Google Chromebook laptops started life with a solid educational focus, offering a means for schools and pupils to get online with affordable, hassle-free laptops.
Since then, the Chrome OS-powered devices have also gained a solid consumer following, and now Google is going after Microsoft Windows’ stranglehold on the business market.
Dell and Google have teamed up on some fancy enterprise-themed Chromebooks in the shape of the Dell Latitude 5400 Chromebook Enterprise and the Dell Latitude 5300 2-in-1 Chromebook Enterprise.
Based on existing Latitude laptops, they have that familiar, boring made-for-work-not-play black design, only with the Chrome logo and Chrome OS and a revised keyboard layout. The 2-in-1 5300 design offers a 13-inch display and the traditional clamshell model comes with a 14-inch screen. Both displays offer a full HD resolution.
They offer Intel Core i7 processors at the highest configuration (8th-gen), with a maximum of 32GB DDR4 RAM. That makes the notebooks the first Chromebooks ever to offer that much memory. There’s up to 1TB of SSD too. However, some IT departments might be a little upset only 8th generation Core ‘I’ processors are on board, considering Intel just announced the 10th-generation iteration of its top silicon.
Dell is also packing in an LTE radio, meaning there’s speedy connectivity of up to 450Mbps, meaning folks will be able to step outside the office and work. These devices will offer Dell ProSupport and Chrome Enterprise Support as well as the ability to run G Suite and Drive Enterprise offline.
These might be the first true Google Chromebooks for Enterprise, but they won’t be the last.“This is not an exclusive with Dell,” John Solomon, vice president of Chrome OS at Google, told The Verge. “We’re launching with Dell first… but in the future we will be getting back to doing this more broadly with the ecosystem.”
The devices go on sale on Tuesday August 27. They’ll cost from $699 for the clamshell 5400, while the 2-in-1 will start at $819.
Susan Goodin
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