After several months of delay as it dealt with the Galaxy Note 7 backlash, Samsung finally unveiled its latest Chromebooks at CES 2017: the Chromebook Pro and Chromebook Plus.
The Chromebook brand is known for its simplicity and minimalism, and its user base consists mainly of schools and enterprises. Although they don't have the flashier specs that other brands might have, Chromebooks are exceptional in their own right.
But with the release of the latest Chromebooks from Samsung, Google is hoping to capitalize on a more mainstream release to reach out to a wider market.
Alanna Cotton, Samsung's VP of product marketing, said that the company wants to "pair a sleek design with supreme flexibility, encouraging users to experience more with Google Play and Android apps, while continuing to provide simplicity, top-rated security and shareability inherent in Chromebooks."
The two Samsung Chromebooks are hybrid computing devices that can work as a laptop or tablet. Because of their stylus support and ability to switch between different modes, the two newest Chromebooks are often compared to Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 and Apple's iPad Pro.
In our previous review, we compared Samsung's Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro with the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. Now, we'll look at how the two Chromebooks fare against the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Appearance / Weight
The Samsung Chromebook Pro and Plus are crafted with an all-metal chassis, with both weighing in at 2.5 pounds. At 1.57 pounds, however, the iPad Pro is obviously the lighter option.
Display And Resolution
The Samsung Chromebooks have a 12.3-inch display made of Gorilla Glass 3. However, the 2,400 x 1,600 display resolution for both Chromebooks is simply no match to the iPad Pro, which has a 12.9-inch Retina display that has a 2,732 x 2,048 resolution. That's equivalent to 5.6 million pixels. The iPad Pro's screen is also anti-reflective and fingerprint-resistant.
Processor
The Chromebook Plus and Chromebook Pro are basically the same thing except for their processors: the Plus model has ARM processor, while the Pro version uses an Intel Core m3 chip. On the other hand, the iPad Pro runs on a 64-bit A9X 2.26 GHz dual core processor.
Memory And Storage
Samsung's Chromebook offers 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. The iPad Pro offers the same memory, but you can choose between its 32 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB models.
Price
At $449, the Samsung Chromebook Plus is definitely the cheapest among the three options. Samsung is yet to announce its pricing for the Pro version, but it should cost more because of the advanced processor. Compared to the Samsung Chromebook Plus, the iPad Pro is a whole lot more expensive, with its prices starting at $799.
Since the Chromebooks have just been launched, it remains to be seen how well they perform when compared against the iPad Pro. But their cheaper price point should be an attractive selling point for those looking for a secondary computing device that they can use to multitask or carry around.
