Lenovo and Acer aren’t the only companies unveiling new Chromebooks aimed at the education market this week. Dell is also introducing new models ahead of the BETT 2018 show.
The new Dell Chromebook 5000 series machines will be available in 11.6 inch convertible or clamshell laptop form factors. Prices are expected to start at $289 when the Dell Chromebook 5190 goes on sale in February.
Dell isn’t providing detailed specs, but the company says the laptop has a USB Type-C port and it will come with a choice of Intel Celeron dual-core or quad-core processors. Optional features include a “world facing” camera and an EMR pen.
The laptops are also said to support up to 13 hours of battery life and feature a rugged design that allows the laptop to survive a drop from 48 inches onto a variety of surfaces or a 30 inch drop onto steel or other hard surfaces.
Dell says the Chromebook 5190 can also “withstand 10,000 micro-drops” of up to 4 inches at multiple angles.
For $300, I’d rather have a 13.3 inch screen and 32gb of storage. There are plenty of sub $200 11.6 inch 16gb Chromebooks out there from other manufacturers. My 2012 Samsung 11.6 inch Chromebook still works just fine. I don’t see any compelling reason to upgrade to this Dell model. And why would I need a touchscreen Chromebook? Android apps don’t run natively out of the box on Chrome OS anyway. Some Android apps might work if you put it in Developers or Beta mode. Google says Android Apps will be avaliable for Chrome OS “soon”. They’ve been saying that for over a year now…
They aren’t aimed at you. They are aimed at kids.