Google has partnered with Intel today to announce three new Chromebooks and a Chromebox. Each of these devices are running on Intel’s Haswell processors, which are not only powerful but also provide crazy battery life. This announcement was part of Intel’s Developer Forum keynote in San Francisco. Intel’s VP Doug Fisher and Sundar Pichai who’s the head of Chrome, Android and Apps at Google unveiled two new Chromebooks from HP and Acer who were already Chromebook partners. There’s also a new Chromebook from Toshiba and a Chromebox coming from ASUS.
Fisher stated that the battery life should increase about 15% as well as performance jumps of about 50% for Haswell Chrome devices over the Atom-based devices from before. Needless to say, neither company gave any other details about the hardware, release date or pricing. But if Google is going to continue the pricing they’ve been using on Chromebooks in the past, I’d expect these to see at about the price to cost them to make them. So probably around $300-400. Hopefully there’s some other screen sizes, as I think 11-12 inches are still a bit too small for a laptop.
With today’s announcement, now the top six manufacturers offer Chromebooks, well once these go on sale. That includes HP, Acer, ASUS, Samsung, Toshiba and Lenovo. Here’s what Google had to say:
Across the new lineup, the devices offer superb battery life and a variety of new designs–from a light and portable Acer Chromebook, to the large display on the HP Chromebook14, which comes in various colors; from the versatility and portability of the Toshiba Chromebook, to the ASUS Chromebox, suitable anywhere you need a computer.
It’s important to keep in mind that Chromebooks aren’t for everyone. I own the Samsung Chromebook and it’s just sitting and collecting dust. Mostly because Chrome needs more RAM so that particular Chromebook lags a bit. However if you can live with just a web browser, then you may want to give Chrome OS a try. It’s a great OS, just not for everyone.