The first two Chromebooks from Asus come with Intel Bay Trail processors, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. The only real difference is that the Asus C200 Chromebook has an 11.6 inch display while the Asus C300 Chromebook has a larger 13.3 inch screen (and a slightly bigger, heavier case).
So Asus has decided to keep something else the same for both models: the price. Asus says both the 11.6 inch and 13.3 inch Chromebooks will sell for $249 and up.
There’d been some indications that both laptops would have the same price for a while. Asus had already confirmed the $249 starting price for the Asus C200, and ExcaliberPC has had a product page for the Asus C300 that shows a $249 price tag for months.
But TechBargains got the run-down straight from an Asus representative, confirming that both laptops will start at $249.
Both laptops feature 1366 x 768 pixel displays, Intel Celeron N2830 dual-core processors, 720p webcams, WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI, a USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, an SD card slot, and around 10 hours of battery life.
Asus says the Chrome OS laptops will ship with 802.11b/g/n WiFi support and that 802.11ac support will be added later through a software update.
Aside from screen size, the only substantial difference between the laptops is that the Asus C200 Chromebook measures 12″ x 7.9″ x 0.8″ and weighs 2.5 pounds while the larger model is 13″ x 9.1″ x 0.9″ and weighs 3.1 pounds.
via GigaOm
A passive C300 is cool. However, I don’t like this neutered GPU at all. The Dell Chromebook 11 successfully defends its championship belt (for now).
How does this Bay Trail compare to the Haswell 2955u in other Chromebooks? People usually praise the speed of the Haswell.
It is much slower. I looked at benchmarks for windows based notebooks (vs the NUC Baytrail) and the 2955u is about 20% faster in everything (graphics was even higher). With $200 2955u chromebooks available, I don’t see how they could sell well.
I think those are great prices for those laptops. If all one does is go online, then the Chromebook would be idea. It is nice not having to pay more for stuff one does not use.
I wonder how many will try to put a different operating system on these. It would be interesting to see if they are succesful and see how they did it.
Installing a Linux chroot is idea. Retain the features of ChromeOS (like Netflix DRM) and simply extended it with Debian or Ubuntu. A Ubuntu/Unity installation with LibreOffice, VLC, HexChat, XBMC, and MythTV runs me about 1.5-2GB. All a CTRL-ALT-T, shell, sudo startunity away.