Review on 💻 Acer Chromebox CXI3-UA91 Mini PC - Intel Celeron 3867U Processor, 4GB DDR4, 128GB M.2 SSD, Chrome OS + Keyboard & Mouse by Brandon Guidroz

Bought this to replace a 2012 Mac Mini in our kitchen. This is our first Chromebox but we have an old 2GB Acer Chromebook and a new 8GB HP Chromebook and we use Chrome on all our Macs. I wanted to make sure it was fast (yes it is!) and had at least 8GB of RAM. I'm not sure I see a reason to get the 16GB version unless I'm using it to work with 50 tabs open. At first I was annoyed that the keyboard and mouse came with it as I wanted to use my beautiful Apple Bluetooth keyboard. and a magic trackpad. However, they disconnected/reconnected every 10 minutes. I've read that Bluetooth isn't very reliable on Chrome OS, so I grabbed my old Logitech K400 that's in the basement (it has a receiver, no Bluetooth). That helped. The keyboard isn't the best and the touchpad is small, but additional function keys like sound seem to work, but maybe not all. I can't always wake the device from sleep using the keyboard, and sometimes I have to press the power button (the device is wall-mounted behind our monitor for a neat look). I wish it would use USB-C for power instead of that big brick with a long cable that's hard to hide. I was able to get the Google Play Store working, so it's nice to be able to use native apps like Spotify etc. You CANNOT switch user when someone is logged in, which is a bit disappointing. However, it's fast and remembers your session, so it doesn't really matter. I'm using it with a 2560x1440 monitor that requires a USB-C cable to view the port. maybe $400 but at least it should last me over 5 years if nothing dies and I can easily use it with a TV if I want to change my use case.