Lenovo have announced a new compute stick, the Lenovo ideacentre Stick 300. A compute stick is a device that you place into a television set to turn it into a computer and multimedia hub. It is portable, small and convenient for users who want to have a PC experience wherever they are.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to carry a laptop around, or a bit too expensive for someone who has a desktop PC at home. All that’s required for the Stick 300 to work is a HDMI slot in the television or monitor, and the HDMI slot is becoming the norm for display devices.
For travellers, this means that there’s no need to carry a laptop around should you be staying in quality hotels. Rather than watching whatever is on the screen, a traveller can connect the Stick 300 into the TV set in the hotel, connect a wireless keyboard and mouse to have a computer in front of them. Other users won’t need to buy peripherals they can’t afford, it’s something a parent could get their child while in school rather than buying them a laptop or desktop that costs hundreds of dollars. A TV is no longer just a TV, and with devices like the Stick 300, how long TVs will remain as they once were and still are a lot of the time will remain to be seen.
The Stick 300 is tiny, 15 mm thin. The device contains Intel’s Atom Processor Z3735F, 2 GB of memory and 32 GB of storage, running Windows 8.1 (With the free upgrade to Windows 10 available to users on July 29th.). The Stick 300 will have WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, so internet access will be possible as long as there’s a WiFi signal to connect to. This will mean that people who are required to travel for work will be able to be connected and working where ever they are.
The price of the Lenovo ideacentre Stick 300 starts at $129US. This is a very low price and one that is affordable for those who already have a laptop or desktop. It’s not looking to replace these devices, but give users an affordable option at a second or third computing device. It is out in July in stores and from the Lenovo website. Given time to evolve, these compute stick devices could become normal for users to own. The devices could also push television manufacturers to improve the system within their TV sets, as users will no longer want a TV as it once was.
Related link: Lenovo
