Chromebooks are the hottest selling devices in their price category. To put that in plain English, Windows computers that cost less than $500 tend to be horrible, while Chromebooks aren’t. Since Samsung entered the Chromebook space a few years ago, they’ve been joined by companies like Lenovo, HP, and Acer. At CES 2014, Toshiba has decided to announce that they’re entering the Chromebook game with a device that’s simply called the “Toshiba Chromebook”. Round of applause to the marketing people who decided to keep it simple.
So what exactly is in it and how much does it cost? For $280, you get an 13.3 inch 1366 x 768 pixel panel, an Intel Celeron that’s based on the new Haswell architecture, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, and that’s it. According to The Verge, it’s “the best-looking Chromebook yet”, and I believe them. It’s obviously a MacBook Air clone, down to the tapered edge. But instead of spending $999 on the real deal, you can get the Google edition for less than a third of the price. Should you even buy a Chromebook? If all you want to do is screw around on the internet, then I can’t think of a better machine. I need a real computer because I do several “advanced” tasks. But if my mom needed a new computer, I’d happily get her a Chromebook. Should you spend $280 on a Chromebook or a Nexus 7? Now that’s another question altogether that really can’t be answered until you sit down and think about your needs.
