Chuwi HeroBox was launched just recently in an effort from the company to offer an all-around PC that will serve you as an HTPC with ease as well as an all-in-one machine connected to a display or serving as a NAS. It comes equipped with Intel N4100 CPU backed by 8GB of RAM and 180GB SSD.

Powerful GPU that can decode 4K with ease

Intel N4100 comes with the 9th Gen Intel UHD Graphics 600 GPU and as a result, HeroBox can decode 4K VP9 10bit video smoothly. You can just place it under your living room TV and connect either via HDMI or VGA to watch 4K videos with a high frame rate.

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As you can see from DXVAChecker, HeroBox can hard decode 4K video and supports up to 8K resolution.

Media Streaming as it should be

Many people buy random cheap Android boxes hoping they can use them to watch streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu at 4K quality but end up with a blurry result and buffering due to poor hardware performance and non-existent digital rights support. HeroBox faces none of the abovementioned problems as it runs Windows 10 on powerful hardware.

Storage expansion

HeroBox comes with a relatively small SSD drive that serves as an installation drive for Windows 10 in order for the PC to be lightning fast. Of course, UHD videos are very large and you definitely need a larger storage disk. For that reason, HeroBox supports SATA hard disk expansion. You can use HDDs up to 2TB big so that you can store hundreds of 4K movies. As you can see in the photos below, installing a HDD is a piece of cake.

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Just unscrew the back of the fuselage, open the back cover and install the 2.5″ HDD to the reserved installation position. The device comes with 2 supports and 4 screws to fix the drive in place.

Conclusion

As you can see, this little box is a sight for sore eyes. It has a metal body, many connectivity capabilities and is as powerful as the average user needs it to be featuring Intel N4100 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 180GB SSD. In addition, the GPU is capable of decoding 4K video easily in order to make the HeroBox the perfect HTPC companion. For more information about it, visit the official product page.

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This is not the first time that Chuwi releases a Mini PC as there has been the GBox Pro in the past. The new model that goes by the name HeroBox and will soon launch on Amazon is the upgraded version of GBox Pro and will come with Intel’s Gemini Lake N4100 CPU backed by 8GB of RAM and 180GB SSD. Also, it sports a metal body and many expansion ports.

Sufficient configuration leads to great performance

The N4100 CPU can reach 2.4GHz function frequency and offers adequate performance and low power consumption. Also, it comes with the 9th Gen UHD Graphics 600 GPU  that is pretty much twice as fast as the previous generation. Having 18 processing units, it can decode 4K VP9 10bit videos smoothly.

Meanwhile, the 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM is not only faster than DDR3 but also consumes less power. Combined with the Intel 180GB SSD, it allows the HeroBox to be 3x faster than the previous model in terms of read/write speeds. What’s more, there are many ports available like 2x USB Type-C, 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, microSD slot, HDMI, VGA, etc.

Lastly, it comes with Windows 10 preinstalled so all the familiar functions and applications are there whether you use it for work or entertainment. And even if you don’t want to use Windows, you can always install a Linux distribution as all hardware drivers are already available.

Multiple-use scenes

As said before, the HeroBox is an all-around Mini PC that you can use as a home cinema thanks to its powerful video decoding capabilities. It supports VESA so that you can attach it at the back of your TV or PC monitor and forget that it’s there. Also, thanks to its low power consumption, you can use it as a NAS storage server that will be working 24/7 with minimal power cost. It consumes less than 10W and you can expand the 180GB SSD up to 2TB.

Compared with similar mini PCs

Just as a reference, if you compare it with other similarly priced mini PCs like the Intel NUC6CAYH that comes without RAM and SSD and you’d have to buy them extra, it really has no opponent. Apart from the fact that HeroBox comes with RAM and SSD, the NUC6CAYH features an older CPU-GPU combination as it sports the Intel J3455 CPU and HD Graphics 500 GPU. Also, it supports the slower DDR3 protocol. As you can see, no matter the hardware configuration or the cost/performance ratio, the NUC6CAYH can’t reach the HeroBox.

To sum up, the Chuwi HeroBox is a perfect all-around mini PC with great build quality thanks to the metal chassis and fanless design. The device will hit the Japanese market first costing about $200 and will soon expand to the rest of the world. To learn more information, visit the official product page.

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