Chromebook Now Available in Singapore

For users who were eagerly awaiting for Chromebooks to arrive in Singapore, the wait is finally over. Today, you will be able to get yourself a Chromebook at Courts retail stores across Singapore. A total of three different Chromebooks from HP, Samsung and Acer have been launched. The HP and Samsung Chromebooks are retailing for S$449, while the Acer Chromebook is going for a much lower S$369.

To recap what Chromebooks are about, these devices look and feel similar to a notebook, but they operate on the Chrome OS that's made for web-connected productivity and entertainment in today's cloud-connected era.

Just about whatever you can do with a typical Chrome browser, you can probably do with a Chromebook as it's basically a notebook that's purpose built to act as a gateway for the Chrome browser and to the internet.

You can install apps from the Chrome Web Store, but you can't install nor run anything else (such as Windows and Mac apps, but there is a workaround via Chome's Remote Desktop app). You can only store content via your Google Drive, which is securely stored in the cloud as long as your authentication isn't compromised. In short, a Chromebook is almost like a notebook that only has access to your browser and nothing else.

With every purchase of a Chromebook (any of the three launch models), comes a free 100GB Google Drive cloud storage capacity, which will be added on top of your existing Google Drive capacity on your personal account. However this special deal is only applicable to the first user who logs into the new Chromebook device (and this extra capacity is also non-transferable).

Subsequent users who log in to the machine will not be able to redeem the free 100GB Google Drive cloud storage space. Also note that the free extra storage on the cloud is valid for only two years. Fortunately, your files will still be accessible and stored on Google Drive after the two years, but you won't be able to add new files unless you buy more storage that exceeds the amount of data you've already occupied.

For now, the Chromebooks on sale are the non-3G models. There are no details as to when 3G Chromebooks or the Chromebook Pixel will arrive, but when they do, we will keep you updated. The Chromebooks are also only available in Courts retails stores in Singapore, and aren't offered anywhere else (such as via Google Play Store for example). As for warranty and support, users would have to rely on their respective manufacturers' local support centre.