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Samsung Chromebook makes CES cut, but Atom does not

Samsung's next-gen Chromebook will appear later this year. That's the plan, at least.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
Upcoming Samsung Series 5 Chromebook dumps Atom chip, gains Celeron.
Upcoming Samsung Series 5 Chromebook dumps Atom chip, gains Celeron. Brooke Crothers

LAS VEGAS--The Google Chromebook will live on with a fresh chip upgrade, according to Samsung.

The next-gen Samsung Series 5 Chromebook gains a dual-core Intel Celeron processor and loses the slower Atom silicon, a Samsung representative on the CES show floor told CNET.

Other specs (see photo below) remain pretty much the same, including a 16GB solid-state drive.

Chromebooks aspire to run apps, documents, and settings in the cloud and thereby simplify the overall user experience. In practice, however, reviewers have found that cloud-based computing can be frustrating if the wireless connection is unreliable.

For that, and other reasons, the Chromebook has not sold in numbers comparable to mainstream Windows laptops.

The Series 5 is slated for release in the second quarter. Pricing has not been announced.

Next Samsung Series 5 Chromebook claims a 3X performance boost over current generation.
Next Samsung Series 5 Chromebook claims a 3X performance boost over current generation. Brooke Crothers
Samsung Series 5 Chromebook specs.
Samsung Series 5 Chromebook specs. Brooke Crothers