Andre Yoskowitz
30 May 2012 18:27
Google and Samsung have announced the launch of the first desktop 'Chromebox' this week.
The Chromebox will cost just $329 and comes in a small case, familiar to past owners of Mac Minis.
Powered by Google's cloud-based ChromeOS operating system, the mini-desktop has an 1.9GHz dual-core Intel Celeron B840 (Sandy Bridge) CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD and WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.
With just an 8-inch footprint, the device packs a decent amount of ports including 6 USB ports, a 3.5mm combination headphone / mic jack, DVI output, gigabit Ethernet and two DisplayPort connectors.
Perhaps most notably, the device will run on ChromeOS 19, the latest version of the OS which makes it a lot more usable and Windows-like. Instead of being browser-only like in the past, the new OS update will look more like the traditional Windows systems in terms of app and window management. Finally, boot time is a remarkable 5 seconds.
Check the screenshot courtesy of Engadget: