14 DAY TRIAL // After just the other day Acer slashed the price of its AC700 Chromebook, Samsung has now decided to also launch a cheaper version of its Series 5 netbook running Google's Chrome OS operating system that comes with a $349.99 (360 EUR) price tag.
The new version of the Chromebook relies on only Wi-Fi connectivity (there's no 3G) and the only difference between it and the previous model is that is comes with a piano black finish.
The rest of the hardware specifications are identical as both Chromebooks are powered by an Intel Atom N570 processor, which packs two computing cores with Hyper-Threading support running at 1.66GHz, and 2GB of system memory.
Graphics is handled by the integrated Intel GMA 3150 GPU, while storage is provided by a 16GB solid state drive.
As far as the screen is concerned, this measures 12.1-inch in diagonal, it features LED back lighting and a 1280x800 resolution, as well as an anti-reflective coating to improve its legibility in direct sun light.
Alongside the 0.79-inch thin chassis, Samsung has placed two USB 2.0 ports, a 4-in-1 memory card reader, a headphone out jack, a special port for an optional VGA dongle and a 1MP webcam.
Power is provided by a 6-cell battery pack which can provide up to 8.5 hours of continuous use.
The new Series 5 Chromebook is available now from all the from all major online retailers, such as BestBuy.com, Amazon.com, Tigerdirect.com and NewEgg.com.
Despite the introduction of this new model, Samsung will continue selling the white and silver versions of the Chromebook for $430 (almost 319 EUR).
Pricing for the 3G version of the Series 5 netbook is set at $449.99 (333 EUR) and so far Samsung hasn't made public any plans to offer a cheaper alternative to this model like it did with this new piano black Wi-Fi only Chromebook.