Acer has announced what may be the first of its kind product in the mini PC segment, a sort of Project Ara for the PC segment if you will. The Acer Revo Build M1-601 series is a small form factor Windows 10 PC on to which you can add modular blocks to increase storage, add on graphics solutions and so on.
The Acer Revo Build series comprises a mini PC with an Intel Celeron or Pentium chip in the main section. You can then add on additional modules which connect to the main mini PC via magnetic coupling and pogo pins. At the launch, only the external hard drive module was shown off, but Acer says you can add on external graphics solution module, a headphone amplifier module and a wireless power pack module. These blocks will be rolled out gradually.
According to Acer, only five modules can be allowed at a time, including the mini PC. In the future, Acer plans to add on a projector module as well. The Intel Pentium or Celeron processor are the low end processors, so the best you can extract out of this PC is basic web surfing and office tasks. The maximum RAM allowed is 8GB. You also get around 3x USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, a DisplayPort, an SD card reader and a headphone/mic jack on the main PC module.
The Acer Revo series PC is expected to go on sale in October and will be available in Europe, Middle East and Asia for around 199 Euros or approx Rs 14,800 and will start selling in China by December for CNY 1,999 or approx Rs 21,000.
