Intel will be ditching the NUC market, a segment that was exclusive to its own designs till a few years ago. The NUCs (Next Unit of Compute) have been popular as portable palm-sized PCs merely requiring a display for the output. These are the only PCs that Intel manufactures, markets, and sells all by itself, without involving OEMs. For the most part, these mini-PCs were powered by lower-end Atom chips, although newer designs use the Core i-series family as well.
Although the NUC form factor started out as an Intel exclusive, several OEMs now offer Ryzen-based designs for as low as $200. And unlike their Blue counterparts, they often feature superior hardware. For example, this AMD Mini-PC from KAMRUI features a Ryzen 5 5500U and can be had for just $237.
In comparison, an Intel Panther Canyon NUC featuring an 11th Gen Core i5-1135G7 goes for $443 despite being slightly slower. To cut potential losses and trim any excess workforce, Intel has decided to let its partners completely take over the NUC segment.
The NUC or Mini-PC segment already has plenty of vendors, including Beelink, Acemagician, and Kamrui, as well as well-known players such as ASUS and ASRock.
