HP has announced its latest Chromebox, the HP Chromebox G2. It comes several years after the manufacturer released the HP Chromebox back in 2014, and was announced alongside two new Chromebook offerings from HP. The Chromebox G2 will be available in a number of configurations which contain Intel processors from the Kaby Lake and Kaby Lake Refresh generations, in addition to a variety of internal storage capacities and RAM configurations.
The device will be sold in units that contain an Intel Celeron 3865U, Intel Core i5-7300U, and an Intel Core i7-8650U. The Celeron 3865U includes an Intel HD Graphics 610 chip, while the Core i5-7300U and the Core i7-8650U are both equipped with a UHD Graphics 620 integrated GPU. Naturally, the Intel Core i7-8650U will likely offer better performance than both the Core i5-7300U and the Celeron 3865U. This is due to the fact that the Core i7-8650U is an 8th generation Kaby Lake Refresh chipset, while the other two Intel offerings are from the 7th generation of Kaby Lake processors. The Chrome OS-powered desktop computer comes with several ports including three USB 3.0 Type-A ones, a 3.5mm headphone jack, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, one USB Type-C module, an ethernet port, and an HDMI connector. According to the manufacturer’s support website, it seems that the device’s USB Type-C port can also be used for powering it.
The HP Chromebox G2 is equipped with up to 16GB of RAM, which is placed in two memory slots. Consumers may also choose between configurations that contain either 32GB or 64GB of M.2 SSD storage. The lightest configuration of the device weighs 670 grams and is 14.94 x 14.93 x 4cm in size. The Chromebox G2 will ship either with a 65-watt or 90-watt external power adapter. It seems that there is only one color option available for the Chromebox G2, which is black. There is still no available information on the pricing of the HP Chromebox G2 and the manufacturer already mentioned that they will not officially show the Chromebox G2 at CES 2018 next week. However, the device will start shipping in April, or at least some of its more affordable configurations will.
