Intel's NUC 8 Mainstream-G mini PCs announced with Radeon GPUs and Whiskey Lake CPUs

A leaked roadmap with Intel’s upcoming NUC mini PC models for 2019 and 2020 was mentioning the scheduled launch of “Islay Canyon” models powered by 15 W Whiskey Lake CPUs for the first quarter of 2019, but it looks like Intel had to postpone the launch amid CPU shortage problems. The “Islay Canyon” models are now officially named the NUC 8 Mainstream-G and will begin shipping in the upcoming weeks.

These new NUCs are intended for casual gaming and smart home entertainment, as they also come with discrete GPUs from AMD. Due to their reduced size of only 4.6 x 4.4 x 2 inches, the NUC 8 mainstream-G mini PCs come with soldered components like 8 GB LPDDR3-1866 RAM and the AMD Radeon RX 540X GPUs with 2 GB GDDR5 VRAM that has similar performance to Nvidia’s GeForce MX150 laptop GPUs.

Intel will ship models with storage and kits that come without storage, letting users customize this aspect. Here is a list with all the models:

Intel Core i7-8565U
•    NUC8i7INHJA: 16 GB Intel Optane Memory + 1 TB HDD
•    NUC8i7INHPA: 256 GB SSD
•    NUC8i7INHX: no storage included, no OS (M.2 SSD slot + 2.5-inch SSD/HDD bay)
•    NUC8i7INHZ6 (China specific): 128 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD (no OS)
•    NUC8i7INHP6 (China specific): 256 GB SSD (no OS)

Intel Core i5-8265U
•    NUC8i5INHJA: 16 GB Intel Optane Memory + 1 TB HDD
•    NUC8i5INHPA: 256 GB SSD
•    NUC8i5INHX: no storage included, no OS (M.2 SSD slot + 2.5-inch SSD/HDD bay)
•    NUC8i5INHP6 (China Specific): 256 GB (no OS)

Other features that come standard with all models include:
•    HDMI 2.0b and Mini DisplayPort 1.2 video outs
•    3x USB-A 3.1 Gen 2, 1x USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports
•    Dual Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.0 + Intel GbE
•    SDXC card slot
•    Headphone / mic audio jack

No info on pricing for the time being.