The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook could be the first Chrome OS laptop to ship with a 10th-gen Intel Core “Comet Lake” processor if it goes on sale April 6th, as expected. But with a $1000 price tag, it’s not exactly cheap by Chromebook standards.
It also may not be alone for long — Asus unveiled its new Chromebook Flip C436 with an Intel Comet Lake processor in January. Now it looks like it could ship later this month for $800 and up.
Over the past few months we’ve seen several pre-order pages pop up for the 14 inch convertible notebook from Asus pop up… and then disappear.
First, Amazon was showing a $1000 pre-order page for a model with an Intel Core i5-10210U processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of NVMe SSD storage. That page has been removed.
This week the Asus Store showed an $800 price tag for a model with more modest specs, including a Core i3-10110U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. That page has also been removed (although the Google cached version is still available for now).
While most Chromebooks tend to sell for much lower prices, the Asus Chromebook Flip C436 has the specs and design of a premium laptop… regardless of the operating system.
The notebook features a 1920 x 1080 pixel touchscreen display with a 360-degree hinge, a magnesium alloy chassis, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C ports, a microSD card reader, audio jack, and quad speakers with Harman Kardon audio.
The Asus Chromebook Flip C436A also has a backlit keyboard, a fingerprint sensor, WiFi 6, and Bluetooth 5.0 support. The Chromebook also has pen support and should support any pressure-sensitive pen that supports the Universal Style Initiative (USI) spec version 1.0.
It measures about 12.6″ x 8.1″ x 0.5″ and weighs less than 2.6 pound and the system is powered by a 42Wh battery and comes with a 45 watt USB-C power adapter.
via Chrome Unboxed
What even is the appeal of premium Chromebooks?
For those high prices, I’d rather buy a MacBook Air.