The world’s first Chromebook is available to pre-order from today, but customers may be disappointed with delivery dates.
The Samsung Chromebook Series 5 netbooks were announced back in May as the first products to run on Google’s Chrome operating system. The Silicon Valley giant claimed on its official blog they would be available from the 15 June in the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Other countries, presumably including Australia, will follow "in the coming months".
However, when customers go searching for the devices to buy online, the dates look very different.
PC World in the UK is advertising both the Wi-Fi and 3G models for £349 and £399 respectively but only for pre-order, saying the netbooks won’t be released for shipping until 24 June.
Amazon in the US is selling the Series 5, but the UK version is only offering pre-orders, with delivery dates stated as 1 July for the Wi-Fi version and 1 August for 3G.
The Chrome OS is different from traditional software as it is based on the web, storing little on the actual machine. Although this should lead to faster boot up times and longer battery life, it does mean a user will require an internet connection to make the most of the netbook.
Samsung is the first to launch a netbook based on the cloud-based OS but Acer is geared up to release its own and Google is in discussions with other hardware providers for more products in the future.
This article originally appeared at itpro.co.uk
