Chromebit (Asus Photo)
Chromebit (Asus Photo)

Google and Asus officially unveiled the Chromebit on Tuesday, an $85 HDMI stick that delivers the full Chrome OS experience to any TV or monitor.

Chromebit (Asus Photo)
Chromebit (Asus Photo)

The device, which measures 12 centimeters long, isn’t designed for any kind of heavy-lifting. Instead, it’s more for dedicated web apps, like streaming video on your TV at home, plugging into a monitors for a self-service kiosks in stores or showing presentations in conference rooms.

The Chromebit features 2GB of memory, 16GB of storage, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth or USB ports for connecting peripherals like a keyboard and mouse. Each unit also comes with 100GB of free cloud storage from Google for two years.

This is the latest device that runs Google’s Chrome OS. The platform has been all about stripping down computing capabilities in order to build some of the cheapest laptops ever. Now, Google and Asus have taken that one step further by even getting rid of screen, battery, keyboard and trackpad.

What you’re left with is a small device that’s certainly one of the cheapest ways to achieve to a full desktop experience — as long as you have an extra monitor lying around.

The Chromebit will be sold through Amazon, Fry’s and Newegg, though none of those sites were carrying the device on Tuesday afternoon.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.