Lenovo’s newest IdeaCentre Mini is a compact desktop computer that measures 7.7″ x 7.5″ x 1.5″ and has an internal volume of just liter.
But it’s what’s inside that counts, and under the hood this little computer has the guts of a pretty powerful laptop complete with a 13th-gen Intel Core H-series processor, a 150W built-in power supply, and plenty of ports, memory, and storage. Lenovo says the new IdeaCentre Mini should be available in the second quarter of 2023 for $650 and up.
Lenovo says the IdeaCentre Mini Gen 8 will be available with a choice of Intel Core i5-13500H or Core i7-13700H processors. Intel hasn’t actually announced those chips yet, but the H in the name suggests that these will be 45-watt laptop-class processors.
The computer has two SODIMM slots for DDR4 ad two M.2 slots for PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs. Lenovo will offer models with 8GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB to 1TB of storage, but I suspect you can add more if you need it.
Ports include:
- 1 x Thunderbolt 4
- 1 x DisplayPort 1.4b
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x 2.5 GbE Ethernet
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- 1 x 3.5mm audio
And the computer supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity.
Since the power supply is built into the computer itself, there’s no power brick to speak of, just a small plug. And the IdeaCentre Mini weighs just about 4 pounds, so while I don’t see anything in the press materials about VESA mount kits, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could mount it to the back of a display or under a desk.
Lol. I was going to reply to the fanboys in a very similar way as you, @Aissa, but felt that it would be too harsh. Now, after reading and laughing with your reply I see that you’re right and I was wrong, apple fanboys deserve all the derision they get.
At least put a SD card slot in the front.
Finally an actually small SFF PC without an external power supply brick. I never liked the NUCs, or “tiny” and “micro” Ideacentres and Optiplexes because of the bricks.
I don’t understand the complaining about Lenovo allegedly copying Apple. There is only so much you can do with a cuboid shape.
Wake me up when its a Ryzen 6000H series.
Dear Lenovo,
You will never attract hardcore apple fans by just blatantly copying whatever apple does in just the parts of the product that you control (i.e. the casing). You also won’t attract people who hate windows enough to switch to a competitor but haven’t considered why Free Software principles might be important and so just switched to the obvious strongest competitor.
In a vacuum, this wouldn’t look bad. But in context it clearly shows a product living in Apple’s shadow. If I had to use this at work, I might even go along with the joke and replace that stripey clear plastic lid with a silvery plate of whatever and get a mac keyboard and mouse and see how long it takes anyone to notice it’s not a mac mini.
I am looking for a brick-less SFF computer to run Linux, and there are not many options.
MacMini M1 with Asahi Linux is one of them.
I would like more manufactures to embrace this form factor.
I didn’t mean to say it’s a wholly bad product. I’m sure it works fine. I just mean copying a form factor doesn’t require copying every aesthetic element. Sometimes, if you go out of your way to do that, you end up with a product that sacrifices function for form AND has no distinct identity. Which is, to some degree or another, an issue with laptops everywhere these days.
Except this form factor has been used by so many different companies by now, the only thing they did was change the colour, and the fact they went with the stripey top means they aren’t trying to fool anyone (the stripey design is reminiscent of their carbon fiber thinkpads.) As for sacrificing function, it’s a laptop chip (like most computers in this form factor) so it should perform fine given it has more internal space than many laptops (I’m assuming those air vents indicate active cooling).
LOL, Windows 7 is more usable and intuitive than MacOS 12.
Ah great, another Apple fanatic moaning about another product having the slightest resemblance to an Apple one.
Well, sorry to break your heart and shatter your fantasy but Apple did not invent cubic shapes, the SFF form factor nor the metallic grey color. They barely invented anything to begin with since the 80s, so your blind fanboyism for a corporation that doesn’t even acknowledge your existence is making you look quite.. silly, to avoid breaking your heart any further.
Apple as an ambassador for free software. LOL. Right to repair, FAIL!
Put Linux on bot aac and HP if you want free software.