New year, new look for Samsung Chromebox
The internals remain the same, but Samsung's Chrome OS-powered budget PC gets a new look.
With little fanfare, Samsung has revamped the look of its Chromebox budget desktop. Shedding
You won't find any new specs in this new model. The 2013 version has the same 1.9GHz Intel Celeron CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 16GB solid-state hard drive as last year's Chromebox. Its ports remain almost entirely unchanged as well. You still get two DisplayPort outs, a DVI output, and six USB 2.0 ports. The only update is a small door that hides the Chromebox front-side USB and audio ports.
With no new specs, the new Chromebox gets the same assessment as last year. Assuming its U.S. pricing holds steady at $329, this PC and its Web-focused Google Chrome OS could make sense for schools, Net cafes, or other places where you can get away with lightweight, low-maintenance PC functionality. Regular consumers, even those shopping for a budget desktop, will likely get better value from a more traditional Windows box.