Lenovo is the latest PC maker to join the budding PC-on-a-stick movement. The company on Tuesday announced the Ideacentre Stick 300, a wallet-friendly compute stick suitable for use in multiple scenarios.
The Ideacentre Stick 300 is powered by an Intel Atom Z3735F "Bay Trail" processor alongside 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The tiny computer connects to a television or monitor via HDMI and offers a micro USB 2.0 port (for power), a full-size USB port, a microSD card reader, integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The PC measures 15mm thick and will ship with Windows 8.1 but will be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 starting July 29.
Lenovo says its mini machine is ideal for media, web browsing, video chatting and content creation in the home, dorm or at the office.
If you're thinking this sounds very similar to Intel's Computer Stick, well, you'd be right. Lenovo's solution is powered by the same CPU and includes identical amounts of RAM and storage as well as the same connectivity options. The big draw here is that Lenovo's PC-on-a-stick is $20 cheaper (let's keep our fingers crossed that Lenovo isn't using bloatware to help offset the price difference).
The Ideacentre Stick 300 starts at $129 and will be available sometime this fall. It's worth mentioning that Intel is rumored to be working on a more powerful stick PC that'll have a Core M processor along with double the RAM and storage. "Power users" might want to hold off until then.