The XDO Pantera Pico PC is a tiny computer that measures about 2.63″ x 2.63″ x 1.75″, making it small enough to hold in the palm of your hand or maybe even slide into a pocket. It’s up for pre-order through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign with prices starting at US$ 149 during crowdfunding (or US$ 219 and up when the device hits retail channels). The Pantera Pico PC looks a lot like the GMK NucBox or Chuwi LarkBox mini PCs I reviewed last year, and it has similar hardware under the hood. But the Pantera Pico PC is a tiny bit larger and uses that extra space for a couple of extra ports, and an LED light strip around the top, among other things.
XDO’s little computer is powered by an Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core Gemini Lake processor, which isn’t exactly a speed demon, but which should be good enough for 4K video playback and light productivity (or very light gaming) tasks. Entry-level configurations come with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of storage, but XDO is also offering configurations with up to 8GB of memory and up to 1TB of storage. If I’m reading the spec sheets correctly, the entry-level configurations may have eMMC storage while higher-priced models have solid state drives, but since each version has an M.2 2242 slot, users can also add their own SSDs.
The Pantera Pico PC has two USB 3.0 Type-A ports and a microSD card reader on the front, plus another USB 3.0 Type-A port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, and HDMI and 3.5mm audio ports on the back, where there’s also a USB Type-C port (for power input only). The computer has a 9500 RPM fan to help keep the system cool, support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0. XDO offers seven different color options for the case (black, grey, blue, red, pink, gold, or purple) and customers can choose to have Windows 10 Home, Pro, or Ubuntu pre-installed.
Optional accessories also include a pocket-sized PicoProjector, a case, a foldable keyboard, and a 12V power bank. Theoretically the full kit could let you use the Pantera Pico PC as a portable computer, but if a projector isn’t your ideal portable display, you could always pick up a portable monitor and/or a laptop docking station. XDO first introduced the Pantera almost a year ago, when the company planned to launch the little PC through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. But it looks like the company switched crowdfunding platforms and now expects to ship the little computer to Kickstarter backers starting in November, 2021.
