As massive as Lenovo is, it hasn't had much of a presence in the Chromebook realm. That's about to change. After dabbling in the space with a couple kid-friendly versions, the company is introducing the N20 and N20P, its first consumer-focused Chromebooks.
Both are 11-inch notebooks powered by Intel's Celeron processor. Both also come with 4GB RAM and 16GB on-board storage. (You can bump that up to 32GB by adding an SD card.) But the N20P does something most Chromebooks can't: Its 300-degree hinge lets you turn the screen around and use the notebook in touch mode, similar to Lenovo's Yoga series of Windows 8 notebooks. Lenovo calls this the Stand mode, and while it's certainly not a must-have feature, it's nice to be able to flip your laptop over while watching videos or looking at photos. What would have been nice, of course, is to have the screen go all the way back, flat against the keyboard--Chrome tablet, anyone?
This makes the N20P the only other 11-inch notebook to offer a touchscreen besides the Acer C70P, which, for a long time, was the most popular Chromebook on Amazon.
The N20P comes in a sleek graphite gray and weighs 3.1 pounds. It also features Lenovo's famous AccuType keyboard--you know, those really sweet keyboards on Lenovo laptops with slightly concave keys--and promises 8 hours of battery life. Of course you get all the niceties that come with using a Chromebook, too--lightening fast boot times and hassle-free updates to the latest version of the operating system.
The N20P will be priced at $329 when it releases in August, while the non-bendy N20 will cost $279.
