New Samsung Chromebook costs $249, has ARM inside


by Cyril Kowaliski — 6:00 AM on October 19, 2012

The Samsung Chromebook 550 Chromebook that came out in May is a nice little machine, but at $449.99, it isn't exactly cheap. Google and Samsung have now taken the wraps off a new, cheaper Chromebook that starts at a much more tantalizing $249.99—and it's already listed at Newegg.

The new system, which Google simply calls the Samsung Chromebook, is a little smaller than the Chromebook 550. It has an 11.6" display (with the same 1366x768 resolution), measures just 0.8" in thickness, and weighs in at around 2.5 lbs.

But the internal differences are starker. Instead of a Sandy Bridge CPU, the new Chromebook packs a Samsung Exynos 5 processor with dual ARM Cortex-A15 cores clocked at 1.7GHz. (Hardware acceleration for the Chrome OS user interface is still on the menu.) Samsung also outfits the machine with 2GB of DDR3 memory, a 16GB solid-state drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB 3.0 and 2.0 connectivity, and HDMI out. According to Google, the Samsung Chromebook can boot in "less than 10 seconds," and its battery lasts as long as 6.5 hours. Google supplements the small SSD by offering an extra 100GB of free online storage via Google Drive, as well.

Newegg, Amazon, and Best Buy are supposed to be taking pre-orders for the machine as we speak, with availability scheduled for next week. Google says you'll also be able to buy the Samsung Chromebook from its Google Play store and in person at "over 500" Best Buy stores across the United States.

   
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