Australian manufacturer Kogan says it will ship the world's first notebook running on the open source Chromium OS from June 7. The release date for the 11.6'' Agora Chromium Laptop means that Kogan has pipped Samsung and Acer, whose Google-sanctioned Chromebooks are due out in a week.
Not exactly a high-end machine in terms of specs (though the lack of power-consuming Windows will help), the 11.6'' Kogan Agora laptop features a 1.3GHz Celeron M ULV (ultra-low voltage) CPU and 1GB of DDR2 RAM in the basic version, upgradeable to 4GB. An Intel GS40 chipset (GMA 4500MHD) with 256MB of shared memory is responsible for graphics and that should be enough to stream 720p and 1080p videos. There's also 30GB SSD storage, 3 USB ports, 1 HDMI port, a memory card reader and a 1.3 megapixel webcam.
Wireless connectivity is achieved via 802.11 B/G/N Wi-Fi, while battery life is a little disappointing - estimated at 3.5 hours (4 Cell, 4600mAh).
A key selling point for the Agora Chromium Laptop is fast loading - the machine boots in under 5 seconds and resumes instantly according to Kogan - and apps, documents, and settings are stored in the cloud, so "even if you lose your computer, you can just log in to another Kogan Agora Chromium Laptop and get right back to work."
Initially the Kogan Agora Chromium Laptop is available for pre-order exclusively for Australian and UK customers and is priced at AUD349 or £269.
