Acer ZGB Chrome OS Notebook Details Surface
Acer's unannounced ZGB notebook has appeared in Chrome OS bug reports, revealing a few specs.
Last week brought reports that Google may charge a monthly subscription fee for using Chrome OS, ranging between $10 to $20. Although unconfirmed, it's believed that the subscription may be the result of a subsidizing plan to make the laptops more affordable for consumers. The plan reportedly covers laptop upgrades and the replacement of faulty hardware.
But now details of Acer's Chrome OS ZGB laptop have surfaced. Originally called the ZGA, the company started and then canceled the project last year. Now it's been re-launched as the ZGB, appearing in Chrome OS bug reports as of March 10. Unfortunately, details surrounding the hardware are slim at best.
According to the last line of the bug report, the Acer ZGB laptop will feature a display resolution of 1366 x 768. There's also mention of a LVDS to HDMI encoder by Chrontel, indicating that the notebook will be based on Intel's Atom processor-- AMD's Fusion platform natively supports HDMI, and doesn't need an external encoder chip. LVDS is the signal understood by LCD panels in notebooks.
"The CH7036 is specifically designed for Consumer Electronics Devices and Personal Computers that require High Definition (HD) Content video playback on the external displays," the report reads. "This IC implements an advanced LVDS receiver, a powerful video encoder, a flexible scaling engine and easy-to-configure audio interfaces which can seamlessly convert the LVDS signal source into HDMI /DVI formats as well as the analog RGB legacy display."
Chrome OS notebooks are expected to arrive in the June/July 2011 window, and will be sold in the same manner as Google's Android-based devices. Given the software's web-based roots, the rumored subscription fee may be a requirement for using the notebook outside the home network. Additional details should be revealed in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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jacobdrj Interesting. Mobile phone business model. This might become EOL-ware in the not too distant future, and anyone relying on this OS will quickly have a paperweight on their hands...Reply -
dekyos Cloud based OS is worst idea ever. If you use it with 3G you still have to have a good data signal just to even use the laptop, not to mention the monthly fees on that, and now they're talking about a fee to use the OS itself too? They better be selling the laptops for $50 if they're expecting the average Joe to pony up another $100/mo to use it for the life of the device.Reply -
jacobdrj I think there are some limited, but very real applications for this OS concept. However, current hybrid netbook style cloud computing (where there is a local and auto-cloud backup copy) seems to make the most sense in general.Reply -
samwelaye Toms forgot to post the rest of the story: you buy the laptop at full price, OR at a subsidized price with monthly payments. Nowhere have they stated that the monthly payments are necessary. Hothardware or anandtech did a similar report a while back that told whole story.Reply
This is very misleading Toms...