This new French mini PC sports a simple and colorful design, up to 16-core Intel CPU

Over the course of the past few years, we have witnessed a whole bunch of exciting mini PCs with unique designs and powerful hardware. The segment has expanded at a noteworthy pace, and it does seem that every other day we come across a new mini PC launch with some unique trait or the other.

Kubb Essential: Intel Arrow Lake-H powered mini PC with minimal design

The Kubb Essential mini PC first saw the light day this past month, brought to the market by Bleujour, a lesser-known French technology company. With a box-shaped design, the Kubb Essential comes in a variety of shades, including white, black, blue, magenta.

At its core, the mini PC will be powered by Intel's Core Ultra 200H CPUs. Customers can choose between the 14-core Core Ultra 5 255H and the 16-core Core Ultra 7 255H, with the former being roughly 15% or so slower than the latter in multithread benchmarks. For the vats majority of day-to-day workloads, either of the CPUs should easily be able to suffice.

RAM and storage requirements will be handled by up to 96 GB of DDR5 RAM and 512 GB of NVMe storage. Additional storage via a 2.5-inch drive bay will also be offered. As of right now, it is unclear whether the solid-stage storage is upgradeable or not. The I/O on offer is pretty decent, and packs the following ports:

• Dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C
• Dual HDMI
• 1G Ethernet
• WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.3/5.4

Needless to say, the compact mini PC sports no room for discrete graphics, with its enclosure measuring in at just 12 x 12 x 12 cm or 4.7 x 4.7 x 4.7 inches. The Arc 130T/140T iGPUs should be able to handle basic tasks and occasional lightweight gaming at very modest settings without any hiccups. 

Pricing and availability

The mini PC's pricing and availability details are unclear as of this writing. Moreover, a global launch is also not in sight for now. The brand does like to bring its products to lucrative international markets, such as the US. For now, folks who need a new mid-range mini PC can checkout something like the GMKtec K16, currently available for $640 on Amazon.