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Friday, June 3, 2011

Kogan unveils first-to-market Chromium netbook


Australian retailer Kogan is bragging it will be the first to bring a laptop running the Chromium OS to market.
Official Chromebooks from Samsung and Acer are due to arrive on 15 June, but Kogan will start shipping its own version from 7 June.
Kogan is carefully not calling its own-brand Agora laptop a Chromebook, and there are some differences between the devices.
As Chromium is open source, it can be loaded up on any netbook or laptop, but Google has set minimum specs for devices to officially be called Chromebooks.
The Agora doesn't feature built-in 3G, an option on the Acer and Samsung Chromebooks, with Kogan cheerfully advising would-be customers they can use their smartphones to create a hotspot.
While the official Chromebooks promise up to eight-hour battery life, the Agora promises only 3.5 hours.
It also runs a 1.3Ghz Intel Celeron processor, instead of the dual-core Atoms found on the Chromebooks.
However, the Agora promises a 4.5 second boot time, twice as fast as its rivals, and costs £269, compared to the Samsung's £349 starting price. It also comes with a 30GB solid-state hard drive and 11.6in LED screen.
Kogan is a budget retailer that sells its own brand electronics and gadgets, which last year expanded from its native Australia to the UK.

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