Ah Chromebooks. The world has moved from desktop computers to laptops to netbooks and now–Chromebooks. Well, at least for us within the Android community, we see the Chrome OS-powered notebooks as a necessity not only for the professionals and the enterprise but also for the students and teachers. Earlier this week, new Chromebooks designed especially for education were announced over at Bett, an important education technology conference, currently being held in London.
Students today are very much lucky because they have all the tools they can get to learn and be educated. We’re not just talking about having access to the Internet and computer. There are more resources and devices like smartphones, tablets, media players, and VR headsets. Chromebooks are more preferred by most in the education sector because they are light, easy-to-use, and affordable. There may be expensive models and more high-specced ones now but Chromebooks are still categorized as lightweight laptops.
Chromebooks are optimized for most of Google apps like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Calendar. Google has launched the Classroom, as well as, the G Suite for Education to help students, administrators, and teachers. Google disclosed that there are over 70 million G Suite users and 20 million people taking advantage of the Chromebooks and Classroom. There are already dozens of Chromebooks available and we know more will be added especially after the Bett conference.
Numerous OEMs have already announced new Chromebooks. There’s Asus, Acer, Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Samsung. Just yesterday, we said that Google will bring Android apps to all Chromebooks beginning this year. Android Nougat is also being prepped for Chromebooks. The last models introduced were those by Samsung introduced during the CES.
Recently announced are two Chromebooks from Acer and Asus–the Acer Chromebook Spin 11 and the Asus Chromebook C213. The two models are expected to be available in Spring complete with an intelligent stylus, Optical Character Recognition, built-in camera, USB-C charging, and Google Play support for them to run Android apps. The Chromebooks are also getting the new Adobe Creative Cloud apps.
Acer Chromebook Spin 11 Key Specs:
• OS: Chrome OS with Google Play support
• Processor: Intel Celeron quad-core processor N3450 or Intel Celeron dual-core processor N3350
• Display: 11.6-inch HD IPS
• Dimensions: 296 (W) x 206 (D) x 20.5 (H) mm
• Weight: 1.4kg
• Battery: 10-hour battery
• RAM: 4GB/8GB LPDDR4 memory 3
• Storage: 32GB/64GB onboard storage through eMMC flash
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, 2X2 MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi, two USB Type-C ports
• Others: U.S. MIL-STD 810G compliant, Wacom EMR, 360° dual-torque hinge design, MicroSD card reader
We don’t have much information about the Asus Chromebook C213 but we know it boasts of an 11-inch display with Gorilla Glass 4, 46Wh-11 hour battery, modular design, and dual HD cameras. No information on pricing and availability of new Chromebooks have been provided either so we’ll wait and see.
SOURCE: The Keyword (Google)
Which one is in the photo?