The ultimative Chromebook overview

As there are so many Chromebooks in the market, here is the high level summary of the datasheets. More to come soon.

Brand	Type	RAM	CPU	Screen diagonal in inch	Pixels	SSD
Acer	C720	4GB	Intel Celeron 2955U, 1.4 GHz	11.6	1366 x 768	16GB
Acer	C720	2GB	Intel Celeron 2955U, 1.4 GHz	11.6	1366 x 768	16GB
Acer	C720P-2666	2GB	Intel Celeron 2955U, 1.4 GHz	11.6 touch	1366 x 768	32GB
Asus	C200MA-DS01	2GB	Intel Celeron N2830 Dual-Core 2,4GHz	11.6	1366 x 768	16GB
Asus	C300MA-DB01	2GB	Intel Celeron N2830 Dual-Core 2,4GHz	13.4	1366 x 768	16GB
Dell	Chromebook 11	4GB	Intel Celeron 2955U, 1.4 GHz	11.6	1366 x 768	16GB
HP	Chromebook 14	4GB	Intel Celeron 2955U, 1.4 GHz	14	1366 x 768	32GB
HP	Chromebook 11-2010nr	2GB	Samsung Exynos 5250 1.7GHz Dual	11	1366 x 768	16GB
Samsung	Chromebook 2 11.6-Inch	2GB	Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5800 1.9 GHz	11.6	1366 x 768	16GB
Toshiba	CB35-A3120	2GB	Intel Celeron 2955U, 1.4 GHz	13.3	1366 x 768	16GB
Lenovo	IdeaPad N20P	2GB	Intel Pentium N2830, 2.16 GHz	11.6	1366 x 768	16GB

Updated: Chromebook for Audiophiles: Acer C720 + FiiO Alpen E17 DAC + headphone amplifier

Update: Chromebook audio player plays flawless flac files now (if the CPU is not too busy).

When I ordered my FiiO E17 (ALPEN) USB DAC headphone amplifier I was not sure if it will ever run on the chromebook. Surprisingly it works as expected, just plug and play. No driver, nothing needed. Thanks to Google!
I did not mention it in my review, but the Acer C720 is not shooting HIFI sound out of the 3.5mm headphone jack. I was not expecting it though, but now with the Alpen E17 it sounds like a high end audio system for a very affordable price (if you own good  headphones) .

My personal dream list of nice gadgets

Audio
Yamaha A-S2100 amplifier
Yamaha CD-S2100 CD player and DAC
Loudspeaker ???, please comment, what do you recommend?

Headphone
Sennheiser HD800

Bicycle
BMC Granfondo 2 disc Ultegra not a dream anymore
Falk Pantera GPS Garmin Edge 1000 (read the review soon on this blog)

Hurry up to get for 339 CHF (15% off) the Acer C720P with touch screen in Switzerland

I do not get any benefits from this offer (other than more potential readers of my blog).

Some statistics

As there are not many other news (beside Samsung Chromebook 2 announcement) since christmas, here some statistics from of the blog users.

It seems that many Windows user are reading my blog with the chrome browser (which is the first step towards a chromebook). The data was collected during the last 30 days.

Welcome to the club TOSHIBA!

According to the official press release Toshiba is entering the chromebook market.

The only Chromebook in the category to feature a 13.3-inch diagonal HD display, Toshiba’s Chromebook offers greater versatility for productivity-driven users. Powered by Intel’s ‘Haswell’ platform, this Chromebook delivers robust performance, fast start up and up to nine hours of battery life. Affordable for everyone at just $279.99 MSRP.

The new Toshiba Chromebook was designed from the ground up, weighing just 3.3 pounds and featuring a slim 0.8-inch profile sporting a sleek new design with a textured finish. A Haswell-based Intel® Celeron™ processor plus 2GB of RAM and a 16GB solid state drive deliver versatile performance, ultra-fast start up time and a long battery life of up to nine hours. This Chromebook is also equipped with laptop essentials for greater usability, including 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®.


The following suppliers have announced chromebooks so far:
- Samsung
- Acer
- HP
- Lenovo
- Dell
- Toshiba

White Acer chromebook

The ugly C720P seems to get a pretty sister.

Acer is extending its touchscreen Chromebook line with a new model in a new color – the Acer C720P-2600 in Moonstone White. Main hardware difference: The Acer C720P-2600 Chromebook has a 32GB SSD.

More details at the Official Acer announcement

In US: Chromebooks are the most growing notebook category

Chromebooks accounted for 21 percent of all notebook sales, up from negligible share in the prior year, and 8 percent of all computer and tablet sales through November, up from one tenth of a percent in 2012 – the largest share increase across the various product segments.

