14 DAY TRIAL // There’s a reason why most brand-vendors have a Chromebook model available on the market, today. As reported by NPD Group, Chromebook sales accounted for 21% of the overall failing notebook businesses in 2013. So it appears Chrome-enhanced laptops are in fact responsible for driving most sales in the PC department.
Chromebooks are functionally quite akin to tablets, as they are designed for basic use, like checking mail and doing research for your school project online (or web browsing). And like tablets, they are growing fast.
With super affordable price-tags, Chromebooks manage to do a better job at attracting users who prefer having a keyboard to type on. We're saying that because convertible tablets (the kind that allow to be used both in laptop and slate mode) come with a bulkier price tag, thus discouraging mainstream users from grabbing one. Display & Looks
Chromebooks manage to offer the best of both worlds. Toshiba and Samsung were the first brand vendors to introduce models with 13.3-inch spacious screens on the market, that prove to be popular among consumers.
In the tablet world, the trend seems to be the adherence towards products with larger displays. Even if so far 7-inchers have dominated the market, the increased adoption of the phablet-form factor might push tablet vendors to take-up the manufacturing of tablets with larger screens.
That’s why we’re saying customers might find an appeal in 13.3-inch devices fitted with a keyboard, just like Chromebooks.
But there’s more to the Toshiba and Samsung Chromebook 2 that sets them apart from other Chrome OS laptops out there.
The Toshiba one is a real looker, giving off MacBook vibes with its silver body and black keyboard. It’s very comfortable to travel with, as it weighs only 3.3 pounds / 1.49 kg, being lighter than the HP Chromebook 14.
Sadly, the resolution on the Toshiba is just 1366 x 768 pixels, which is noticeable less than Samsung’s full HD (1920 x 1080).
In terms of looks, the Samsung Chromebook 2 comes with a faux-leather back and a structure reminiscent of the Ativ Book 9 Plus. While faux-leather is a topic that has been up for numerous discussions, some users might find the appeal of owning a laptop reminiscent of Galaxy Note devices.
Power & Performance
The Toshiba laptop follows the usual Chromebook pattern, by embedding a Haswell-based Intel Celeron processor combined with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of hard-drive.
Samsung, on the other hand, has embedded its own Exynos 5 Octa processor which is reportedly capable of offering up to 8.5 in battery life. If the claim turns out to be true, it would represent a huge improvement over Toshiba’s offering that can’t sustain a stellar battery life.
The Samsung Chromebook 2 is fitted with a slightly better 4GB of RAM and has the same 16GB storage capacity
Connectivity and other Feats
The Samsung Chromebook 2 has a webcam with 720p video resolution and one USB, one USB 3.0 port, HDMI out and Wi-Fi (with 802.11, 802.11g and 802.11b options).
By comparison, the Toshiba Chromebook only has an extra USB 3.0.
Pricing
The Samsung Chromebook seems to be the only Chrome-OS laptop to feature a full HD resolution and a decent battery life at a good price. For these specs, shoppers will have to pay a slightly higher $399 / €288 to get one while the Toshiba one will set them back with $279 / €201.