Lenovo could no longer hold its tongue as it went ahead and announced prior to a Chrome event in San Francisco that two new Chromebooks are all set to conquer the consumer sector: the N20 and N20p.
"Our first consumer Chromebooks perfectly complement people's changing mobile digital lifestyles," Dilip Bhatia, VP of worldwide marketing and design, PC Group, Lenovo, said in a statement.
Research says the N20 model has a non-touch display, while the N20p model has a touchscreen display, but both are of 11-inch size with a resolution of 1,366 by 768-pixel. The company says the two models run on Intel Celeron processor with integrated graphics, and a boot time of about three seconds.
Also, Chromebooks are powered by the Chrome operating system (OS) and thus share aspects of both mobile devices and laptops. Chrome OS is highly dependent on web connectivity, which can be enabled through Bluetooth 4.0 or Wi-Fi. Both can be configured to have up to 4GB of memory and 16GB of internal storage. Reports say consumers can get 100GB of additional Google drive storage upon purchase.
Chromebooks have a bad rap for having not-so-good keyboards as it can get plasticky and hard, but the new Lenovo Chromebooks are a far cry from that because of its AccuType keyboard that boasts of somewhat dipped key surfaces to bring about easier typing.
Other features of the new Lenovo babies include a 1MP webcam, HDMI out, SD card reader and two USB ports. Estimated battery life is about eight hours. Weight of each model is 3.1 pounds and its body at 0.7 thick, but actually considered a light and thin size for a laptop.
However, the N20p Chromebook is more of a looker as the keyboard flexes or bends back at 300 degrees, allowing for the laptop to create a stand or -- as Lenovo calls it -- a tent mode as the user maximizes the touchscreen feature. This is basically the only yet notable difference with the N20 model. Fact is, Lenovo is said to be keeping its fingers crossed that this multi-mode design of the N20p will give it a boost in the competition.
Analysts say Lenovo is the most recent of the major laptop makers to present its own line of Chromebooks to the consumer market, guessing that it may be because of the dwindling sales of Windows laptop, which is the main product of the company. Approximately, the N20 will sell at $279 in July, while N20p will sell at $349 in August.
The year 2013 was seen as a good year for Chromebooks, with brands such as the HP releasing its Chromebook 11 and 14 models as well in the market. Joining the bandwagon, Lenovo is keeping high hopes that its N20 and N20p Chromebooks could make a sell like hotcakes.
