14 DAY TRIAL // We have been hearing rumors about affordable Chromebooks powered by Rockchip processors ever since last year, but we are yet to see something palpable in this regard.
Well, as it was prophesized several months ago, the early months of 2015 is when we’re going to see Chromebooks get ridiculously inexpensive.
And the first device maker to come up with a cheap laptop like this is ASUS. OMG Chrome discovered the upcoming ASUS C201 listed in an American education re-seller catalog.
The ASUS C201 Chromebook will arrive soon
According to the listing, the C201 will arrive into the wild with the usual 11.6-inch HD display characteristic to most Chromebook products today.
But unlike most models that draw life from Intel Celeron or Pentium processors, this one will have a Rockchip RK3288 clocked at 1.33 GHz under the hood, working in concert with 2GB of RAM plus 16GB of eMMC storage. It appears ASUS will also offer a version of the ASUS C201 model with 4GB of RAM and 32GB SSD.
So what should we expect in terms of processing power from a Chromebook that takes advantage of a Rockchip processor? The RK3288 is outfitted with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A17 CPU running at 1.8GHz (on paper), which in theory should make for a capable processor.
The Rockchip RK3288 also arrives with a Mali-T674 GPU capable of sustaining a 4K monitor and 3D performance.
If you’re wondering about pricing, this aspect is currently unknown, but previous rumors did say at some point that Rockchip Chromebook might arrive on the market with a price tag as low as $179 / €167. Imagine paying so little for a laptop.
More Rockchip Chromebooks are coming in 2015
ASUS is not the only device maker expected to jump on the cheap Chromebook bandwagon. As we reported a few months ago, Lenovo is also expected to roll out two models possibly taking advantage of the same chip architecture.
The specifications are probably going to be quite similar to those of the ASUS device we detailed above, but we’re only guessing at this point.
On the other hand, Google is continuing its path of launching super expensive Chromebook models, as the search giant recently rolled out the new-generation Chromebook Pixel, a laptop which comes with a beautiful display, Broadwell processor and the new USB Type-C standard.