Asus unveils two new Chromebooks

Asustek Computer Inc. announced the launch of two new Chromebooks today, an 11.6-inch model and a 13.3-inch model both powered by Intel’s Bay Trail-M processors.

Several manufacturers have been selling budget-priced laptop computers running Google’s Chrome OS, including Toshiba and HP. The laptops have a lot in common – they tend to be smaller and lightweight, with long-lasting battery life. They are made to favour longer battery life over intensive processing tasks, featuring low-power CPUs to run Google’s cloud-centric operating system. The idea is to do all of your computing tasks in a web browser, relying mostly on Google’s free toolkit of services to be productive. Chrome OS does offer a limited offline mode if you’re not in a position to connect to WiFi, but the laptops typically have small on-board storage.

Asus follows suit with its Chromebook C200 (the 11.6-inch screen) and Chromebook C300 (13.3-inch screen). The smaller model weights 2.5 lbs and the larger one is 3.1 lbs. Both sport a high resolution, 1366×768 display, a 720p HD webcam, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of SSD storage, two USB ports, an HDMI output, and an SD card slot. Both are powered by Intel’s Bay Trail-M Dual-Core N2830 2.42 GHz processor and are said to provide 10 hours of battery life.

Also like other Chromebooks, users will get access to 100 GB of Google Drive cloud storage for two years. What might set the Asus models apart from other Chromebook efforts are stylistic details such as a larger trackpad and stereo speakers made for extra-loud output. The wireless support meets all the latest standards with Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11ac dual-band WiFi.

Both will be available in Canada for June, the C200 will start at $299.99 and the C300 will start at $329.99.