Following an error by online retailer TigerDirect, a quick customer has managed to get his hands on the new Samsung Chromebox, before the product has been officially released.
YouTube user GearWERKZ (AKA Jay from tech blog GearWERKZ.net) has posted a video of himself opening up the Chromebox for the first time, which he acquired from TigerDirect for a cool US$329.99. The embarrassed retailer mistakenly put the product up for sale on-site before its official release. An influx of orders followed and, it seems at least one of those was fulfilled.
Revealed at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this year, the Samsung Chromebox is a ‘net-top’: a computer that has the same basic functionality of a notebook but is intended for desktop use. It runs on Google’s Chrome OS and the model shown in the video below ships without any peripherals, though there is a separate version that comes with a keyboard and a mouse. The two models are largely the same on the inside except that the no-frills version is powered by the Intel Celeron 1.9GHz, while the one with the extras runs on an Intel i5 processor.
Jay – who is likely one of the only people in the world with this device right now – is trialling the Chromebox over the next two weeks and hopes to test its functionality as a desktop PC and also its potential to provide a home theatre system by connecting to his television set.
Connecting the device to any number of peripherals is made easy with six USB ports, and it also comes with two mysterious display ports (Jay reckons these are to enable dual-monitor functionality) and, disappointingly, a DVI input instead of HDMI or VGA.
The device also comes with a 16GB solid-state drive, 4GB DDR3 of RAM, Intel HD Graphics 3000 options for Ethernet, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or optional 3G connectivity.
We’ll certainly be checking in with Jay next week to see how the device is performing.
