Acer C7 Chromebook: The £199 killer laptop lands

 

While it cleans up on mobile, Google’s quiet invasion of the laptop market invasion continues. Today sees the launch of the Acer C7 Chromebook, a new 11.6-inch laptop running its Chrome OS operating system for a rock bottom price – read on to find out if this can put the MacBook Air out of business.

For £199, the Acer C7 Chromebook gives you an 11.6-inch HD screen, a 1.3 megapixel webcam and HDMI-out so you can spit your screen out onto a nearby TV: the whole affair is powered by a 1.1GHZ Intel processor. You also get 100GB of free cloud storage on Google Drive for two years.

That price tag is a lot less than most Windows rivals for one reason: the Acer C7 Chromebook runs Chrome OS (which, unlike Windows 8, is free, passing on the savings to you). It’s a lightweight operating system that’s built entirely around the Chrome web browser: that means instant start-up times and easy to get to grips with navigation. But it also means a few downsides: if something doesn’t run in the browser, you can’t use it, which means no Spotify or fancy 3D games for you.

Still, for just £199, that should make it quite the bargain. If you were thinking of an £849 MacBook Air when all you need is a word processor and web browser you can take with you, it could make for a very tempting Christmas pressie indeed. It’s on sale now at Amazon and PC World/Currys – stay tuned for a full review ASAP.

GoNote Android netbook: The £150 laptop killer arrives

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Microsoft boasts of 32 different Windows 8 tablets to take on iPad

The Apple iPad continues to be the leading tablet computer. To combat this Microsoft is reportedly working with its hardware partners to launch not one, but a total of 32 different Windows 8 tablets this year, with some costing less than £200.

By flooding the market with Windows 8 tablets, the plan is to decrease the market share of the iPad from 70 per cent to below 50 per cent by mid 2013, reports Digitimes. The Windows 8 tablets are already in development.

It is estimated that at the current rate of development there will be 32 Windows 8 tablets arriving this year, launched by the likes of Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, Packard Bell, and more, priced from around $300 (£187) rising to $1,000 (£623).

Any of the prices mentioned could deliver some serious competition not just to the iPad, but other tablet devices, too such as the Amazon Kindle Fire abroad. Despite the increasing presence of tablets in the market, there is still a lack of choice of truly great tablets worthy of toppling the iPad.

Former Apple CEO John Sculley recently described the Samsung Galaxy Tab as the “only serious” competitor to the Apple iPad. Asus would of course have something to say about that. Its new quad-core Asus Transformer Prime TF700 is already on our most-wanted list.