Samsung Refreshes succession 5 Chromebook, Announces Chromebox Desktop PC
Samsung Tuesday announced a earlier succession 5 Chromebook netbook and, by the side of prolonged carry on, the Chromebox -- a mini-PC with the aim of besides runs the web-centric Google Chrome OS.
Refreshed Chromebook
The brand new Samsung Chromebook succession 5 550 looks the same in the same way as its predecessor, the Chromebook succession 5 from carry on time. However, the 550 has a only some of great consequence upgrades. The netbook retains its 12.1-inch 1280 by 800 pixel demonstrate and 3.3-pound importance, but doubles its RAM from 2GB to 4GB. The 550 besides gets a mainframe upgrade -- an Intel Celeron dual-core mainframe, as a substitute of carry on year's Intel Atom mainframe.
These hardware upgrades ought to help the 550 overcome a little of the sluggishness we saying featuring in our succession 5 Chromebook re-evaluation.
Samsung says the brand new Chromebook is 2.5 time earlier than the prior exemplary, with a boot-time of 7 seconds as a substitute of 10. The Chromebook's instant-on capability might be present even added impressive at this laptop battery point.
On the downside, the brand new succession 5 Chromebook has a shorter battery life rating: 6 hours versus the prior generation's 8.5 hours. Pricing is a crumb elevated too: $449 on behalf of the Wi-Fi version (versus $430 carry on year) or else $549 if you hunger built-in 3G ($499 carry on year).
You'll besides obtain a little brand new functionality from Google's Chrome OS updates, which include a brand new app launcher, customizable background, multi-window support, Google Drive integration and Google Docs offline bowdlerization, and a remote desktop app.
Featuring in dumpy, the laptop hardware is still pretty main but updated on behalf of better performance, and the Chromebook's cloud capabilities maintain been improved. In the same way as laptops designed solely to obtain you laptop battery online, Chromebooks were in no way intended to be present powerhouses -- but working on the net with a Chromebook ought to be present much earlier and added receptive. With plan laptops priced in the region of the same in the same way as, or else even bring down than, these online-only laptops, however, Chromebooks might still be present a tough market.
Brand new Samsung Chromebox
Samsung besides introduced a brand new desktop PC running Chrome OS, the Samsung Chromebox succession 3.
Like the succession 5 Chromebook, this mini-PC has an Intel Celeron dual-core mainframe and 4GB of RAM. On behalf of connectivity, the succession 3 Chromebox offers wireless-N, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 3.0, DVI, six USB 2.0 ports, and two DisplayPort++ outputs. The DisplayPorts are compatible with HDMI, DVI, and VGA.
The in one piece mechanism weighs specifically 2.45 pounds and is a 1.3-inch thick, 7.6-inch honest.
Priced by the side of $329 (no television, the ivories, or else mouse included), the succession 3 Chromebox is an inexpensive alternative to the $599 Mac mini. The Chromebox, however, lacks an HDMI docks, added powerful Intel staple i5/i7 processors, and discrete graphics.
Again, for the reason that the operating method is designed primarily on behalf of laptop battery online applications, the Chromebox doesn't really need added powerful hardware -- but it's unkind to imagine many consumers trade these whilst on behalf of a crumb added they may well obtain a added powerful mini desktop PC. Chrome OS policy maintain revealed their usefulness, however, featuring in businesses and schools.
