The Toshiba Chromebook is the first Chrome OS laptop to ship with a 13.3 inch display. That’s a little surprising, since Windows laptops with similar 13 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel screens have been so common in the last few years. But while we’ve seen Chromebooks with screen sizes ranging from 11.6 inches to 14 inches, Toshiba’s model is the first with a 13.3 inch screen.
Sadly, that’s just about the only thing that really helps it stand out from the competition. But it’s still a reasonably solid offering — especially when you consider the $280 price tag.
Toshiba unveiled the Chromebook at CES in early January, and now it’s available for pre-order from Amazon
The Toshiba Chromebook features an Intel Celeron 2955U Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and Toshiba says it should offer up to 9 hours of battery life (but I’d take that with a grain of salt).
While there’s not a lot of built-in storage, the Toshiba Chromebook does have an SD card slot which you can use to transfer files or add additional storage space. It also has 2 USB 3.0 ports and a full-sized HDMI port. There’s no Ethernet jack, but the laptop supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi.
The laptop weighs about 3.3 pounds and measures 0.8 inches thick.
Toshiba expects to release the Chromebook in the US by February 16th, but if it arrives ahead of schedule, Amazon promises to ship units as soon as they’re in stock.
via OMG Chrome
I just placed my pre-order for one on Amazon. Looks great! They should be available Feb 13.
I wonder how long it will be before someone figures out how to install a full version of Linux on this machine. I am sure when it happens Brad will let us know.
Chrubuntu and Crouton aren’t “full versions” of Linux?
Glad to see this one getting out there, adding to the pool of available chromeOS devices, that said, I’d love to see how a desktop GNU/Linux distro runs on it, I have Fedora running on the Acer C720 which has basically the same internals as this and it runs very well, battery life included.
An Android Tablet with HDMI output, Keyboar and Mouse is better than this sh*t.
Have you used it?
Wow, great deal! I’m gonna buy one. My 11.6 inch Samsung Chromebook is too small and the 14 inch HP Chromebook is too heavy. And best of all, NO Windows 8 Metro Tiles!
you really love your chromebooks…
Personally I think Chromebooks right now are like today’s equivalent of electronic typewriters twenty years ago. They provide basic functionality but kind of skip out on the perks. Yes, offline functionality has improved, but it’s still not all there. I would consider a chromebook if they upped the included memory, 16GB is too small for a cell phone, and for a “laptop” it’s even more insufficient. That said, they can still be of great use for people on a budget and who use them somewhere where they normally have internet (or whose needs are met by the limited though growing offline capabilities).
“offline capabilities”
What is it that all you people are doing with your “offline capabilities” of other laptops? I keep hearing this complaint. I really don’t get it. I hardly use my laptop offline. Am I a freak? I’m beginning to think so with this constant “offline it’s a brick” talk.
Well, if you’re an engineer, you might use LabView or Matlab on a laptop because your workbench is too far to move your desktop to. Or if you’re a recording artist, you might want to be recording to your laptop outdoors rather than at a studio directly to your desktop. Otherwise, I don’t think there’s much “offline activity” for the average user.
It may surprise you, not everyone lives ‘online’. For some of us who don’t live in big towns or cities or Google’s R&D labs, perfect internet is just non-existent, it can be quite unreliable at times.
As for what we people do offline, well, that depends on your usage. I do a lot of creation of data/media which is completely independent of the web, moreover, I need to continue working when the internet goes down, instead of sat looking at a blank screen. For example:
Coding – offline.
Writing, spreadsheets, presentations – offline.
Local Databases – offline.
Audio creation – offline.
Graphics – offline.
Video editing – offline.
3D modelling – offline
Rendering/Processing – offline.
I could go on.. Despite this, I am getting a Chromebook as a second computer, because Chrome OS is getting better for offline work. I tend to try and focus mainly on apps which support offline usage, but it’s not perfect yet.
Disagree on some points agree on others. They need to be more offline-capable, it’s getting there. Google have brought out NaCl apps, but there needs to be more developers porting apps or creating new apps for it to cover all the basics. Relying purely on online web apps is just not going to cut it. Then take a look at the Chrome App store, most of the stuff on it is just junk and to-do lists. I only really bother with offline apps to be honest. 16GB is fine now, but more offline apps means that storage will get used as time goes on, we should be seeing 32GB or 64GB as standard or at least as options – I find 16GB on a tablet crippling.
Why would one pay 280 for a chromebook? You can’t do any serious work on it. Seriously. Yeah you got google docs, and iwork suite for free but still.. I wouldn’t get it. For 300 and something bux I bet you can get an i3 ivy bridge laptop or if mobility is your thing and not that much work, get yourself a tablet.
People always use that argument but nobody can actually show a vendor selling a low-end laptop at that price other than refurbished models. Even then, Ivy Bridge won’t give you that kind of battery life.
I have a chromebook (Acer C720) which I paid $199 for new, I get atleast 8 hours battery life average. I can do everything I need to do on my chromebook, for the type of work I do. It’s small, thin and light, has a nice anti-glare screen, and I simply couldn’t be nearly as productive on any tablet in production as I could be on my chromebook. The next best alternative for me would be an Ultrabook or MacBook Air, but I loose productivity on those machines because they are more complex than what I need, and cost $700-1000 more. The simply love chrome OS more than any other OS I have used (including various Linux distros); it does exactly what I need it to do and is not overly complex. It is clean, light and fast. The hardware combined with the OS on my Chromebook has increased my efficiency and productivity on my computer, for the work I do; so for me, it’s perfect, and I could afford it.
Chromebooks are not bad cheap linux machines. Why not?
I’m a developer and while I don’t usual do serious code on my chromebook, I still end up using it all the time. It’s by far one of the best productivity tool I have around. As a paperless guy, I use evernote, gmail, calendar, todo, and the likes to keep my work/life running. A chromebook handles all of that plus it’s cheap and small, has decent battery life, works flawlessly within seconds, and is always ready to go… kinda like a tablet, except that a tablet needs additional keyboard and cover and proper apps, etc… a real pain that just took too much to work for me. The user-experience is why I’d gladly pay $300 for (not the technological prowess)
It depends on what you want to do. Chromebook is perfect for me because I need a light computer which can handle research on Scopus (some tablets can’t) and Google Docs (which does everything I want it to do). Granted there is a program or two and some external devices I can’t use, but honestly I hate working on most things on a laptop because of screen-size, and carrying external devices around with me everywhere ruins the point of portability! I do most things at home and use it as an office computer, for which it works flawlessly.
Disagree with you. I may not be sold on doing everything ‘in the cloud’ but as a second machine a Chromebook is a great option for surfing and stuff. Plus they can make great Linux machines, perfect for serious offline work. This Toshiba is as low as £219 on Amazon UK, now, you tell me where I can buy a laptop for that price with a similar spec and the same sleek ultrabook-like form factor? If you can find me one, I’ll buy it.
Sure. You can get the Asus X451 for 185 quid or so, at least in my neck of the woods. A dual core celeron + 2 gigs of ram and 500gigs of storage. Plus Hdmi usb 3.0 , webcam. Enjoy!