Google Announces New Chromebooks Powered by Haswell Chipsets

[Graham]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I'm interested in the Asus Chromebox. Waiting for specs.

Me too. I've got very close to pulling the trigger on getting the Samsung one, which is disappearing from the shops in the UK, but the Asus announcement is intriguing; I need to know more.

A near-silent Chromebox on my desk (I work from home) with a remote connection into the Windows PC in my wife's study when needed would mean I could ditch the very noisy i7 Dell that I currently use.

Graham

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Back in the day, this was my high tech gadget

Ahh Tubemonkey, and what a day it was ......

[Brianrh]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Back in the day, this was my high tech gadget

You were lucky, some of the rich kids had:

[Brianrh]

Originally Posted by Graham

Me too. I've got very close to pulling the trigger on getting the Samsung one, which is disappearing from the shops in the UK, but the Asus announcement is intriguing; I need to know more.

A near-silent Chromebox on my desk (I work from home) with a remote connection into the Windows PC in my wife's study when needed would mean I could ditch the very noisy i7 Dell that I currently use.

Graham

I am in a similar position to you Graham but I can still find Samsung and HP devices to look and play with but the Acer seems to have dissappered at the moment.

However I think Chromebooks with the Haswell chips are going to be more expensive and with the Pixel could lead to a two tier price grouping of Chromebooks. Still if better battery life is the thing stopping more people using these devices, it can only be a good thing.

I can't but think at times that some laptops and PCs are overpriced for what they actually contain and the present Chromebooks seem to be priced at what to a lot of people seems a fair price for what you get.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Brianrh

I can't but think at times that some laptops and PCs are overpriced for what they actually contain

That is because they come bundled with an expensive OS.

Originally Posted by Brianrh

and the present Chromebooks seem to be priced at what to a lot of people seems a fair price for what you get.

That is because they are exempt from the expensive microsoft and apple taxes.

Hardware used to be so expensive that the price for the OS did not have much impact on the total cost. Now the cost of the OS can be a big chunk of the total price.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Back in the day, this was my high tech gadget

I had a circular slide rule in high school that fit in my pocket protector.

Which reminds me of reading a science fiction novel that has a space ship captain plotting his course with a special 3 foot diameter circular slide rule.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by Brianrh

However I think Chromebooks with the Haswell chips are going to be more expensive and with the Pixel could lead to a two tier price grouping of Chromebooks.

This is the case for MS computers now, or you could argue that it is a very wide "tier."

Apple computers only have the upper tier.

[Graham]

The interesting thing about the Chromebook offerings is that none of the more expensive ones could tempt me away from the Samsung ARM one that I have. It's dropped in price in the UK now to match the cheaper Acer, so we have a range of machines where the cheapest currently is also one of the most attractive. (Long battery life, very light, lovely keyboard and totally silent.)

I may well add a Chromebox though, as noted above.

Graham

[frahse]

Originally Posted by Graham

The interesting thing about the Chromebook offerings is that none of the more expensive ones could tempt me away from the Samsung ARM one that I have. It's dropped in price in the UK now to match the cheaper Acer, so we have a range of machines where the cheapest currently is also one of the most attractive. (Long battery life, very light, lovely keyboard and totally silent.)

I may well add a Chromebox though, as noted above.

Graham

It has been my experience that "first offerings" should be passed up and waiting for the "second wave" is better in the sense that the second will endure more into the future.
I don't count the 5th Series (550) as that was more experimental. ie. Prototype. Likewise the Pixel was/is a prototype.

It is what comes after the 3rd series (latest $250 Samsung) and the C7- Acers that matters and will last for a while.

The $200 Acer Chromebook (2487 - Note there is a 2847 as well -which is a dumb numbering system) with additional 2GB Ram (total $219) that I got my wife is an adequate machine. She loves it. For myself, I want a little more power for future possibilities and for certain a better battery life.

Her machine cost $219 at Amazon. I am willing to pay twice that for a better machine. I want the Haswell chip, the ability to have 8GB Ram and at least a HDD, but preferably with an additional SSD too.
I would go $500 for a machine I wanted. Also I would put Ubuntu on it.

Sure I could buy a $500 Windows machine, but "hey wait" I don't want no stinking Windows machine.

[tubemonkey]

Acer Intros Thinner, Longer-Lasting C720 Chromebook

I believe this is the first of the new Haswell based Chromebooks to be offered.

Like previous Chromebooks, the C720 Chromebook is constantly updated with the latest version of the Chrome OS and built around the Chrome browser. Acer claims seven second boot times and up to 8.5 hours of battery life. The C720 comes with 4GB of DDR3L memory and uses an Intel Celeron 2955U processor based on Haswell technology. The system also has 16GB of local SSD storage along with 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi to get to Google's cloud-based storage.

The C720 Chromebook has an 11.6-inch anti-glare widescreen, with a 1,366-by-768 resolution. The system features USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports for connecting external storage and peripherals. You can hook the system up to a HDTV or external monitor with the built-in HDMI port. The C720 Chromebook has a HD webcam and microphone for video conferencing, and a SD card reader for viewing and uploading pictures and videos to the Internet.

The first model in the series is called the Acer C720-2800 Chromebook, and is available for pre-order now on Amazon.com and Bestbuy.com with 4GB of system memory and a 16GB SSD for $249.99. The C720 Chromebook coms with a one-year standard warranty that can be extended to three years with Acer Advantage service.

Amazon pre-order --> Acer C720-2800 11.6-Inch Chromebook -- $240

[afv011]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Acer Intros Thinner, Longer-Lasting C720 Chromebook

I believe this is the first of the new Haswell based Chromebooks to be offered.





Amazon pre-order --> Acer C720-2800 11.6-Inch Chromebook -- $240

This one looks pretty interesting, and that price is indeed competitive.

[Brianrh]

Originally Posted by Brianrh

However I think Chromebooks with the Haswell chips are going to be more expensive and with the Pixel could lead to a two tier price grouping of Chromebooks. Still if better battery life is the thing stopping more people using these devices, it can only be a good thing.

Looks as though my suggestion of high price was way off.

Just bought from eBay a cheap refurbished Acer C7 as an affordable method of toe dipping into the Chrome OS water. I am very pleased with what I found so far. I can image that the new Chromebooks with Haswell chips will be very impressive and have a good future especially compared with PCs.

Brian