Since the announcement of a Haswell based Toshiba Chromebook in September last year, I admit I’ve been holding out to see what this company can do with the ‘other’ Google Operating System. Announced officially at CES, the Toshiba Chromebook has today been announced as available at retail in Australia.
With a 13.3¨ screen – but still packing the same 1366 x 768 resolution of it’s smaller screened cousins – the Toshiba Chromebook is a svelte, clean looking device. It’s powered by an Intel Haswell-based Dual Core processor which Toshiba are claiming allows for up to nine hours of battery life.
Anthony Geronimo, product marketing manager, Toshiba ISD says of the Toshiba Chromebook
We are excited to deliver an ultraportable, stylish everyday cloud companion, that is engineered for fast cloud computing, at a very happy price. The Toshiba Chromebook is sleek, slim and durable. It has a premium finish and is packed with Toshiba’s essential features.
There’s two USB 3.0 ports on the Toshiba Chromebook, as well as a full sized HDMI port on the right hand side, while on the left, an SD Card slot, Kensington lock port and the power supply sit waiting for use. It has built-in WiFi(802.11 N) and Bluetooth(4.0) so you’ĺl be connecting to most networks and accessories with ease and running ChromeOS, it boots up lightning fast.
As with most Chromebooks, purchasing the Toshiba will qualify you for 100GB of Google Drive Cloud Storage, valid for 2 years, this will complement the 16GB SSD that’s included.
It looks pretty, but Chromebooks so far have been in the lower end of the price spectrum and the Toshiba Chromebook is no different, priced at $399 AUD/ $479 NZD. This price tag can often be related to cheaper build quality or materials, but given Toshiba’s history with high quality components we hope this is not the case.
Toshiba has advised that their Chromebook is available from today through ‘all major retailers and online via the mytoshiba.com.au website’ but at this stage none of the usual suspects – JB Hifi or Harvey Norman have it listed on their website, but we’ll update as soon as we find it. We’re hoping to go hands on with the Toshiba Chromebook soon and review it in full.
Update: The Toshiba Chromebook – Chromebook CB30-002 – is now on the MyToshiba website, they list a number of retailers but none so far have added the Chromebook to theirs.
Are you interested in the Toshiba Chromebook or has another model taken your fancy?
Pffft, 1366×768! No thanks.
They need to have built in 3G/4G to make this Chrome units really attractive and also because the OS requires a connection to be useful….why I always fall back on my ipad…because it has a sim and I can use it anywhere!
Cannot see point of spending more than $250 for a chrome book….as the Samsung chrome book is $249 in US
Agree! $399 is too expensive….$250 is the mark where it makes sense…even in Australia!
Ahem the Samsung Chromebook is close to $399 in Australia, and its screen is almost 2″ smaller.
any reason to get this if I already have the macbook air? or any laptop? thanks