Dell’s first entry into the burgeoning small form-factor market, the Studio Hybrid, is finally here and on sale. But, it’s made me wonder, what’s the fascination with tiny desktop PCs? Why so small? Why so unupgradeable? Why not just buy a laptop and be done with it? Hang on, what’s the bleeding point of them at all?

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I’ve been surrounded for the past few weeks by a veritable herd of tiny computers for a forthcoming Labs test - nine of them, to be precise - but I wasn’t prepared for what I was going to see when I searched for the World’s Smallest PC. I didn’t really expect anything - idle curiousity rather than genuine expectation drove me to Google - but I was delighted to stumble onto the Space Cube.

Remarkably, it’s an entire PC inside a chassis that’s 2 x 2 x 2in square. The Space Cube runs Linux and packs in a remarkable amount of hardware for such a small PC: a 300MHz processor, 64MB of SDRAM and a 16MB flash hard disk.

The ingenious design stretches to the numerous ports that are included around the case: a VGA output, USB socket - plug in a hub and you’ll be granted plenty of instant connectivity - and 100MB/s RJ45 Ethernet. There’s even a card reader and audio jacks.

The price of $325, though, is pretty elementary. A quick web surf reveals that it’s never been sold outside of Japan, and my email to the Shimafuji Corporation has, so far, fallen on deaf ears - so they’ll be no benchmark results any time soon, unfortunately.

There’s no denying that it’s a great little bit of kit, though - who needs a laptop and a bag when you can have a PC in your pocket?