Gadgetory

hey everybody it's Chris Walter the verge and today we're checking out the Intel compute stick the tiny little PC that fits in your hand so as the name suggests the Intel compute stick is $159 Windows PC the idea is to bring your own display be that a TV or some old monitor we've got sitting around plug it into the HDMI port and what you end up with is a full Windows machine now the compute stick isn't a powerful PC it's got a pretty slow Intel processor inside just two gigabytes of memory so you can rule out gaming or any really demanding apps but for everything else you do with Windows Office email web browsing this little thing works great so it's got two USB ports built in one of those is USB 3 so you can plug in any accessories that you might have but you're probably gonna want to use one of those or an external hard drive since the compute stick only has 32 gigs of built-in storage that's not a lot but there's also a microSD slot built-in so you can add more room for your photos music and whatever else that way to the compute stick works with Bluetooth keyboards and mice freeing up those USB ports for other stuff and the Wi-Fi is really fast it's got 802 11 AC so that's good enough for HD movies and even Xbox games so remember how I said the compute stick isn't powerful enough for playing games it's pretty good at streaming those games from an Xbox already in your house so for 160 bucks you can use this as a second gaming machine in a bedroom or some other place in your house pretty cool and way cheaper than buying a second Xbox one the compute stick is fantastic as a home theater PC for Netflix Amazon Plex those kinds of apps there are more expensive versions coming on later this year those will play 4k and they'll be a bit faster but even this compute stick right now is cheap and it's a fun way to carry windows with you wherever you go just find the screen plug it in and that's all