Google Announces $149 Chromebooks and the Chromebit Chrome OS Stick
by Brandon Chester on March 31, 2015 9:04 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Chrome OS
- Chromebook
Today Google announced a number of new Chrome OS products that will be available in the future from their OEM partners. The main focus of all these devices appears to be pushing the price of Chrome OS devices even lower so that they become accessible to more people.
The first two devices announced are the Haier Chromebook 11 and the Hisense Chromebook. Both of these laptops have 11.6" 1366x768 displays, 16GB of eMMC storage, 2GB of DDR3L memory, and surprisingly, 2x2 802.11ac WiFi. The main aspect that they differ on is their processors, and subsequently, their battery life. The Haier Chromebook 11 uses a Rockchip RK3288 SoC which has four Cortex A17 cores with a max frequency of 1.8GHz, and a 600MHz ARM Mali-T764 GPU. It advertises a battery life of up to 10 hours. The Hisense Chromebook also uses the Rockchip RK3288, but despite using the same name as the chip in the Haier Chromebook, it has a max CPU frequency of 2.5GHz. Hisense advertises a battery life of up to 8.5 hours. Both of these devices are sure to be popular with educational institutions and anyone looking for a very inexpensive machine to browse the web on.
Possibly the more interesting announcement of the day is the Chromebit. There's very little information about specifications, but the Chromebit is essentially a Chrome OS computer on a stick which can be connected to a display and other peripherals to be used as a computer. The Chromebit will be launching in the summer of this year for less than $100, and we'll likely see more concrete pricing and information about specifications as we approach closer to its release date.
Source: Google Chrome Blog
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RaistlinZ - Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - link
Pretty soon these Chromebooks will be stuffed into the bottom of cereal boxes.nerd1 - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
$150 is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive, considering HP is making $199 bay trail laptop with windows license.dylan522p - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
Microsoft talked about the $150 quadcore with windows and 2gb ram or 200 for 4 and slightly higher clocks. Chromebook better get cheaper.mr_tawan - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
I wonder, how much each CPU would cost in these low-end laptop? $5-10 perhaps ?SleepyFE - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
Is it? Do you think the HP can run for 8 hours? The Intel CPU cost money, so they save elsewhere. Since and ARM CPU costs close to 0$ the reason the price is that high is because other components are better, like the screen, battery, wifi antenna and so on. 150$ is low enough, i just miss more local storage, but you can always carry a large USB key in your pocket.074geodude - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
The HP can't, but the Asus X205TA (another $200 Windows 8 laptop) can run for 12 hours.http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/asus-eeeb...
SleepyFE - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
Not bad. Thanks for the link.shadarlo - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
Agreed. I have a fully functioning and surprisingly fast tablet (Winbook 801) with 2GB RAM, 64 GB Storage, 8" tablet form factor but with both micro hdmi, USB3, and headphone out and a separate charging port all for $99.I can hook this up to a KB/Mouse and any monitor in the world and have a Windows 8.1, soon to be windows 10, computer or I can use it in tablet mode without anything else. I could have a monitor at my house and at work along with a KB/Mouse combo sitting at each spot. When I get in I'd just plug both in and I'd not even be $400 out of pocket for 2 complete computer setups basically as well as all of my stuff on a tablet when I'm on the go.
At this point the standard is raised. If you don't offer hdmi out, USB3 (usb3.1 c would be better) and a headphone jack on a cheap device you just aren't worth the time anymore because other cheap devices do have those things.
cygnus1 - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
Can't seem to find that product actually existing. They have a 32GB version of what you describe for more money though. Did you get something that was a limited run and on sale?SleepyFE - Wednesday, April 1, 2015 - link
I still don't agree. Your tablet right now costs 150$ on amazon, it doesn't come with a keyboard and has a smaller screen. Also since the device is smaller it most likely has a smaller battery. Also since it runs Windows, does your AV slow the tablet down much? I am not mocking you, i would really like to know, as tablets don't run particularly fast as is.