Toshiba Refreshes The Chromebook 2 With Broadwell
by Brett Howse on September 22, 2015 6:35 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Toshiba
- Chrome OS
- Chromebook
Toshiba announced today that it has refreshed their Chromebook 2 model. The new version will be available with 5th generation Core i3 or Celeron processors. Thanks to the the poor branding by Intel and vague release notes by Toshiba, the Celeron model may be the same N2840 as before or it may also be Core based. This is a pretty mild refresh, but the optional Core should mean a pretty significant increase in performance compared to the outgoing Silvermont based N2840.
The Chromebook 2 keeps its 13.3-inch IPS display, as well as the ability to configure it with up to 4 GB of memory which should be plenty for most tasks in Chrome OS. The notebook is just 2.9 lbs and offers up to nine hours of battery life according to Toshiba. The company is trying to leverage some other branding as well, saying that the front facing stereo speakers are tuned by Skullcandy.
| Toshiba Chromebook 2 Specifications | |
| Processor | 5th Generation Core i3 or Celeron |
| Connectivity | 2x2 dual-band 802.11ac (Intel 7260NGW) Bluetooth 4.0 (Intel 7260NGW) |
| Memory | up to 4GB DDR3L |
| Storage | 16GB eMMC |
| Battery | 3-cell ~10.8V, 3860mAh, 44Wh |
| I/O | 1 x USB 3.0 1 x USB 2.0 HD webcam Dual array microphone HDMI Headphone/mic jack SD Card reader |
| Dimensions | 12.6" x 8.4" x 0.76" / 320 x 213 x 19.3 mm |
| Display | 13.3-inch IPS 1920x1080 |
| Weight | 2.95 lbs. / 1340g |
| Price | $330 (Celeron) $430 (i3) |
Overall, the device does not change much, but it was already one of the nicer looking Chromebooks around. We were able to do a full review on this based on the N2840 Celeron, and the one complaint was that it needed a bit more processing power. The i3 model should help out a lot in that respect. The new model also gains a backlit keyboard which is kind of surprising in this price range.
The new models will be shipping on October.
Source: Toshiba
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Demi9OD - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
Love my CB2, but I do wish the screen was matte. Watching movies while sitting in an airport can be frustrating with all the glare.Spectrophobic - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
I think the problems lies on the "watching movies while sitting in an airport" thing.dragantoe - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
It frustrates me that you can't get a windows machine this nice for $430, so I guess I'll just have to buy it and install it myself (after throwing in a new ssd)aryonoco - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
Storage is soldered and not upgradeable. Also can't install Windows because coreboot.You can install Linux on them fine though.
webdoctors - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Amazon has $350 FHD windows laptops, unfortunately the screen is not IPS...http://www.amazon.com/F555LA-AB31-15-6-inch-Full-H...
If they reduced the screen size, removed the DVD drive, increased the battery and added the backlit keyboard they'd be similar.
smorebuds - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
By "this nice" I don't think he meant a 5 pound brick with a 5400rpm spinner.Lord of the Bored - Thursday, September 24, 2015 - link
Given he was talking about installing an SSD anyways, I don't think the nature of the shipping storage device is a concern. And any cuirrently-available hard disk beats the 16 GB this Chromebook comes with.aryonoco - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
The Celeron version is probably Braswell, not Broadwell based.Kind of a pity that Toshiba missed the Pentium N3700. That processor looks custom made for Chromebooks. Hopefully the Celeron model is at least the quad core version of Braswell.
The Toshiba Chromebook 2 was the best Chromebook of the last 12 months, hopefully Anandtech continues to review Chromebooks even now that Jarred has left.
speculatrix - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
indeed, the newest Atom processors seem to have finally reached the performance to allow a reasonable experience. I think the fact that there's a Microsoft Surface using the new X series Atoms suggest that they can be taken seriously.Cryio - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
So I guess Skylake laptop CPUs are still nowhere to be seen.