Google Chromebooks are now available for purchase at Amazon.com. They won’t ship them to non-US locations but if you can’t wait to get one, use a package forwarding service.
The base model - Acer Cromia ($380) - features a 11.6” display with a dual-core Intel Processor and 2GB RAM while the slightly-bigger Samsung Series 5 model ($430) sports a 12.1” display with an Intel Atom processor and the 2GB RAM.
Google notebooks, or a better word is netbooks, are light and seem to have an impressive battery life but am still not sold on the concept of “everything running from the cloud.”
How do you sync your phone or tablet when you can’t install the necessary software (like iTunes) on the computer. Will your exiting hardware - like printers, external hard drive or your wireless mouse - work with a Chromebook when there are no compatible drivers? Will it let you work if the Google Cloud itself is down?
Google will be adding offline support for Google Docs and Gmail to the future releases of Chrome OS. They could be useful as your second computer that you primarily use for browsing the web or for watching vidoes but in the current state, I think these $250 netbooks probably offer better value for money. Yes, they won’t boot in 20 seconds but you get to do everything else that's possible on a Chromebook and much more.
Here's an impressive promo video of Google Chrome Notebook in case you missed it before.
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