This morning, two of the more popular Chromebook manufacturers, Acer and ASUS, took the wraps off of two new Chromebooks that are aimed specifically at Education customers. Google has been focusing on Education with their Chromebooks in recent years replacing iPads with Chromebooks, and in fact, there are over 70 million users on their G Suite for Eduction set of apps. And with these two new models, Google is set to increase that number.
There is the Acer Chromebook Spin 11. This is a convertible Chromebook with an 11.6-inch touch screen, along with an Intel Celeron processor and it has support for Wacom styluses. The Chromebook Spin 11 will be available in different storage and RAM variants. The other is the ASUS Chromebook Flip C213. This is a ruggedized Chromebook, much like the Acer Chromebook Spin 11. It has a 360-degree hinge, allowing students to use it as a tablet if they wish. It has “modular construction”, which Google says allows IT departments to replace some parts of the machine, if kids mess them up. Both Chromebooks will be launching in “late Spring”, pricing has not been announced either. It is important to remember that since these Chromebooks are aimed at schools, they will likely be cheap, but they also may not be sold to the general public, unfortunately.
Both of these Chromebooks sport a USB-C port for charging, as that does appear to be the future. There’s also a “World View Camera”. Google says that this camera allows students to capture the world around them in any direction. When in tablet mode, students will still be able to use the camera and “turn it into a microscope”.
Today, Google also announced that Adobe’s Creative Cloud Android apps are coming to Chromebooks, including these two new models. Additionally, all Chromebooks coming in 2017 will have Android apps and games. Which makes these two Chromebooks even more impressive especially for the education scene. There’s not a whole lot known about these Chromebooks just yet, like the exact processor that is powering these and such. That should be revealed when they are closer to being available in a few months.
