Zotac Launches Mysterious-Looking “ZBOX Sphere” PCs
There are lots of SFF PCs floating around these days, but the Zbox Sphere from Zotac is an odd duck among them. Instead of a tall and slim chassis or a tiny square-ish thing like a NUC, this PC is a sphere. (Er, hence the name.)
It’s not just a gimmick to hear Zotac tell it, either; in a press release, Zotac actually calls it a “sphere form factor” which would indicate that the company views the Sphere series as a whole new way of making SFF rigs.
From a marketing perspective, it’s certainly a wise idea. The sphere shape is distinctive and could help Zotac’s products stand out from NUCs and Brix PCs, and it’s too obvious to try and copy it. (That said, there’s probably no discernible performance advantage to the shape.)
Anyway, the specs: The Zbox Sphere OI520 series rocks a dual-core Intel Core i5-4200U (1.6GHz, 2.6GHz Turbo) with Intel Graphics 4400. It appears that some models will be sold as barebones kits while the “PLUS” versions will ship with up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 2.5-inch 500GB HDD.
The PCs also feature HDMI and DisplayPort; 802.11ac WiFi with Bluetooth 4.0 and Gigabit Ethernet; a 4-in-1 card reader; and four USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports.
We’ll have a review of this curious little orb for you soon, so stay tuned.
It’s not just a gimmick to hear Zotac tell it, either; in a press release, Zotac actually calls it a “sphere form factor” which would indicate that the company views the Sphere series as a whole new way of making SFF rigs.
From a marketing perspective, it’s certainly a wise idea. The sphere shape is distinctive and could help Zotac’s products stand out from NUCs and Brix PCs, and it’s too obvious to try and copy it. (That said, there’s probably no discernible performance advantage to the shape.)
Anyway, the specs: The Zbox Sphere OI520 series rocks a dual-core Intel Core i5-4200U (1.6GHz, 2.6GHz Turbo) with Intel Graphics 4400. It appears that some models will be sold as barebones kits while the “PLUS” versions will ship with up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 2.5-inch 500GB HDD.
The PCs also feature HDMI and DisplayPort; 802.11ac WiFi with Bluetooth 4.0 and Gigabit Ethernet; a 4-in-1 card reader; and four USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports.
We’ll have a review of this curious little orb for you soon, so stay tuned.
