Samsung’s new cylindrical PC has its finger on Apple’s pulse

Update: Samsung has officially announced the ArtPC Pulse is now available for pre-order in the US.

Original article follows below:

Following a little vague teasing of a new PC late last week, with the tagline “a powerful desktop doesn’t have to be big”, the full details have been spilled on Samsung’s Art PC Pulse which looks distinctly like a Mac Pro (the ‘trashcan’ Mac, as some call it, due to its resemblance to a wastepaper bin).

The compact cylindrical computer has dimensions of 5.5 x 5.5 x 10.7-inches, and according to its Amazon product listing MS Power User picked up before Samsung’s official reveal, and there’s quite a bit of hardware packed inside.

The leaked listing includes two different models of the Pulse, with the lesser spec plumping for an Intel Core i5 Skylake CPU running at 2.7GHz backed up with 8GB of system RAM, and a 256GB NVMe SSD for storage. Graphics are provided courtesy of an AMD Radeon RX 460 with 2GB of video memory.

The beefier model (which is slightly taller at 12.18-inches, but is the same sized diameter) goes with a Core i7 CPU clocked at 3.4GHz and doubles up the system memory to 16GB. It also has the RX 460 for graphics and a 256GB SSD plus an additional 1TB hard drive – and this comes in the form of an expansion module (which is doubtless what makes it taller).

 Modular matters

The Amazon blurb notes that it’s possible to customize the system by attaching new expansion modules (or swapping existing modules out). So this is a modular PC to some extent – as Microsoft’s rumored incoming Surface all-in-one could possibly be, as well.

The ArtPC Pulse comes with a ‘premium’ aluminum chassis, ambient lighting (the blue glow in the middle), and a Harmon Kardon 360-degrees ‘omni-directional’ speaker designed to push sound in every direction across your living room. Because this is certainly a PC designed to look at home, and not just in the study or office.

Pricing for the ArtPC Pulse on Amazon is set at $1,119 (around £970, AU$1,580) and $1,599 (around £1,290, AU$2,100) for the Core i5 and i7 models respectively, with pre-orders now live over in the US.

Samsung’s cylindrical PC isn’t the first to ape the Mac Pro, as we saw a similar device from HP last month. HP’s Pavilion Wave is a very similar size to the Pulse, albeit just a tad larger and shaped like a sort of ‘triangular cylinder,’ plus it’s also aimed at looking good in your living room.

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