Laptop Thoughts: Samsung's Chromebook Series 5 Makes a Cameo Appearance

"Tonight at the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 launch party we got a chance to go hands-on with the first Chromebook, a sleek little notebook that could be the vanguard of a new laptop category."

I think that Samsung has met and exceeded expections with its new Chromebook Series 5. Looking very much like a lighter and sleeker MacBook, the Series 5, at about 3.3-pounds, with a 12.1-inch screen with 1280x800 resolution, is expected to power-on in under ten seconds, sport a dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD and a lithium polymer battery expected to last about 8.5-hours between charges, over 1000 charging cycles. Most of the negatives so far deal with the cost of $429 for a WiFi model and $499 for a WiFi + 3G model. As with the CR-48 testing, 100MB of data transfer will be provided by Verizon for three years at no extra cost (and you can of course buy more!).

Amazon already has a Chromebook page up, and ordering is expected to be live on June 15, 2011. I've seen several hands-on videos already, and this looks (technically) like a winner, and even some of the big objections like lack of native apps are being addressed by Google and partners like Citrix. I love the "thin client computing" concept, and the inherent security, so this may be on my summer wish list. Maybe even an option for my father-in-law (at 89 years old) who only wants to use a browser and nothing more - open it, do something, close it.