14 DAY TRIAL // Dell lovers should be pretty happy this week. Apart from the two new Dell Venue 8 Pro models (one with better graphics performance and one with cheaper price), the company is also making available its latest Chromebook model.
As Chromebooks are starting to get more and more powerful processors, Dell is following in the footsteps of Acer and has unleashed a model taking advantage of an Intel Core i3 Haswell chip. You can now pick up the device for $379 / €297, which is more than what your average Chromebook sells for.
So far the Chromebook market has been dominated by Intel Bay Trail or Samsung Exynos chips, but slowly the ecosystem is diversifying in an attempt to cater to the needs of various consumer niches.
Dell Chromebook 11 with Core i3 spec roundup
And Dell is one of the device makers contributing to that. The new Chrome OS notebook arrives with an 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution like any of your average Chromebook.
The laptop lives off an Intel Core i3 Haswell processor fitted with 4GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, so it should offer a better performance.
Dell has also outfitted its latest products with an HDMI output, stereo speakers, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
As we already mentioned, Dell isn’t the only one selling a Haswell Core something Chromebook. A few months earlier Acer launched its own Core i3 product which sells for a little bit less ($350 / €274).
The Acer product has the same 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution, but instead of 4G of RAM it has just 2GB (although you can opt for the 4GB of RAM option). Apart from that, things are basically the same, so in the end it boils down to personal preference brand-wise.
The Dell Chromebook 11 with Core i3 might be up for pre-order now, but it will ship out starting mid-December.
Chromebooks are getting more and more diverse
Chromebooks are getting more and more varied, processor-wise. The first Tegra K1-enabled Chrome OS laptops saw the light of day at IFA 2014 (the HP Chromebook 14 and Acer Chromeboo 13) and were proven to be quite fast and responsive.
But in the future, you might get to see Chromebooks running on the Broadwell platform, too. But that’s not all, sources deep inside the industry’s supply chains have revealed the first Chromebooks taking advantage of the MediaTek and Rockchip architecture will make a debut in 2015.
These laptops will be released in an attempt to bring the prices of 4G laptops down. The first Rockchip Chromebook was already spotted at Computex 2014, so it shouldn’t be long until the product becomes a reality.