Acer Cromia 700 ships this month, 3G pushed back
updated 06:55 pm EDT, Mon June 27, 2011
Acer Cromia 700 gets shipping window
Acer's Cromia Chromebook has had its US launch details narrowed down Monday night. The 11.6-inch Chrome OS notebook, now badged as the Cromia 700 or AC700, should be available "this month" in Wi-Fi trim for $350, making it the most affordable Chromebook in the US. The 3G version now has a less definite release date and will only ship sometime in the summer for $450.
The notebook has much the same performance as the Samsung Series 5 and carries the dual-core 1.5GHz Atom chip as well as 2GB of RAM. An emphasis on the cloud leaves just a 16GB SSD for storage. Acer does provide an HDMI video out for full-size mirroring and affords a 1.3-megapixel webcam, a pair of USB ports, and a four-in-one card reader.
Adding 3G in the US supplies 100MB per month of free Verizon 3G data. More is available but costs closer to Verizon's typical rates.
Moving to the Samsung system mostly brings a larger screen as well as higher build quality. Either Chromebook is officially unlockable and can load custom firmware.
