According to the latest reports, Asus and Lenovo are expected to launch Chromebook models for as low as $149. Although select Chromebooks have been sold at very aggressive prices in the US, they have never been released below $199 until now. The Chromebooks are expected to have a display size of 11.6-inches and arrive sometime in the first half of the next year. As of now, not much detail of these affordable Chromebooks is available.
According to report, Asus and Lenovo plan to use Rockchip processors to bring down the prices of their upcoming Chromebooks. This is a powerful quad-core ARM Cortex-A17 based SoC, which runs at 2GHz combined with 2GB of RAM, packs a Mali-T764 GPU and offers fast connectivity options and 4K video decoding. While the ASUS machine’s processor isn’t mentioned, it is implied in the report to be the same.
Lenovo had earlier launched an Android-powered notebook with Rockchip processor on-board, and it was sold for Rs 19,999 in the Indian market. Asus is yet to release a notebook with Rockchip processor, but it had launched an Android tablet MeMo Pad 8 with the company’s chip in 2013.
Lenovo and Asustek, both will be giving fierce competition to Acer, which is currently the market leader in Chromebooks. As for the price comparisons, Lenovo and Asustek’s Chromebooks, priced at $149, are 25% cheaper than Acer’s $199 Chromebooks.
HP had launched two Chromebook models with 11-inch screen and 14-inch displays in September. The 14-inch Chromebook sported a Nvidia Tegra K1 processor, while the smaller laptop was powered by an Intel Celeron N2830. Both 11-inch and 14-inch laptops were priced at $199.99 (roughly Rs. 12,300) and $299.99 (roughly Rs. 18,500) onwards, respectively.
Earlier in the week, Reuters reported that Rockchip might terminate its ARM SoC product line in favour of making Intel chips. Rockchip already worked with Intel this May to make Intel-branded SoFIA SoCs. While Chromebooks can simply use the ARM or Intel architecture to run the same apps, an Intel Rockchip might allow Microsoft to bring its Windows to laptops approaching this new US$149 low point.
Source – Digitimes