From NPD report

Happy X-mas!

I wish you a good time (with your chromebook).

I guess there are many new chromebooks under the tree this year. For all the happy people with new chromebooks here a short recap of my blog posts especially interesting for you.

• A sleeve for the Acer C720(p)
• How to get audiophile sound from your chromebook
• USB 3G modem on chromebooks
• Apple like feeling on your chromebook (run Apple apps in the cloud on chromebook)
• Compact flash card readers on chromebook (e.g. to transfer your christmas photographs)
• For the Acer C720 or C720p users a perfect sleeve cover bag
• Some rarely known things a chromebook can do
• Collection of things which a chromebook can not do today

Chromedesktop: LG reveals chrome based desktop PC (chromebase)

ChromeOS is getting momentum.

LG Electronics (LG) will unveil the first-ever Chromebase, an all-in-one computer powered by the Google Chrome operating system at next month’s  2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

From the official LG press release:

Specifications and Features

- Processor: Intel^® Celeron^® CPU

- Operating System: Chrome OS

- Display: 21.5-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS

- Memory: 2 GB   

- Storage: 16GB iSSD

- Ports: HDMI-in, USB 2.0 x3, USB 3.0 x1, LAN

- Accessories: Keyboard, Mouse, Cable Organizer

- Webcam: 1.3 M 720 HD

Ipod mini upgrade to store more and play longer

I have upgraded successfully my old, not used ipod mini (2nd gen) to 32GB (was 4 GB prior to the upgrade).  Additionally I changed the battery to a new one.

I purchased this Transcend 32 GB 133x CompactFlash Memory Card and replaced by it the original 4GB hard drive from Hitachi. The battery replacement is available here.

The biggest challenge was to open the ipod without destruction. There are nice tutorials on the steps to do to open and upgrade the ipod mini.

I will use the additional space to store loss-less files to my old friend ipod mini. Together with the Fiio E17 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier connected via FiiO L3 Line Out Dock (LOD) Cable For iPod and iPhone the quality on the headphone output is amazing. Now my old friend is back to operation and I have an mobile audiophile player.

3G USB modem (Huawei E173) on chromebook

Heureka, it works! Surprisingly my Huawei E173 WCDMA 3G USB Wireless Modem Dongle Adapter SIM TF Card HSDPA EDGE GPRS works as it should on the chromebook. Just plug and play, no fiddling with drivers.

Welcome Dell to the chromebook supplier club

Dell is offering according to the official press release a chromebook 11 targeting the educational market.

How to save 573.65 EUR with a chromebook (e.g. Acer C720) in comparison to an ipad air 16 GB

I know the following comparison is not 100% valid, but I would like to show that if you bought a chromebook you did a very cost-effective purchase. As comparison / baseline I will take an ipad air 16 GB and the Acer C720/2GB. I will use Amazon prices in EUR, but I guess the result will be valid in almost all countries and currencies.

Chromebook Acer C720 for 269.10 CHF today at Interdiscount

Link to Interdiscount Acer C720 page

Breaking news: Acer C720p with touch screen and 32 GB flash announced

For $299 USD Acer will sell from December on an upgraded Acer C720 with touch screen and 32 GB (instead of 16 GB) version which is called Acer C720P (p like touch?).

Official announcement with all details at Acer website.

Run Apple Apps on your chromebook (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)

If you are used to Apple applications and owning an itunes ID you can login to www.icloud.com to access the beta versions of Pages, Numbers, Keynote in the cloud.

Compatible compact flash (CF) card reader for chromebooks

If you own an old or high-end digital camera you are used to compact flash cards. The chromebook has a card reader for SD-cards only. As the chromeOS is a relativly new OS I was not sure if all the drivers are in to run external card readers. So, I bought a very recent model (with USB3.0) and tried it out myself.

Chromebook apps launcher moved and position of the launch bar is adaptable now

In the recent stable chromeOS release 31.0.1650.61 (Platform version: 4731.73.0) the apps lanucher button moved to the left and the whole bar is now movable (left, bottom, right). Now the windows users will not search for the start button anymore :-)

A sleeve case to fit the Acer C720 chromebook into

It was not easy to find a sleeve where the Acer C720 fits almost perfectly into. I purchased this Dicota PerfectSkin.

Now my chromebook is prepared for the winter :-) and I can be sure that it get not damaged in the luggage.

The sleeve is affordable and protects perfectly.

Order yours at amazon.com .