Back in the day, computers were quite bulky. A laptop was more of a suitcase and a desktop was, well, the size of a desktop. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but as the years go by, hardware gets smaller while technology continues to improve. The latest innovation is a computer the size of a USB thumb drive that runs Android. This isn’t the first device of its kind as the recently debuted Raspberry Pi costs $35.
Better specs than the Raspberry Pi and made in China, the device can be bought online from Ali Express for $74 USD. Considering the specs, both inside and out, it’s not a bad price. So what are the specs?
- 1.5GHZ single core ARM Cortex-A8 processor
- 512MB DDR3 RAM
- Mali 400 GPU with 1080P video support, outputs through HDMI
- 802.1b/g/n WIFI
- 4GB storage with microSD card slot
- Android 4.0
Not bad for such a tiny computer. Many are looking at it as a slimmed down version of the FXI ‘Cotton Candy’ which features a dual core processor and 1GB DRAM. That device is said to launch very soon and under $200. The mini PC market is a very interesting one. While it’s more of a very niche market that has the geekiest of geeky interested, it has some serious potential to catch on with wider audiences and a variety of uses.
Imagine a World where our desktop computer is the size of USB flash drive and we can take it anywhere. Of course microSD cards need a lot of advancement in the storage department for that to happen, but with the way of the cloud, there’s not nearly as much need for optical drives.