New Samsung Google Chromebook Unveiled, Priced at $249
Analysts aren't too keen on the Samsung-developed Chromebook.
Google has announced a new addition to its Chromebook lineup, a new Samsung-built 11.6-inch laptop.
The device, which has been priced at $249 and weighs in at 2.5 pounds, features a Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core processor (otherwise known as the ARM Cortex-A15 processor) and a full-sized Chrome keyboard.
The Chromebook's 11.6-inch display boasts a resolution of 1366 x 768, which is accompanied by 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. Battery life claims to be over six hours.
Google's first-gen models of the device were available online only, with no marketing involved. Second-gen models that launched during May were available in 100 Best Buy stores in the United States, as well as several Currys stores within the UK. For the newly-announced Samsung Chromebook, however, Google will release the device in 500 Best Buy stores and more than 30 Currys and PC World stores from next week.
Sundar Pichai, the senior vice president of Chrome, claimed it's "the best computer that's ever been designed at this price point. We are going to take more of an active presence in the market. We believe we have a device for the mainstream. You'll also see us run a marketing campaign like we've done with Chrome." Online pre-orders, meanwhile, commences today on Amazon.com and Google Play.
Analysts, however, aren't too keen on the device. "I don't see any benefit of getting a Chromebook," said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. It's "basically a netbook with a Web-based OS on it. Why not just buy an Android device and actually be able to use plenty of apps?"
Gold added that consumers looking for a good deal may find the $249 price attractive for the new Chromebook, as well as the integration of Google apps. "But for another $100 or so, you can get a full laptop running Windows. That's a much better deal," he added.
"Consumers do not want to choose between apps and Internet; they want both," Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi stated. "The $249 is certainly an interesting price point, but consumers have been burned with netbooks and will be cautious and look beyond the price tag."

Sure it might be at a reasonable price but the spec REALLY does suck
"But for another $100 or so, you can get a full laptop running Windows. That's a much better deal"
Maybe it is not a better deal. You cannot get a $350 "full laptop" that weighs 2.5 lbs and has a 6+ hr battery life. Similarly, you cannot get a full Windows laptop that is as simple and secure as a Chromebook. If you have ever had to ask/pay for help due to OS/SW/malware issues, Chromebooks may be superior.
They are not for everyone, but for simple needs, they may be perfect.
Like I said: Analyst idiots
If they incorporated more offline functionality than I can see myself picking one up for school, nothing wrong with something cheap to just take notes, write papers, and web browse when you have internet access.
Because if you have internet access it follows the approach of "It just freaking works" and is built with simplicity and security in mind for those of us who are more tech minded.
Quite a good product if a family member keeps doing stupid stuff on computers which results in them paying someone to fix it or a phone call to you. Tell them to buy this and from what I hear it's simple to setup and from there on everything is rock solid stable.
In fact I took a closer look at this one after my last post and it seems they now do offline editing for google docs so I may pick one up as all I really needed was a cheap laptop to take notes and web browse, and it fulfills my other need of having private info encrypted by default. And their OS is usually quite responsive from what I hear despite basic hardware, where as windows usually needs a bit of work to run to my level of expectations on netbooks (plus it doesn't come with a SSD as default for this price point, and forget encryption unless I buy a HD with hardware base encryption). So yeah while minimal hardware, interface, programs, it has raw simplicity and security going for it and just works.
So yeah there is a small market and use for it.
As for tech minded individuals, I think we can handle our own security. If that's your target audience I can think of some other *nix based operating systems that would be better. You could take a cheap laptop and either use the preinstalled Win7/8 and run whatever desktop software you need, or slap a modern Linux distro on there. Either way there's great software like LibreOffice and tons of free browsers, media players, etc, to handle everything a Google-dominated Chromebook can do and a whole lot more.
Yes you can! The Acer Aspire One AO756 is a full laptop that comes with Windows 7 Home Premium and priced between $300-350 and boasts mostly better specs. And yes it weighs around 2.5 pounds (it's listed as 3lbs but I have one I can confirm it's actually weighs 2.5lbs).
You can get it with a dual core sandy bridge processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and 4-5hrs battery life.
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-AO756-4854-11-6-Inch-Netbook/dp/B0083PR78M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350632935&sr=8-2&keywords=acer+ao756
Id pick the Chromebook over that, and here's why:
-Not sure how that "Sandy Bridge" fairs, its a dual core pentium with 1.3 ghz. The clockspeed will be higher on the chromebook, but probably be a bit slower.
-The chromebook has an SSD, which for its intended use Id prefer over the 500 Gb Hard drive.
-6.5 hours vs 4 hours is a very nice edge on a device thats intended to be as mobile as possible.
-Its 30% cheaper, which is great considering its not intended as your sole computing device.
-Windows isn't much fun on weaker hardware imo, on netbooks Id generally run some lightweight linux distro.
-16 Gb is enough to dualboot with a linux distro so if you really cant reach the internet or want to use some basic applications, you'll be good to go.
-For less techie people the simplistic approach is perfect and very low maintenance. I just spent last weekend setting up my grandparents computer, which involved hiding everything except firefox, thunderbird and skype (which I renamed "Internet", "Mailbox" and "Telephone"), chances are your grandparents won't need much more.
-Perfect for Schools, especially smaller ones with no dedicated IT team.
Im not saying the chromebook is for everyone, but I honestly think the device is an excellent choice for people with limited needs or as a secondary device to take to starbucks and/or class. Previous models I didnt consider because they costed twice as much as this, but this seems like something I might recommend to a friend or two.
The main reason I bought this laptop was to have a dedicated Linux machine (though it ran Win 7 Home Premium without a single hiccup). I have a powerful desktop and a 13 incher for gaming on the go. So, I've been looking for a smaller and very cheap machine as a backup and to tinker with. I considered many chromebook options for their cheap prices but ended up buying the Acer AO756 with a 1.4GHz Celeron 877 (Which is basically a stripped down i3) for a great price $245! The best part of all, it's upgradeable which isn't very common in this form factor. With a single screw you have access to everything, HDD, RAM, WiFi. I threw in 8GB of RAM I had laying around and the thing multitasks like a boss ( I can even run a Windows XP VM without much trouble).
I understand what you're saying and agree to some extent, but I still think a chromebook should be cheaper, I'd say $200 for the one in this article would be a perfect buy since for the same price right now you could get a similarly spec'ed laptop with an AMD processor that could do much more.
What would be cheaper?
Not something like a Raspberry Pi...but something you can give an older person so they can email & surf.