Google’s new $250 thin and light laptop is coming to market.
The new Google Chromebook. which is a follow-up product to the $450 mid-range Chromebook launched earlier this year, officially goes on sale Monday and is already available for pre-order at Amazon and at Best Buy which apparently will also feature Chromebook kiosks at its brick-and-mortar stores.
Samsung makes both quasi-tablet devices. Selling for $250, the new Chromebook, however, is only 2.5 pounds and less than an inch thick and, like a smartphone or tablet, doesn’t come equipped with a fan or any other moving parts.
CBS News provides an overview of the Chromebook:
“The laptop will run on an operating system revolving around Google’s Chrome Web browser.
“Like other so-called Chromebooks, this laptop doesn’t have a hard drive. It functions like a terminal dependent on an Internet connection to get to information and applications stored in large data centers run by Google Inc. or other technology providers.”
According to CNN , the new Chromebook laptop “uses a Samsung Exynos dual-core ARM processor along with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage … [and] has a full-sized keyboard and trackpad and an 11.6-inch matte display with a 1366 x 768 resolution.” It offers two USB ports and one HDMI port.
CNN adds that “Google is also giving Chromebook buyers 100GB of free Google Drive storage for two years, so they can store files in the cloud, rather than locally on the device.”
Google executive Sundar Pichai maintains that the Chromebook is meant to be another technology option for consumers in the house rather than supplanting any devices already there: “We assume that you have a Windows machine in your home, or maybe a Mac. This isn’t built to replace those machines but instead be an additional computer.”
Would you be interested in buying a Chromebook to supplement the other digital tools you already own?