Earlier this week Google held a scavenger hunt for Chromebook pre-orders, but today the company has announced that pre-orders are open to everyone in the US through Amazon and Best Buy. A Chromebook is basically a laptop designed to run the Google Chrome operating system. It’s a light weight OS designed to run one app and run it well: a web browser.
There are two companies offering Chromebook at the moment, Acer, and Samsung. Both are offering WiFi-only and 3G capable models, with Verizon kicking in to provide users with 100MB of free 3G access for the first 2 years. You can also sign up for a pricier plan if you need additional data.
The Acer Cromia is the cheapest model available. The WiFi-only model runs $379.99, while a 3G Cromia Chromebook runs $449.99.
The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook starts at $429.99 for a WiFi model. A 3G version will set you back $499.99.
Samsung is offering black and white models of each Chromebook while the Acer model is available in black only. Samsung’s laptops have 12.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display and weigh 3.26 pounds. The Acer models have 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel displays and weigh 3.19 pounds. Both companies are offering 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N570 dual core processors, 16GB solid state drives, 2GB of DDR3 memory, and oversized clickpads below the keyboard.
The Acer Cromia and Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks are expected to begin shipping the laptops on June 15th.
So much for a $349 entry-level price.
Yeah, tell me about it