Asus Chromebox release date, review: The Asus selection of Chromeboxes is now available, a quick look at the Amazon product page featuring the Asus Chromebox-M004U desktop shows. ComputerWorld, in a report posted March 12, says that the device is available for pre-order but will ship later this month.

According to the official product page of the Chromebox at Asus.com, one of the key features of the unit touted by its manufacturer as the “world’s smallest Chrome computer” is its 4th gen Intel processors. The chipset is said to deliver the best performance for the Chrome OS.

The Asus Chromebox priced at $179 comes with a 16GB storage but has a 100GB storage free on Google Drive. The unit will soon be joined by a higher-end device, the $369 Intel Core i3-based Chromebox, set to be launch next month.

ComputerWorld noted that the Asus Chromebox is nicely designed and has a minimalist look. It blends into your workplace without any fuss. Dimensions of the unit is 4.9 x 4.9-inch and it’s 1.5 inch tall. Exterior of the desktop is a matte black plastic and there’s a silver-colored reflective Asus logo and a small Chrome logo on the top.

In terms of connectivity, it has two USB 3.0 ports on its front panel and two more on its back. The rear panel also holds an HDMI-out port, a dual-mode DisplayPort, an RJ45 LAN port for wired Internet connection, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a DC port for its included power adaptor. ComputerWorld notes that it also has integrated support for Wi-Fi - dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n as well as Bluetooth 4.0.

The Asus Chromebox uses the same look and setup present in many of the Haswell-based Chromebook devices: Intel Celeron 295UU processors together with 2GB of RAM. The performance of the Chromebox then is very similar to what you can get from the other systems.

Recent Chromebooks have 4GB instead of 2GB, giving them a little extra processing feature. With 2GB, Asus Chromebox is on the level of a system like Acer’s C720P Chromebook, which ComputerWorld notes tend to be slightly less snappy than its 4GB-packing cousins.

Overall, the Asus Chromebox works and delivers a worthy user experience similar to what a Chromebooks give. It’s a good way to experience the power of a Chrome OS, with its cloud-centric computing environment. Casual users should definitely look into this, but power users may need something a bit more heavy duty.