Google has unveiled three Chromebooks for sale in Canada starting today: the Samsung Chromebook, Acer C7 Chromebook and the HP Pavilion Chromebook. While this isn’t our usual fare, Chromebooks are as close to Android as any other OS, and the decisions made in one department eventually trickle down to the other. It’s also the first time these devices have been formally sold in Canada.
Each laptop will be under $350 and come with 100GB of Drive storage for two years and offer various offline features such as Google Docs and Gmail Offline. Most of the functionality, however, will require a WiFi connection, which is both a benefit and a liability; being able to access the cloud from all parts of the OS is fantastic for sharing, collaboration and content consumption, but you’re limited to what you can do by the devices’ limited storage size and connectivity requirements.
Chrome OS has become a very popular operating system in the past couple of years; the combination of inexpensive hardware, responsive software and freely-available editing suites like Docs and Drive make for excellent travel companions. Chromebooks also offer long battery life and low heat output.
The Samsung and Acer devices will be available at Future Shop and Best Buy Canada, while the HP Pavilion Chromebook will be sold directly from the company’s website.
Source: Google
