More than three years ago, Apple started selling a computer that looks like a rubbish bin. Now Samsung has a very similar looking computer that is much cheaper.
Image: Samsung
Dubbed the ArtPC Pulse, this $US1200 ($1577) computer looks even more bin-like than the Mac Pro. But see, this is all about art. (For the designers at Samsung, copying one of Apple’s designs is very avant-garde.) The ArtPC Pulse is nearly 28cm tall and features circular lighting, along with a “Harmon Kardon 360-degree Omni-directional speaker unit”. Apparently, the computer also has removable expansion modules that will let you customise the system. A 1TB HDD module is available separately.
The basic specs aren’t as professional-friendly as the (now three year old) Xeon’s on the Mac Pro, but this is going to be a lot less expensive. For $US1200 ($1577), you can get the ArtPC Pulse with an Intel Core i5 (Skylake), a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, a Radeon RX 460 GPU, along with USB-C and HDMI ports. For $US1600 ($2103), you can get it configured with a Core i7, 1TB SATA hard drive and 16GB of RAM. Australian pricing and availability has not yet been announced.
I’m not really sure why it took Samsung three years to copy Apple’s cylindrical design for a desktop. Then again, Samsung’s not alone. HP built its own PC in a 360-degree speaker back in August.