Chromebooks, Google's thin client browser-only laptop experiment, are getting a refresh today with a new cheaper option. The new Chromebook seems to have similar design features as the previous Samsung Series 5 model -- matte grey plastic and understated lines -- and is a generally nice looking device. The difference here is that this device will sell full-priced at $249, a huge drop from the $449 of the previous versions. Probably the most significant change with this release is the movement to an ARM processor from Intel previously.
The Samsung Chromebook now sports an Exynos 5 dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi and 16GB of storage (and 100GB of free Google Drive storage for 2 years). It has a 1366x768 11.6-inch matte display, and has USB 2.0, USB 3.0, HDMI and an SDcard slot.
The new $249 Chromebook goes on pre-order from online retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy and PC World starting today. Next week it will officially go on sale from the same retailers, as well as directly from Google via the Play Store.
Source: Google Chrome Blog; Engadget
