What you need to know
- Lenovo dropped a YouTube video detailing three upcoming Chromebooks.
- The popular C330 is being expanded to two screen sizes: 11.6-inch and 15-inch.
- Lenovo is bringing extra ports and colors to this year's models.
I've seen a lot of new Chromebooks this summer, but this flashy product video detailing Lenovo's new lineup has me hungrier than ever. It shows off three new models: the Lenovo Chromebook C340-11 and C340-15 — the successors to our current favorite Chromebook, the 2-in1 C330, — and the Lenovo S340-14, a successor to the fold-flat clamshell S330.
Both C340-11 and S340-14 use the Celeron N4000 that we've been seeing in many new Chromebooks this year, while the C340-15 gives you the choice between a Pentium Gold or an eighth-gen Core i3, giving significant performance boosts over the MediaTek processors in last year's C330 and S330. All three models have options for 32 and 64GB storage, and the C340-15 is listed as having 128GB versions on Lenovo's Product Specifications site, but not in the U.S. The S340-14 looks like it might be skipping the U.S. market, too, with listings for Europe, Australia, and the Phillipines.
The only other big surprise here is that no 8GB models are shown for any of these Chromebooks, which isn't surprising seeing as the only Lenovo Chromebook with 8GB offerings right now is the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630. For the 11 and 14-inch models, 4GB is just fine, but it'd be nice to see an i3/8GB/128GB model of the C340-15 down the line. 4GB is workable, but more is always better.
The other big surprise here is that Lenovo is breaking out the colors this time and giving us some Sand Pink and Orchid Purple options for the C340-11 and S340-14, respectively. I'll admit that, while I love the Blizzard White of the C330, color helps the Chromebook stand out a little more. I would have gone crazy over a nice blue, but Sand Pink is a softer color that will appeal to more people.
Another upgrade for the 11 and 14-inch models is that they have two USB-A and USB-C ports, one on each side, and the full-size SD card reader has been swapped for a microSD card reader. I'm confused as to why the C340-15 only has one USB-A port, but so long as there are two USB-C ports, I think that's just fine. I'd rather have the C340-15's backlit, number pad-sporting keyboard over extra ports anyway.
Lenovo has dropped the style and the specs for these three new models, but it hasn't dropped prices or release dates yet. Personally, I'd hope to see these by November so that they can get in on the holiday shopping season. IFA is a month away now, maybe Lenovo will drop the details then.
For now, I'm just going to replay this video a few more times and drool over that C340-11.
Lenovo's diamond in the rough Chromebook is just right.
If you just can't wait for the new one, this zippy little Chromebook can last over 10 hours, is light enough to carry all day, and has plenty of storage for your downloads and offline work.
