You may remember that Asus announced over a year ago the company got non-exclusive rights to keep making NUC mini-PCs after Intel decided it was bailing out of that business. Since then Asus has been releasing new NUC mini-PCs, including one made specifically for gamers.
Today, as part of its IFA 2024 announcements, Asus revealed a lineup of new Copilot+ PC-based laptops that will use Intel's recently revealed Core Ultra Series 2 (200v) processors. However, it also revealed something else; a new NUC mini-PC that also has an Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chip.
It's called the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI, and it's one of the rare PCs that use Microsoft's Copilot+ PC platform that is not a notebook. Once more, the case of this PC has a Microsoft Copilot button, which we do not recall seeing on any desktop-based PC before now.
While it does make some sort of sense to have a Copilot button on a keyboard for use on a Copilot+ PC notebook to launch the generative AI assistant, we do kind of wonder why the Copilot button is on this mini-PC. Unless the case is placed on a desk near to a user while it's hooked up to a keyboard and monitor, that Copilot button will likely be pressed very rarely.
Besides the Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chip and the Copilot button, the NUC 14 Pro AI will also have Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless hardware, two USB-A ports and a USB-C port in the front, where the Copilot button is located. In the back there will be two more USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and Ethernet port, and a Thunderbolt 4 port.
We don't have any info yet on the amount of RAM or storage this PC will have. We also don't have a release date or pricing for the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI. We do know that all Copilot+ PC devices with Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 chips will get the big Copilot+ PC Windows 11 update from Microsoft in November.
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