The most common complaint when it comes to Chromebooks is the price. Google addressed this issue by dropping Intel’s expensive CPUs and switching to the ARM architecture in the latest Samsung Chromebook, which only costs $ 250.
The new Chromebook is thinner and lighter (0.8 inches, 2.5 lbs / 1.1 kg), supports dual band Wi-Fi, USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0, but the screen has been downgraded (11.6″ – 1366×768 instead of 12.1″ – 1280×800 matte display), the laptop only has 2GB of RAM, a 0.3MP camera (down from 1MP), a 1.5W speaker (down from 2x2W) and no longer includes a 3G modem or an Ethernet port. It’s also a lot cheaper than the high-end Chromebook 550, which costs $ 450.
The Verge says that the build quality is “decent but not inspiring” and the display “offers little in the way of brightness and color representation. Hues are subdued and text can be difficult to read with conflicting light sources.”
Samsung’s Chromebook is the first device that uses the dual-core Exynos 5250 chip (Cortex A15 with 1.7 GHz clock speed), which will power Samsung’s future tablets. The chip has a lot of impressive features, including support for 2560×1600 displays, 1080p 60 FPS video, USB 3.0, 5.1 channel audio, HDMI 1.4, 3D graphics.
Whether you buy the ARM laptop or the Intel-powered laptop, you also get 100GB of free Google Drive storage for 2 years, but this offer is only for the new customers.
“The new Samsung Chromebook is available for pre-order online from Amazon, Best Buy, PC World and other retailers. Next week it will be available for sale from these same online retailers as well as the Google Play store. You can also buy them at over 500 Best Buy stores across the U.S and over 30 PC World and Currys stores in the U.K,” informs Google.
