Chromebox

A Chromebox is a small computer that runs Google's ChromeOS. he most popular ones are from Asus and AOpen. A Chromebox is the Chromebit's bigger brother. It is a regular small box and comes in different variations. The cheapest model from Assus has an Intel Celeron processor and 2GB of memory. The cheapest model from AOpen has a quad core ARM processor with 4GB of memory. More expensive ones have e.g. Intel Core i3 and higher processors and more memory. We'll list the pros and cons of the simplest Celeron version.

Pros

• Runs ChromeOS, which is highly optimized to play web content. As such it performs remarkably well compared to other devices in the same segment.
• Small enough to mount behind almost any screen.
• Well priced.
• Our SmartSign2Go playback app is available for free in the Google Play Store, making it run fully automatically.

Cons

• Google charges about $53/year per device for you to always start this device automatically in full screen mode. Read about this in our ChromeOS chapter.
• 2GB of memory is enough memory to display many images, but you should not include too many videos. So in that case the AOpen model might be the better option.
• Still won't play all animations extremely smoothly.

Conclusion

The Chromebox performs better than the Chromebit in most scenarios. For the average use case with some videos and several animations, a Chromebox comes highly recommended.

To iron out the last animation jitters, choose a model with a Core i3 (or even an i5 or i7) processor. When a professional casing of the player is required (for setups in dusty, humid or greasy environments) AOpen's Chromebox is the better choice.