Released in Italy in mid-February 2016, the Asus Chromebit is certainly one of the most interesting electronic devices that can be found on sale. For those who have never heard of it, the Chromebit is a pocket PC the size of a USB stick and with the same shape, capable of transforming any TV into a computer .
The Chromebit is not like the Chromecast that transforms TVs into Smart TVs and works as a wireless receiver to transmit what you see on the normal PC on the big screen.
The Chromebit is a one-piece and complete computer that works by itself and includes in its system all the programs and applications to surf the internet, to watch videos, listen to music, to work and write.
In this mini computer, which connects to the TV from the HDMI socket, there is the Chrome OS system, the same as the portable Chromebooks or Chromeboxes that we have described in other articles.
The ASUS Chromebit CS10 can be purchased, currently, on Amazon.it at a price of less than 120 Euros .
To use the Chromebit you must also buy, if you don't already have, a keyboard with trackpad like this one from Logitech.
Alternatively, you can buy a USB hub so that you can connect mouse and keyboard with USB cables, although this solution, in the case of Chromebit connected to the TV, is certainly not the best.
The first time you hold a Chromebit in your hand, it will seem to have a Chromecast, with the difference that in this case you have a real PC and not a transmitter.
The Chromebit can be connected to any screen with an HDMI port, therefore also any modern LCD TV.
Outside there is a single USB 2.0 port which, as mentioned above, supports USB hubs to have at least three ports and connect mouse external hard disk keyboard or whatever you want.
In the ASUS Computer stick there is also a Bluetooth and Wifi 802.11ac receiver.
Inside is a quad-core Rockchip RK3288 ARM processor, with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of disk space.
The space may seem very small, but considering that ChromeOS takes up very little memory and that it works mainly with web applications, in the end there should be no problems.
Speaking of performance, if you have never used a computer with Chrome OS, you will be pleasantly surprised at the speed with which it turns on and how you never show a slowdown even by opening multiple applications together.
So the ChromeBit PC for TVs runs smoothly to watch streaming internet videos, listen to music, play games and browse multiple sites simultaneously.
Another surprising aspect concerns the absence of noise that makes this mini computer, which remains really silent.
Thanks to the excellent performance of the Google Chrome OS system, the Chromebit becomes a significantly more interesting device than the equivalent mini PC with Windows above (READ ALSO: PC in your pocket: Stick Intel or Chromebit for each TV or screen ).
If it is true, as we have tried to show, that the Chromebook can replace any computer, it goes without saying that with a Chromebit you can do almost everything you would do with a Windows PC, even if in different ways.
But it is not to be understood, this Asus mini PC, as a replacement for the normal PC, but above all as a way to have a computer on the TV, or rather, on any TV.
If you have a beach house, if you travel to a hotel, it becomes a way to watch movies streaming on TV or even work without having to carry the heaviest and most delicate laptop with you.
Finally, I would like to say that this is not a sponsored article, but simply a review of a product that I bought, which I am very satisfied with and which I hope to use often on home TV and, above all, when I am traveling, to work, browse and watch movies without having to resort to more bulky solutions.
