Chromebooks and the whole Chrome operating system, Chrome OS, continues to see growth year-on-year. As these devices offer a great way to get the performance you want, without having to outlay the kind of costs associated with more traditional laptops, it is understandable as to how the platform and industry is becoming so successful. That said, in spite of the platform expanding, it has not stopped manufacturers looking for the next big thing to introduce for Chrome OS users. A prime example of this came back in April when Acer unveiled the Acer Chromebase. This was an all-in-one type Chrome OS device which looked to be available in both a touch screen and non-touch screen varaint.
Well, following on from that early April announcement and unveiling, Acer have today made official the Chromebase and announced its release details for the U.S. market. In terms of today’s announcement, Acer have confirmed that two variants of the Chromebase will now be available to customers in the U.S. The first version, the standard version is priced at $329.99 while the other version, a touch screen option will come in priced at a higher $429.99. This price structure is exactly in line with details that were reported earlier this month which suggested that the Chromebase would become available this month and priced around the $330 marker. For the non-touch version at least. Although, Acer lists in the press release (source link below) that the Chromebases are now available, they are only in pre-order phasing right now. The standard version will begin shipping this month while the touch-screen version will commence shipping sometime next month.
In terms of what you can expect from the all-in-one Acer Chromebase, the unit is a full PC solution running on Chrome OS. The Chromebase comes with its own 21.5-inch IPS touchscreen display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, while inside, the Acer Chromebase comes with 4GB RAM and powered by a Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core processor. As well as 16GB internal storage, twin 3W speakers and WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 support. If you had been waiting for a more non-traditional Chrome OS device then this might be an option worth considering.