Chromebooks Top 3 Laptop Sellers at Amazon This Holiday Season
To a certain amount of holiday cheer and confirmation that the Chromebook is offering something to consumers who want a low cost laptop that is actually usable, Amazon confirmed just after the Christmas holiday sales period that two out of the top 3 laptop sellers were in fact Chromebooks. Sales figures cover the period November 1 to December 19 which effectively includes Christmas purchases as arranging customer deliveries for warehouse dispatches after December 19 has to be a little tough.
The press release from Amazon listed many popular sellers in numerous categories but just the Acer C720 Chromebook, ASUS Chromebook 13-inch with Gigabit WiFi and HP 11 11.6-inch Chromebook stood out. The Amazon Fire TV device also flew off the warehouse shelves all around America even if the Fire Phone continues to remain less of a hit for the e-tailer.
Attraction of Chromebooks
The main attraction of the Chromebooks is the low price point which appeals to parents looking for their first affordable laptop for their child, older generations who want a new laptop but without breaking the bank and other people who simply like to try something different.
Chromebooks run the Google Chrome operating system which runs all of the common Google apps by default, as one might expect from the search giant, which gets people a long way forward.
Just think about it: Gmail for email, Gdocs and Drive for spreadsheets, word processing and storage needs (with Google offering free storage for 2 years on select Chromebook models). If consumers can learn how to use the Chrome OS without many problems then they'll be all setup and ready to go. Microsoft should be quite concerned if they aren't already. Their 11.6-inch HP Stream which was once thought of as a potential “Chromebook killer” was nowhere to be seen in the top 3 laptop sellers at Amazon.
Last year at the same time the situation wasn't much different with Chromebooks again taking two of the 3 best selling laptops. The Samsung Chromebook was first and the Acer C7 came in 3rd. Clearly Acer knows what it is doing in the Chromebook arena.
Acer C720 Chromebook
The top seller was the Acer C720 Chromebook which is a convenient 11.6-inch model that is easy to carry under the arm or in a messenger bag to school, college or work.
This smaller laptop is essentially a netbook with a 768p display. The device is powered by a 1.4 GHz Intel Celeron processor so it certainly won't break any performance records here. The 16 GB of flash memory should be enough to run some basic tasks as it is coupled with 2 GB of RAM memory. The 768p display is Intel HD Graphics with its 128 MB of RAM for the graphic. Wireless is covered via 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi access which falls short of the latest dual-band 802.11AC communications standard.
The Acer C720 represents a smaller, lower powered laptop for users who don't demand that much from it. It will run for up to 8.5 hours which will be sufficient for most users. If customers buy the C720 safe in the knowledge of exactly what they want to use this Chromebook for, they should be pleased with the modest results.
Asus C300 Chromebook
The second most popular laptop at Amazon this Christmas was the larger 13.3-inch 768p display of the Asus C300 Chromebook which was competitively priced during different parts of the run up to Christmas Day at times dipping as low as sub-$200 territory. The Asus comes in many different colors (Black, Red, Yellow and Light Blue). There are several configurations available with an Intel dual-core processor, 16 GB or 32 GB of storage and either 2 or 4 GB of RAM memory to keep the laptop ticking over.
The Asus model offers a good deal of connectivity for the price with USB 3.0 ports, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Dual-Band 802.11AC and 100 GB Google Drive storage for 2 years. Battery is said to last 10 hours so this laptop won't cut out when you need to send an email urgently either.
The Asus C300 Chromebook is a different beast to the Acer C720 Chromebook. It is a remarkable achievement for the price. This laptop will suit people who like the idea of the Chromebook but who are worried that it won't pack enough of a punch for what they want to get done.
HP Chromebook 11 (Second generation)
The HP Chromebook 11 (Second generation) in white color came in third. This is an 11.6-inch Chromebook with a 768p display, a Samsung 1.7 GHz Exynos 5000 Series processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 16 GB eMMC solid state storage (100 GB of Google Drive cloud storage) and a couple of USB 2.0 ports. The battery life is a less inspiring 6.25 hours. It does have a full size keyboard which is nice to have with a laptop this small. Communication is provided via the 802.11bgn Wi-Fi rather than the later AC standard.
It is a little more difficult to rate the speed of the processor with this model but with limited internal storage, the older Wi-Fi communication and 2 GB of RAM, this is a mid-level Chromebook laptop at best. The lower 6.25 hour stated battery life is below the Asus C300 Chromebook 8.5 hours and way below the Asus C300 Chromebook with its 10 hours maximum battery life. So buyers are making certain compromises here; hopefully they were aware of it before they made the purchase.
