for additional storage up to 64GB, Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth 4.0 and would be available at a retail price of $89 later this year.
Intel Compute Stick Tech Specs at a Glance
CPU: Intel Atom Processor Z3735F
PMIC: Dollar Cove AXP288
Memory: 2GB DDR3L
Storage: eMMC 16GB/32GB/64GB
Expandable Storage: Micro SD Card Slot
Display: HDMI (Male connector)
WiFi: IEEE 802. 11 bgn
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 HS uART (Singel Wifi/Bluetooth combo chip)
Antenna: 30mm x 6.5mm x 2 mm, U shape dipole antenna
USB: USB2.0 cut type A x 1
Power Input: Micro-USB 2.0 B connector
Power Button: Yes
Adaptor: 10W(5V/2A)
BIOS: 2MB
LED Indication: Power Status Indicator
OS: Windows (Win 8.1 with Bing, 32bit)
Accessory: 20cm HDMI cable (optional)
Dimension: 110.9mm x 38mm x 9.8 mm (HDMI connector inlcuded)