Google I/O 2011: Samsung Series 5 Chrome Laptop Hits The Stage

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Seeing hardware cross the stage at the 2011 Google I/O show was a bit unexpected for me. But that’s exactly what’s happened today thanks to the appearance of the Samsung Series 5 laptop, running Google’s Chrome operating system.

The Samsung Series 5 operates under the “Chromebook” standard, which means they’ll be running Intel’s Atom processor (dual-core, too, which isn’t bad) and have a projected battery life of around 8.5 hours, which as far as laptops go, is not bad at all either.

Plus, this particular Chromebook will be packing a 12.1 inch screen showing at 1280 x 800 resolution and 300 nits of brightness, and will also offer dual-band wi-fi, 3G if you want it, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, HD webcam and a clickable trackpad.

For those who got a try with the CR-48 and didn’t like the trackpad, fear not, as word out of Google says said trackpad has been modified substantially since its original version, which by all reports should come as a very welcome relief.

Oddly, there weren’t many mentions made at the I/O show about the rest of the basics–things like hard drive size, or possibly solid state drive size instead, or even the amount of RAM this thing’s going to pack in it or any kind of graphics cards. You know, all those things that go into a decision about whether or not to actually buy a computer or not?

Still though, the specs that we do have suggest a relatively decent laptop, and since you’ll be able to start picking these up June 15th at either Best Buy or Amazon, you’ll be able to go hands on with it yourself in fairly rapid fashion. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that these will run $429 for the wi-fi version, or $499 to get one with 3G access included. Should be a fairly decent model, especially at those prices, which are cheap as laptops go.