Acer and Samsung to be the first to offer Chromebooks
Google announced that the two Chromebooks, respectively manufactured by Taiwan-based company Acer and the Korean conglomerate Samsung, will hit the US market on June 15 of 2011. The mini-notebooks will also be available in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy that very same day. Furthermore, customers will reportedly be able to purchase the systems on Amazon.
Samsung Chromebook
The Samsung Chromebook will supposedly be equipped with a 12.1-inch display of 1280-by-800 native resolution. The ultra-portable notebook is expected to be powered by a Pineview dual core Intel Atom N570 central processing unit that has a clock frequency of 1.66GHz, 8.5 Watt max TDP and an integrated graphics controller in form of an Intel GMA 3150. This processor is ranked 371 in our CPU Benchmark list. You can obtain more information on the Samsung Chromebook here.
Acer Chromebook
Acer is the other vendor that should delight anxiously anticipating Google fans with a Chrome-based mini-laptop. This new item is reportedly a bit smaller and will come with an 11.6-inch display (there is no info on the maximum supported resolution) complemented by a starting weight of approximately 2.95 lbs (1.33kg). In addition, Acer’s Chromebook will house a dual core Intel Atom chip. Further features of this upcoming netbook include two USB ports, an HDMI interface, clickable touchpad, WI-Fi connectivity and optional 3G. An integrated high-definition web camera is also provided for video conferencing. Price will presumably start at US $349 (£212/€243).
Google Chrome
Reportedly, Google has also said that the two notebooks will be easy to meddle with, allowing consumers to add unsupported features and trifle with the OS. This would also suggest that users can actually replace the pre-installed operating system with a different one.