New Chromebooks With Battery-Friendly Haswell Processors On The Way From HP, Asus, Toshiba, Acer

The laptop hardware based on Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Chrome operating system will have four more additions, including its largest entry yet: a 14-inch Chromebook from HP running the new Haswell processor architecture from Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). Asus will also develop its first Chromebook this year, along with fellow newcomer Toshiba, and Acer will introduce a new Chromebook model featuring the Haswell chip.

The Chromebook 14 from HP, pairs the energy-efficient Haswell processor from Intel with a 14-inch (1366 x 768) display and offers 16GB of built-in memory, 100GB of Google Drive space and HDMI and USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. The HP Chromebook 14 will ship with optional built-in 4G connectivity (compatible with T-Mobile) in white, turquoise and “Coral Peach.” It's priced at $299 and HP says it will be available by this holiday season.

The Chrome OS pairs an operating system dedicated mostly to online work, allowing it to utilize very few hardware resources. The low amount of built-in storage on Chromebooks is augmented by free space bundled with the purchase in the Google Drive cloud service. The new Chromebooks were announced yesterday by Intel at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.

Acer will introduce a new black Chromebook with an 11.6-inch display that boots up in less than seven seconds and can last for up to 8.5 hours of continuous usage, the manufacturer claims. Acer did not announce pricing for the new model, but said the Chromebook was less than an inch thick (0.75-inches) and weighed less than three pounds. The new Acer Chromebook will also ship with 100GB of free Google Drive storage.

Intel and Google did not release details on the Toshiba Chromebook, which was displayed in promotional photos in silver. Asus will release a Chromebox for the Taiwanese manufacturer’s first foray into the Chrome OS. Chromeboxes are desktop versions of the lightweight OS.

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