An apparent successor to the Asus PN50 mini PC turns up on a Scandinavian website pre-launch with the Ryzen 7 5700U

The Asus PN50's appeal may lie not only in its tiny form-factor, complete with brushed-metal-look surface and fans on the same grain, but in its easy upgradeability. It takes just 2 steps to get at its 2.5-inch hard-drive and M.2 bays, which enables the user to expand this storage to up to 1TB plus 512GB respectively. It could also take up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM; furthermore, its (not as removeable) up-to-Ryzen 7 4700U platform made it a compelling Intel NUC 10 Performance rival.

Now, there are hints Asus has prepared a successor for this mini PC. According to live listings on the ProShop website (which has Danish, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian versions), it is called the PN51, and has an equally overtly direct processor: the 7 5700U. It is the same bare-bones variant (B7082ZD) in all of its new listings, which means all it has is this APU and 8GB of RAM.

ProShop does not mention whether this last spec can be upgraded as in the PN50 or not. On that note, the only images on these pages appear to be the same as those for this existing mini PC, which implies that this new 2021 version sticks with microSD card, combo audio jack and USB type C 3.2 Gen2 support in the front, with another of the latter as well as dual USB 3.2 Gen1s, one HDMI 2.0 port and a configurable port.

This part of the PN-series I/O is an interchangeable input with adapters for ports that include full-sized DisplayPorts, a second LAN port or even a VGA port. Besides this, the PN51 still offers Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. It can apparently be ordered for around €800 (~US$963, depending on the page), although a delivery date is not given at present.

Can't wait? Buy a Ryzen 5 4500U-powered PN50 on Amazon