Friday, January 21st 2022
ASUS Sneaks Out PL63 Mini PC with Thunderbolt 4 SKU
Not all products are launched with an accompanying press release or even at a trade show and ASUS' new PL63 mini PC is one of those products. It might not be the most unique mini PC on the market, but as far as we're aware, it's the first with Thunderbolt 4 support, that is as long as you get the right SKU, as most seem to support USB 3.2 instead. The PL63 is built around Intel's 11th gen mobile processors and the three CPU options available are the Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1135G7 and the Core i7-1165G7, all with Iris Xe graphics..
Other features include support for two SO-DIMMs, one PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, an HDMI 2.0 port, DP 1.4 as well as DP output through both the USB-C ports, regardless of if you get the USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 4 version. As per the pictures, WiFi is also supported, with various options depending on the SKU. An external 19 V power brick rated at 90 W is included to power the 166.2 x 119.7 x 33.9 mm (WxDxH) system. Pricing for a barebone model seems to be US$508 for the Core i5-1135G7 based model, although it's unclear if this is with or without Thunderbolt 4 support. Bump that up to US$650 and you get 4 GB of RAM, a 128 GB SSD and Windows 10 Pro included.
Sources:
ASUS, via Liliputing
Other features include support for two SO-DIMMs, one PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, an HDMI 2.0 port, DP 1.4 as well as DP output through both the USB-C ports, regardless of if you get the USB 3.2 or Thunderbolt 4 version. As per the pictures, WiFi is also supported, with various options depending on the SKU. An external 19 V power brick rated at 90 W is included to power the 166.2 x 119.7 x 33.9 mm (WxDxH) system. Pricing for a barebone model seems to be US$508 for the Core i5-1135G7 based model, although it's unclear if this is with or without Thunderbolt 4 support. Bump that up to US$650 and you get 4 GB of RAM, a 128 GB SSD and Windows 10 Pro included.
9 Comments on ASUS Sneaks Out PL63 Mini PC with Thunderbolt 4 SKU
Also, isn't HDMI 2.1 the only standard now?
You need to pass HDMI 2.1 Compliance Testing in order to mark your device as HDMI 2.1 even if you previously passed 2.0b. I doubt Intel will re-certify their CPUs, even if they match the new speccs ;)
From their Q&A:
I really don't like what they did here - renaming 2.0b and making previously 2.1-only features optional. It's confusing for everyone, but seems to be a trend nowadays (just like OpenCL 3.0 making everything from 2.0 optional, just because nVidia didn't support anything above 1.1...).
So the Intel CPUs (and the monitor from your article) can be considered 2.1, but in reality 2.0b because it doesn't support new 2.1 features?