Intel's new Atom and Core M compute sticks get faster wireless, USB 3.0, and pricier
pricey Skylake Core M or less expensive Atom Jon Martindale / Digital Trends : Gigabyte debuts Skylake equipped Brix mini-PC at CES 2016 Brad Linder / Liliputing : Intel's new Compute Stick is a Core M Skylake-powered PC Stick Chris Mills / Gizmodo : It Looks Like Intel Made a PC-on-a-Stick That Doesn't Suck Jon Martindale / Digital Trends : Intel turbocharges the Compute Stick with Core M, revises Atom model PC Magazine : Intel Debuts New, Revamped Compute Stick Jeremy Horwitz / 9to5Mac : Intel's 2nd-gen Compute Stick is a faster, better iTunes media server Devindra Hardawar / Engadget : Intel's latest Compute Stick squeezes in Core M3, M5 chips Raymond Wong / Mashable : Intel's new Core M-powered Compute Sticks are more powerful, but also pricier PCMag India feed : Intel Debuts New, Revamped Compute Stick CNET : Intel Compute Stick gets bigger, but better Agam Shah / Computerworld : Intel delivers faster, more expensive thumb-size PCs
Context & Ripple Effects
Intel launched the Compute Stick a year earlier as a $149 Windows / $89 Linux HDMI dongle plugging into any display, but its own review found the trade-off harsh: barely acceptable performance, few ports, and a wireless adapter weak enough to be called the machine's defining flaw in the first-generation verdict. The CES 2016 refresh answers that directly — new Atom and Skylake Core M models add faster wireless and USB 3.0, while pushing prices upward.
First-order effects
- Buyers of the new stick finally get usable wireless and USB 3.0 instead of the first model's weakest points — but pay more than the original $149 entry price for the privilege.
- The Core M variant moves the Compute Stick upmarket, closing some of the performance gap with Intel's pricier NUC line like the $500 Core i7 model.
Second-order effects
- Gigabyte's Skylake-equipped Brix mini-PC debut at the same show means Intel now competes against partners using the very silicon it supplies — the tiny-PC shelf gets crowded at every tier.
- A follow-up review pegged the refreshed Atom stick at $159 and confirmed the wireless fix, validating the upgrade while keeping the device firmly a niche purchase rather than a mainstream PC replacement as the second-generation verdict put it.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the stick stops being a one-shot budget gadget and becomes a reusable format — by mid-2017 Intel-owned Movidius was shipping a $79 USB Compute Stick built around a Myriad 2 vision processor turning the dongle into an AI accelerator rather than a general-purpose PC.
- Tiny computers segment into distinct jobs — cheap Linux clients, Core M media servers, specialized coprocessors — instead of competing head-on with laptops, with pricing set by workload rather than size.
The trend: HDMI-stick computing is evolving from a single low-price experiment into a tiered format that Intel keeps repurposing — from budget PC to media server to AI accelerator.