Asus has launched two new chromebooks based around Intel's Bay Trail SoC and running Google's Chrome OS. The new models are the 11-inch Chromebook C200 and the 13-inch Chromebook C300. The new devices are clamshell-style laptops with hidden display hinges, a plastic cases with a matte finish to reduce fingerprint visibility, chiclet keyboards, and large trackpads supporting multi-touch guestures. Asus' new Chromebooks will be available in June starting at $249.99 for the base C200 laptop.
The Asus Chromebook C200 is an 11-inch laptop with an 11.6" display with a resolution of 1366×768, a 720p webcam, stereo speakers, chiclet keyboard, and a trackpad that is reportedly as large as those "normally found on a 14-inch laptop." External IO includes an SD card, HDMI port, a microphone/headphone audio combo jack, one USB 2.0 port, and one USB 3.0 port.
The Asus Chromebook C200.
From there the Chromebook C300 takes that platform and places it in a larger 13" chassis. The display size is increased to 13.3" but maintains the same 1366×768 resolution. The other difference is in color palete: the C200 is silver and dark grey while the C300 is completely dark grey. The C200 weighs 2.5 pounds and is 0.8" thick while the C300 weighs 3.1 pounds and is slightly thicker at 0.9".
Internally, the C200 and C300 feature a dual core Intel Celeron N2830 Bay Trail-M SoC clocked at 2.16 GHz (2.41 GHz Turbo Boost) with 1MB of cache, Intel HD Graphics, and a 7.5W TDP. In addition to the SoC, Asus is packing in 2GB of RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage. Asus did not provide a mAh battery rating, but both Chromebooks reportedly last up to 10 hours of average usage before needing to be charged.
The Asus Chromebook C300.
Storage can be extended via an SD card and by taking advantage of 100GB of Google Drive cloud storage which Asus provides free for two years. The upcoming Chromebooks support dual band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Both the Chromebook C200 and Chromebook C300 will be available in the US at the end of next month starting at $249.99. The company has not yet released pricing for the larger C300, however.
Read more about Chromebooks at PC Perspective!
