A day after the interesting – if disappointingly priced – Samsung Chromebox “leaked” online the second generation of Samsung’s portable device has also followed suit.
Electronics store Newegg briefly listed, then removed, a product page for the 3G-enabled 2nd gen Chromebook.
But if the pricing of the Chromebox made you draw breath, you’ll want to reach for the oxygen before continuing…
ChromeBook. Take II.
The second generation of Samsung’s Chromebooks replace the under-powered Intel Atom processors present in the previous versions with a beefier dual-core Intel Celeron 867 clocked at 1.3Ghz.
RAM-wise the device has been bolstered from 2GB to a healthy 4GB, and the on-board speakers have been bumped up by half a watt each to 2W.
But elsewhere the changes are less exciting.
Edison is roughly the same size and weight as it’s predecessor, sports the same sized display at the same resolution, and offers up the same 16GB of SSD storage.
Of the ports present on the device are a duo of USB 2.0’s, a headphone/microphone jack, SD card reader, on the 3G model, a sim slot, and, sure to please some, the addition of an Ethernet port.
No mention is made of any external connectivity by way of a HDMI or VGA port (the latter of which was available on the Samsung Series 5 by way of a micro-adapter).
Sadly the battery sees itself downgraded to 4 cells.
Priced to Fail?
On to the price. How much will this Celeron powered creation set you back?
A whopping $549.99 for the 3G version – a $100 rise over the price of the original Samsung Series 5 Chromebook.
Samsung’s first generation Chromebook was met with tempered but positive press. Once many reviewers had spat out their gripes on web-centric operating systems they were optimistic about the future of ChromeOS devices.
All that was needed for them really to hit the big time, the majority said, was a bit more power underneath, optimisations to the OS and, crucially, a cheaper price. This was the recipe list that reviewers felt would cook up success for the Chromebook line of laptops.
So what have Samsung done? They’ve served up an appetising meal cold.
For whilst the second generation fixes the flaws of the first – namely that it was underpowered for such the OS – it fails majorly on price.
Expecting people to fork out over $500 for a Chromebook is unrealistic. People coming to ChromeOS will be prepared to make sacrifices – but more money for less speed is unlikely to be one of them.
I can’t help but feel that Samsung have priced the Chromebook to fail.
What price would have you liked to have seen?
Via Liliputing