Asus Chromebox 5a launches with up to 13th gen Intel Core i7, starts under $300

Last year's Asus Chromebox 5 just got a minor refresh. While the company packed last year's model with up to 12th gen Intel Core-P series processors, the latest mini PC, the Chromebox 5a, gets up to 13th gen  Intel Core U-series CPUs. Besides the processor change, the newer model also sees some changes in the ports.

More specifically, the Chromebox 5a has more USB ports. While that's a good upgrade, the newer model loses the Thunderbolt 4 port. So, the fastest option in the new mini PC is the USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, which can offer only 10 Gbps of data transfer speeds instead of 40 Gbps that you would get from Thunderbolt 4.

That's not the only downgrade, though. The Chromebox 5 came with a 2.5 GbE Ethernet, while the newer mini PC has a Gigabit Ethernet port. So, don't expect fast wired network speeds from the new Chromebox 5a.

Getting back to the processor options, the top-end models of the Chromebox 5 came with 12th gen P-series processors (Core i3-1220P variant curr. $480.82 on Amazon). To compare, you get U-series 13th gen processors on the higher-end Chromebox 5a models. While the newer processors do tend to offer better single-core performance, the P-series chips can deliver comparatively better multi-core performance.

Other than these, the two ChromeOS mini PC models are similar, but the starting price of the newer Chromebox 5a is a little lower, at $294 instead of $309. Check out the comparison table attached below to learn more.