Asus is launching one of the first Chrome OS laptops powered by an Intel Bay Trail processor. The Asus C200 Chromebook has an 11.6 inch screen, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and an Intel Celeron N2830 dual-core Bay Trail-M processor.
A 13 inch model called the Asus C300 is also on the way.
While Bay Trail CPU isn’t as fast as the Haswell chips found in some other recent Chromebooks, the processor has a TDP of just 7.5W and should use even less power during most tasks, which means it should offer competitive battery life: according to the spec sheet, you should be able to get up to 10 hours of run time from the 48Whr battery in this 2.5 pound laptop.
At the same time, the Intel CPU should offering a bit more performance than you’d get from a Samsung Series 3 Chromebook or HP Chromebook 11, both of which feature Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core, ARM-based processors.
Another feature that helps set the Asus C200 Chromebook apart from other recent Chrome laptops is support for 802.11ac WiFi. Asus is also proud of the size of the touchpad, which the company says is the same size you’d normally find on a laptop with a 14 inch screen.
Other features include a 1366 x 768 pixel display, Bluetooth 4.0, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, HDMI jack, audio jack, and SDXC card slot. The laptop has a 48Whr battery and Asus says the C200 Chromebook should get up to 10 hours of run time.
Promevo has run some tests on the Asus C200, and finds that it boots in less than 9 seconds, scores reasonably well in benchmarks, coming out ahead of models with dual-core Exynos 5 chips but behind Celeron 2955U Haswell-powered Chromebooks.
The Asus Chromebook C200 should launch soon for about $249.
The 13.3 inch Asus C300 Chromebook has similar specs, but a larger display and a slightly thicker and heavier design. While the Asus C200 Chromebook measures 12″ x 7.9″ x 0.8″ and weighs 2.5 pounds, the C300 model measures 13″ x 9.1″ x 0.9″ and weighs 3.1 pounds.
“While Bay Trail CPU isn’t as fast as the Haswell chips found in some other recent Chromebooks…” <– This was my previous holdout on getting a Chromebook, but now with the mention of i3 that might be the way to go.
Wow it’s a chromebook-happy day today! More than a third of the articles are about chromebooks. Is there a major tech tradeshow going on somewhere?
Intel and Google held a Chrome OS event this afternoon where they announced just about everything that showed up on Liliputing today. Lenovo and LG also put out their own press releases, but Asus, Acer, and Dell have been a bit more shy about details.
I think this is great for those who check their e-mail online and only use their computer for surfing the internet. I think the price is very affordable. I wonder how many will try a different operating system on it, like ReactOS https://www.reactos.org (free open source version of Windows).
Reactos is still in Alpha and has been for many years. Better to run a light version of linux with LXDE.
Agreed, ReactOS has been in Alpha for over a decade… Pretty sure it may never go into Beta…
I thought the same until I actually tried one. These things are more useful that it may seem. For one thing their simplicity, robustness, and generally decent keyboards and usable screens means that they’re particularly suited for a seemingly obvious activity: writing. Writing is near impossible on an iPad (unless you have a clumsy BT keboard) and still a drag on a Surface. This is why they’re so popular in schools: kids can use them to author their homework.