So Google finally announced the Chromebooks and first units will be
shipping in the US and Europe by June 15. Both Samsung and Acer are set
to ship out their own variants of the Chromebook.
Here are the two models with their listed specs. They’ve omitted how much HDD storage and RAM will be included in the units.
Samsung ChromebookIntel Atom Dual-Core Processor
12.1″ (1280×800) 300 nit Display
3.26 lbs / 1.48 kg
8.5 hours of battery life
Built in dual-band WiFi and World-mode 3G (optional)
HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
2 USB 2.0 ports
4-in-1 memory card slot
Mini-VGA port
Fullsize Chrome keyboard
Oversize fully-clickable trackpad
Price: $429
Acer ChromebookIntel Atom Dual-Core Processor
11.6″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit LCD
3.19 lbs | 1.45 kg
6 hours battery life
Built in dual-band WiFi and World-mode 3G (optional)
HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
High-Definition Audio Support
2 USB 2.0 ports
4-in-1 memory card slot
HDMI port
Fullsize Chrome keyboard
Oversize fully-clickable trackpad
Price: $349
The biggest draw of the Google Chromebook is its full integration with the Cloud — all the time, anytime.
And that’s where it might just fail.
1. The Cloud does not have 100% uptime guarantee. Amazon’s service
recently went down, Google’s Blogger also had an outage the other day
and we all know GMail also suffered a number of outages before. People
don’t trust the cloud as much as they trust physical hardware.
2. Internet connection is unreliable so your ISP will also play a big
role in the over-all user-experience with the Chromebook. And we all
know how “unreliable” all our local internet service providers are.
3. The Cloud is expensive. The Chromebook assumes you have unlimited
data. In the Philippines, that’s an additional Php1,200 per month. If
the life span of your Chromebook is 2 years, that’s Php28,800 on top of
the cost of the unit making the total cost of ownership (TCO) much more
expensive.
But that scenario is just from a Philippine perspective. It might be
totally different elsewhere. So the question is — will you buy a
Chromebook instead of a regular netbook?