Samsung and Acer will be the first companies to offer Chromebooks, which are notebooks running Google’s Chrome operating system.
The Samsung Chromebook will have a 12.1 inch display, 8 hour battery, and 8 second boot time. A WiFi-only version of the laptop will run $429, while you’ll be able to get a 3G model for $499. It has a 1280 x 800 pixel display, a dual core 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N570 processor, and weighs 3.3 pounds. The laptop has 2 USB ports, an HD webcam, and a mini-vga port, plus an oversized clickable touchpad.
Acer’s Chromebook will have an 11.6 inch display, 6.5 hour battery and 8 second boot time. It will be priced at $349 and up. This model also has a dual core Intel Atom processor, 2 USB ports, an HD webcam, clickable touchpad, and optional 3G. There’s no mention of the screen resolution, but the Acer Chromebook will have HDMI output, which the Samsung model doesn’t appear to have. The Acer Chromebook will weigh 2.95 pounds.
Google also says that both laptops will be easy to “jailbreak,” so users can tinker with the operating system, install unsupported code, or you know, scrap Chrome OS and install your own operating system if that’s what you really want to do.
The Chromebooks will go on sale June 15th. In the US you’ll be able to find them at Amazon.com and Best Buy. Google promises the laptops will be available in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy the same day.
 I like the concept but really other then the Chrome OS what is the benefit to buying this vs a Netbook?  I have a friend that works a Google and I recently used his CR-48.  It’s a neat device but I didn’t find my self wanting one after the experience. Time will tell but the launch to me look a kin to the lack luster effort made with the Google TV platform.Â