Asus has expanded its NUC 14 family of compact computers with the introduction of the new NUC 14 Pro AI. The new product will offer fresh Intel Lunar Lake processors, which have high performance in tasks related to artificial intelligence.
Image source: ASUS
Recall that Intel sold the NUC (Next Unit of Compute) brand to Asus last year. Asus continues to develop these systems, and has released several NUC 14 models in recent months. For example, the NUC 14 Performance and NUC 14 ROG models are designed for work and gaming, respectively, and are equipped with discrete GeForce RTX 40-series graphics. These systems are among the most expensive in the NUC PC lineup and don’t always offer similar levels of performance to comparably priced laptops. However, NUC mini PCs are popular among those who require compact desktop solutions or want an all-in-one solution for business or entertainment.
Following today’s announcement, the Asus NUC 14 family looks like this:
- ROG NUC: до Core Ultra 9 185H (Meteor Lake), GeForce RTX 4060 или RTX 4070;
- NUC 14 Performance: до Core Ultra 9 185H (Meteor Lake), GeForce RTX 4060 или RTX 4070;
- NUC 14 Pro+: до Core Ultra 9 185H (Meteor Lake);
- NUC 14 Pro: до Core Ultra 165H (Meteor Lake);
- NUC 14 Pro AI: Core Ultra 200V (Lunar Lake).
The new NUC 14 Pro AI system has the familiar format of a small parallelepiped with rounded edges and sides of 4 by 4 inches. However, this time the mini-PC body is more rounded. The Intel Lunar Lake processors offered as part of the new product are equipped with built-in RAM, which eliminates the need for SO-DIMM slots for memory modules on the motherboard. This design allows you to save space inside the PC, but at the same time makes it impossible to subsequently update the memory subsystem.
The NUC 14 Pro AI is equipped with two USB Type-A ports, one Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), and also has a dedicated button to launch the Copilot AI assistant included in Windows 11. If such a mini-PC will be located on a desk, then the presence of a button may come in handy. In other cases, this appears to be an optional option.
It should be added that the NUC 14 Pro AI is not the first mini PC equipped with a dedicated button to launch Copilot. The same feature is offered, for example, by the latest models of nettops from Minisforum, but based on Intel Meteor Lake processors. However, the Core Ultra 200V series chips used in the NUC 14 Pro AI are fully compliant with the Microsoft Copilot Plus PC ecosystem, unlike the Core Ultra 100H (Meteor Lake).
The manufacturer has not yet announced the cost of the new NUC 14 Pro AI mini-PCs.