Asus NUC 14 Pro AI (Lunar Lake) and NUC 14 Essential (Twin lake) mini PCs coming this month

Asus NUC 14 Pro AI is a mini PC with an Intel Lunar Lake processor, a built-in microphone, mono speaker and a fingerprint scanner on the top of the case, as well as a Windows Copilot key on the front panel.

First presented in SeptemberThe Asus NUC 14 Pro AI is expected to go on sale in early January with prices ranging from $850 and up. And if that price seems a little steep to you, Asus also has a significantly cheaper new model: Asus NUC 14 Essential is a compact system with a low-power Intel Twin Lake processor, which was was also discovered late last yearbut it is expected to go on sale later this month.

NUC 14 Pro AI It will be one of the few mini PCs on the market to feature an Intel Lunar Lake processor supporting an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V chip with 140V Arc graphics and a 48 TOPS NPU.

Since Lunar Lake chips have onboard memory, the NUC 14 Pro AI will only be available with 32GB of LPDDR5x-8533 memory. If you need more memory or want the RAM to be user upgradeable, you may be better off using a different system, such as a new one. NUC 15 Pro Series. Asus will also continue to sell NUC 14 and NUC 14 Pro for the foreseeable future.

But this energy-efficient processor also allows the computer to deliver high CPU, graphics and AI performance at low power consumption, with a TDP of just 30W.

Other NUC 14 Pro AI features include a single M.2 2280 slot supporting up to 2TB of NVMe PCIe Gen 4×4 storage, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 support, and a port selection that includes:

• 1 Thunderbolt 4 port (40 Gbps)
• 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10 Gbps)
• 1 x HDMI
• 1 x 2.5 GB LAN

The computer measures 130 x 130 x 34 mm (5.12 x 5.12 x 1.34 inches) and weighs 530 grams (1.17 lbs). A 120W power adapter is included.

NUK EssentialMeanwhile, this A little smaller, low-power system measuring 135 x 115 x 36 mm (5.3 x 4.5 x 1.4 inches) and featuring 6 to 15 W processors based on Intel Twin Lake architecture.

Processor options include:

This little computer has one SODIMM slot for up to 16GB of single-channel DDR5-4800 memory and one M.2 2280 slot for PCIe Gen 3 x4 storage.

Ports include:

• 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10 Gbps with DisplayPort 1.4)
• 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10 Gbps data only)
• 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10 Gbps)
• 1 USB 2.0 Type A (480 Mbps)
• 1 x HDMI 2.1
• 1 DisplayPort 1.4 port
• 1 x 2.5 GbE Ethernet port (RTL8125BG-CG)
• 1 x 3.5mm audio
• 1 DC input (19V/3.42A, 65W)

Asus says there is also a custom port option that will allow customers to select systems with dual 2.5 GbE Ethernet ports in the future, which is new for NUC-branded mini PCs.