Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks set for summer launch

British shoppers can now start making pre-orders for Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks, for delivery in July and August.

British shoppers can now start making pre-orders for Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks. Photo credit: James Martin/CNET News

Amazon has begun accepting orders for the 12.1-inch Chromebooks on its website. The two models available are identical, except the more expensive one has 3G connectivity.

The Wi-Fi-only Samsung Series 5 Chromebook will cost £350 and will be sent out on 1 July, according to the Amazon listing. For £50 more, buyers get integrated 3G connectivity, including a SIM card from mobile operator Three. This model ships later than the Wi-Fi-only version, on 1 August.

Chromebooks run Google's Chrome OS, which means that work with applications is done in the cloud rather than on the device itself. For example, owners will use Google's web-based services such as Gmail and Docs. This setup means there is less need for internal storage space and users can access all of their files from any Chromebook device.

The Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks on Amazon are only available in white. They include a 16GB solid state drive, an Intel Atom N570 processor with 2GB RAM and a one-megapixel webcam. Both claim a boot time of less than 10 seconds and a battery life of 8.5 hours in continuous use.

On 3 June, Australian consumer electronics manufacturer Kogan launched a Wi-Fi only laptop running the Chromium operating system.

Both the Chrome OS and Chromium operating systems have been developed by Google. The difference is that Chrome OS can be used only on hardware approved by Google, while Chromium is fully open source and can be used by manufacturers without Google's blessing.

Google expects that businesses will adopt Chromebooks because they promise lower set-up and management costs than Windows systems, according to the company's group program manager Rajen Sheth.