Samsung Chromebook 2 Debuts With Faster Processor, More Faux Leather

Today, Samsung unveiled the Chromebook 2 series, its next generation of laptops based on Google’s Chrome operating system.

Due out in April, the line consists of two models: An 11.6-inch version for $320 and a 13.3-inch model for $400. The biggest difference between the two, aside from size, is that the latter offers a 1,920 by 1,080-pixel display, while the 11.6-inch version has a 1,366 by 768-pixel screen.

The Chromebook 2 brings a host of improvements over Samsung’s last model, which came out in 2012. First, the laptops are now equipped with a faster octa-core processor from Samsung, which promises better multitasking and a smoother multimedia experience.

With a 16 gigabyte flash drive and 4GB of onboard memory, Samsung claims that the laptop can wake up in less than a second and cold boot in less than 10 seconds. Battery life gets a boost from 6.5 hours to an estimated 8.5 hours (8 hours for the 11.6-inch Chromebook 2).

Samsung also brought over some design elements from the Galaxy Note 3 to the Chromebook 2, as laptops now feature a faux leather lid, with stitching around the edges. Both models of the Chromebook 2 are equipped with two USB ports (USB 2.0 and USB 3.0), an HDMI port, headphone jack and SD card memory slot

Like many Chromebooks, the Chromebook 2 was designed with students and teachers in mind, though the company hopes that many families will also adopt it as a secondary computer for the household. Chromebooks started to gain some ground in 2013, accounting for 21 percent of all commercial preconfigured notebook sales through November 2013.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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