Intel’s Compute Stick will soon come with Windows 10 pre-installed

By Dave LeClair August 11, 2015

Intel Compute Stick in hand — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Intel Compute Stick, one of the better received and more popular stick PCs on the market, currently ships with Windows 8.1 installed out of the box. Like all PCs with a legitimate copy of Windows, it’s eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10, but for users afraid of doing the upgrade themselves, it appears that the Intel is set to start shipping the sticks with Windows 10 installed.

Listings for the new stick, which already has a slight change to its model number, now reading BOXSTCK1A32WFCL, are appearing on various online retailers with a price point of around $150, which is the same price as the original. That L at the end of the model number and Windows 10 being installed seem to be only difference between the new model and the old one, but that could of course change once Intel officially announces something.

The hardware, which should be the same when the Windows 10-toting stick hits the market, features 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and an Intel Atom Z3735F Bay Trail quad-core processor. Presumably, Windows 10 should run just as well as, if not better than Windows 8.1 on lower-end devices like this one, and users have already been upgrading on their own with no particular reports of problems.

Other notable specs of the Intel Compute stick include 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, a micro USB port, a USB 2.0 port, HDMI, and a microSD slot for expanding the storage.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any information for when the slightly upgraded version of Intel’s stick PC will hit the market. In the mean time, for those who already have an Intel Compute Stick and are reluctant to get Windows 10, check out some of the best reasons why you should upgrade.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Dave LeClair has been writing about tech and gaming since 2007. He's covered events, hosted podcasts, created videos, and…

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