But while MS and HP have teamed up to make machines that rival $200 Chromebooks, it remains to be seen whether Windows-based competitors that cost even less than that will be made. According to Digitimes, that’s where Chrome OS-based laptops are heading, and at least two manufacturers are rumored to be cooking up Chromebooks that are designed to kill notebooks like the HP Stream.
The Taiwanese publication published a rumor about the development of $170-ish Chromebooks just days ago, and now it’s updating those whispers with new findings from the “Greater China supply chain.” Anonymous sources are telling Digitimes that Lenovo is developing a $150 11.6 inch Chromebook, not a $170 model, as initially reported.
Asus is allegedly targeting the same price point for its own 11.6 inch Chromebook, with Rockchip believed to be supplying low-cost processors to both OEMs. The Chinese chip maker’s name came up in the previous report as well.
It appears that Asus’ and Lenovo’s Chromebooks will make use of quad-core RK3288 SoCs. These chips are based on ARM’s Cortex-A17 architecture. They’re paired with quad-core ARM Mali-T760 GPUs which supports 4K video output, as well as HDMI 2.0.
It’s worth noting that this official-looking page says the RK3288 can be clocked at up to 1.8GHz.
At $150, such dirt cheap Chromebooks could spawn an all-new market niche. Launch dates haven’t been nailed down yet, though Digitimes at least narrows down the possible time-frame.
Apparently, Lenovo’s unit will see daylight in the first half of 2015 “at the latest.” Asus’ low-cost contender will launch at an unspecified point sometime next year.
Currently, Lenovo’s most affordable Chromebook is the $225 N20, while Asus has the C200 up for grabs at $200.
