By the looks of it, LG and Google’s collaboration goes far beyond the Nexus line of smartphones. An all-in-one desktop PC running Chrome OS will be launched by the South Korean company at CES 2014.
While Chrome OS won’t hurt Windows’ supremacy even a bit, some variety didn’t hurt anyone. LG may not be as famous as say ASUS or ACER for making PCs, but it has a fair amount of notebooks in its offer and an all-in-one desktop system expands the company’s involvement in this field. The Chromebase all-in-one system that will debut at CES 2014 sports a 21.5-inch (presumably Full HD) IPS display, so there’s no doubt that the image will be crisp.
In terms of hardware, LG’s Chromebase will come with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and an Intel Celeron processor, which by all means is not much, but considering what operating system this all-in-one desktop will run, it’s more than enough. After all, the Chromebase only has to handle Google’s online products (Gmail, Drive, Search, Maps, YouTube, Play, Google+ Hangouts, to name a few) most of the time. As far as connectivity goes, the PC features USB 3.0 and LAN ports, as well as several USB 2.0 ports at the back. The HDMI port will enable users to connect the Chromebase to video game consoles or AV receivers.
To make sure that the all-in-one Chromebase desktop can be used for video conferences, LG added a 1.3-megapixel webcam that takes 720p video and 5W speakers. Overall, the specs are good, considering the apps this computer will run. However, from my point of view, all-in-one desktop PCs may not be the best investment ever. Think about it, if one component breaks, you have to ship the whole thing to the service. Still, most people have more than one computer at home nowadays, so they can probably find a spare one while the all-in-one desktop gets repaired. For small businesses, however, such products are ideal, as they don’t take too much room, and they can be successfully used for simple tasks.
LG has some competition for this desktop PC back home. Samsung manufactures its own version of Chrome OS all-in-one desktop systems, named Chromebox. Is Google’s operating system the solution for the ones who don’t need raw power for games and other power hungry applications? I’d say most probably, but only time can tell.
If you liked this post, please read about Chrome OS and Windows 8 cohabiting on your desktop and the Google Chromebook 11 made by HP.
