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Toshiba's retooled Chromebook 2 arrives in October, starts at $330
Toshiba has announced an upgraded version of its Chromebook 2, which is scheduled to ship next month. Compared to last year's, the company's new Chrome OS laptop will be available with 5th-generation (Broadwell) Intel Core i3 or Celeron processors -- both are geared toward performance, so you can expect this machine to be much snappier than its predecessor. Additionally, the refreshed Chromebook 2 features a backlit LED keyboard for the first time. What does carry over from the previous model is that great 13.3-inch, 1080p IPS display, an HD webcam, two USB ports (3.0, 2.0) and the option to add up to 4GB of RAM. Battery life rating, meanwhile, continues to be about nine hours, but hopefully those fresh processors will make Toshiba's Chromebook 2 last longer than before. It'll be available in October for $330 and $430 for the Celeron and Core i3 models, respectively.
Toshiba Chromebook arrives in the US and UK, slightly pricier than expected
Back at CES, Toshiba told us that its new Chromebook would be shipping on February 16th. It appears, though, the company has decided to make it available ahead of time, as the 13-inch Chrome OS laptop is now up for grabs in the US and UK. In a small twist, however, Toshiba is listing the Haswell-powered Chromebook for $300 on its website, a small bump over the $279 price it was announced with earlier this year. That said, retailers like Adorama and Amazon do have it for around $280, so you could still enjoy that lower price after all. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Amazon's selling the Toshiba Chromebook for £249, with shipments expected to begin February 10th.
Toshiba Chromebook is the company's first Chrome OS device; arrives next month for $279 (hands-on)
We already knew Toshiba was coming out with a Chrome OS device, but in the four months since Intel teased it at IDF, we haven't seen anything in the way of specs, much less product shots. That changes today: The company just announced the Toshiba Chromebook here at CES, making this the first time we've seen the device up close. Of note, this has a 13-inch display, which, for whatever reason, has never been used on a Chromebook before. At any rate, Toshiba is betting that consumers coming over from Windows and Mac machines will want the same in-between-sized screen they're already used to -- especially if they plan on spending a lot of time in Gmail and GDocs. Due to that larger screen, this is naturally going to be a bit heavier than, say, the HP Chromebook 11 (three pounds vs. 2.3), but what you lose in portability, you'll make up for in power. While HP's offering makes do with an ARM processor, the Toshiba Chromebook offers a Haswell-series Celeron 2955U CPU for the same price, promising stronger performance and longer battery life (up to nine hours, say company reps).
Toshiba abandoning plans for Windows 7 tablet, Chromebook?
We were expecting Toshiba to launch its Windows 7 tablet during the second half of this year, but rumor has it that the company may be abandoning the slate altogether. DigiTimes is reporting that both the 11.6-inch slab and a forthcoming Chromebook have disappeared from Toshiba's product launchpad, according to sources within the industry. The Chromebook will reportedly be slashed due to disappointing netbook sales in 2010, whereas the reasons behind the tablet's cancellation remain less clear. DigiTimes suggests that Toshiba may be throwing all of its weight behind its new Honeycomb-powered Thrive slate, meaning that its Windows 7 counterpart could either be delayed even further, or simply relinquished. There's obviously plenty of speculation swirling around, but we'll let you know as soon as we receive more concrete reports.
