Samsung, Amazon taking preorders for Chromebook 2 laptops

Samsung and Amazon.com began taking preorders for the Samsung Chromebook 2 on Monday.

The laptop, which runs Google’s Chrome OS software, is the follow-up to Samsung’s 2012 Chromebook, which was for about a year was the best-selling laptop on Amazon’s website, where it currently sits in third place.

The Chromebook 2 is available in two sizes: a $319.99 11.6-inch screen model and a 13.3-inch model that retails for $399.99. Shoppers can head to Amazon.com or Samsung.com to preorder the device.

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Samsung says its new Chrome OS laptop features longer battery life, a faster processor and a smaller build than its predecessor. Both versions of the Chromebook 2 use a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa processor and are less than 0.75-inches thick.

The 11.6-inch Chromebook 2, available in black or white, can get up to eight hours of battery life, features a 720p HD display and weighs 2.43 pounds. Its 13.3-inch counterpart is available in gray, gets eight and a half hours of battery life, features a full 1080p HD display and weighs 3.09 pounds.

The machines only have 16-gigabytes of internal storage, but users who purchase a Chromebook 2 get access to 100 GB of cloud storage through Google Drive for two years.

Computers running Chrome OS are not able to use programs like Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop, but they can access websites through the Google Chrome browser.

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