Another vendor has tossed its hat into the increasingly competitive Chromebook arena, with Toshiba using last week’s Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES) in Las Vegas to debut its 13” Toshiba Chromebook model.
Other vendors such as Acer, Samsung and Hewlett-Packard Co. have launched affordable, lightweight laptops running Google’s Chrome OS, mainly targeting consumers and the education vertical. Toshiba of Canada has similar hopes for its 13.3” Chromebook model, calling it an ideal choice for students and home users looking for a portable, cost-effective PC with a starting price of $329.99.
“We see great potential in the Chrome OS as it offers consumers and educators a simple and easy-to-use computing experience,” said Steve Wong, product manager at Toshiba of Canada’s digital products group, in a statement. “Until recently, the availability only of smaller-size Chromebooks has limited their usage for productivity applications. We believe that bringing a more versatile 13-inch model to market will help drive the category forward by giving customers an option that offers more room to get things done.”
Toshiba’s model features a 13.3” diagonal HD TruBrite display with native 1366 x 768 screen resolution, along with a full-size Chrome-optimized keyboard and spacious touchpad. It weighs 3.3 lbs. with a 0.8” profile, and is powered by a Haswell-based Intel Celeron processor with 2GB of RAM and a 16GB solid state drive. It includes two USB 3.0 ports, a full-size HDMI port, security lock slot and a memory card reader, plus Bluetooth 4.0 and dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.
Availability is expected in February.
