Chromebooks have come a long way since its humble beginnings in 2011. Now that Chrome OS is mature enough and Google’s suite of online apps capable enough, there’s really no turning back to Windows 8 if all you want is a good Internet-ready notebook for a few hundred bucks.

The new Samsung Chromebook 2 Series ups the ante in design, performance and models offered. Whereas the old Samsung Chromebook resembled a MacBook Air clone, the Chromebook 2 sports the faux-leather and stitching first released with the Galaxy Note 3.

This time around, Samsung’s splitting the Chromebook 2 Series into two screen sizes: 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch. The 11.6-inch Chromebook 2 has a 1366 x 768 resolution HD LED display, 1.9GHz Exynos 5 Octa procssor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 16GB of internal flash storage, a 720p HD web camera and up to 8-hours of battery life. The 11.6-inch weighs 2.43 pounds.

Moving up to the 13.3-inch will net you a higher resolution 1920 x 1080 Full HD LED display, 2.1GHz Exynos 5 Octa processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 16GB of internal flash storage, 720p HD web camera, and slightly longer 8.5-hour battery life. The 13.3-inch weighs 3.09 pounds.

Both Chromebook 2 notebooks have one HDMI port, one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, one microSD slot, a headphone jack, and built-in mic.

If all this sounds good, you can pick up the 11.6 inch Chromebook 2 notebooks for $319.9 in Jet Black and Classic White, and the 13.3-inch for $399.99 in Luminous Titan Gray. Pre-orders start April 7 with the actual Chromebook 2 noetebooks shipping in later April.

Price: $319.99 (11.6-inch), $399.99 (13.3-inch)
Source: Samsung

13.3-inch: