By 2014, the formula discovered by the $249 Samsung ARM Chromebook and the volume promised by the education takeover had every PC maker’s attention. What followed was a two-year land rush that pushed prices to $149, put ChromeOS on an HDMI stick, and, almost as an afterthought, invented the convertible Chromebook. Chapter seven of our Chromebook history series.
Intel strikes back
The 2012 ARM experiment stung Intel, and the response came in waves. Late 2013 brought Haswell-based models, most famously the Acer C720, a $199-$249 machine so fast, cheap, and hackable it became the era’s default recommendation. Then 2014’s Bay Trail Celerons gave Intel what ARM had: chips cheap enough for $199 laptops and cool enough to run without fans.
Suddenly the ARM-versus-Intel fight was raging inside a product category two years old. Consumers won: prices fell, battery life stretched past ten hours, and fanless silence became a standard Chromebook expectation rather than a novelty.
Everyone jumps in
The OEM roster exploded. HP shipped the colorful Chromebook 11 and the 14-incher. Toshiba entered with the Chromebook 2, whose 1080p IPS screen embarrassed laptops twice its price. Dell’s Chromebook 11 — rubberized, hinge-reinforced, built like a school bus, became the education fleet favorite and arguably the most repaired Chromebook in history (a distinction our repair vs replace guide owes a debt to). Lenovo, LG (with a Chromebase all-in-one), and others followed.
In spring 2015, Google pushed the floor lower still: partner-built Haier and Hisense Chromebooks at $149, sold through Amazon and Walmart. A real laptop (keyboard, screen, all-day battery, auto-updating OS) for less than many phone cases. The market answered the question “how cheap can a Chromebook be?” with “cheaper than you thought,” a race that continues in our best Chromebooks under $300 roundup today.
The weird ones: Chromebit and the Flip
2015 also produced the era’s two most interesting experiments, both from ASUS:
- The Chromebit CS10, an $85 stick that plugged into any HDMI port and turned a TV or monitor into a full ChromeOS computer. Consumers shrugged, but businesses noticed: digital signage and kiosk deployments adopted it, seeding the commercial ChromeOS niche we’ll cover in a later episode.
- The ASUS Chromebook Flip C100, a tiny $249 aluminum laptop whose screen folded all the way back into a tablet. In mid-2015 this seemed like a gimmick on an OS with zero touch apps. Twelve months later, it became the single most important Chromebook of its generation, because Google chose it as a launch device for Android apps, the subject of our next chapter.
Why it still matters today
This is the era that made the Chromebook a normal thing to buy. Multi-vendor competition set the enduring market structure: a crowded $149-$299 core, education ruggedization as a product language, and periodic oddball experiments at the edges. The spec battles of 2014-2015, how much RAM is enough, eMMC versus real SSD, TN versus IPS panels, are the exact questions buyers still face, which is why our RAM, storage, and CPU guide reads like a field manual to this period’s legacy.
And one throwaway product (the Flip) turned out to be a load-bearing wall. Without a convertible touchscreen Chromebook already on shelves, the Android app era would have had no hardware to land on.
FAQ
What was the cheapest Chromebook ever sold?
The 2015 Haier Chromebook 11 and Hisense Chromebook both launched at $149. Refurbished and sale units have gone lower since, but $149 remains the symbolic floor for a new, full-size Chromebook at launch.
What was the Chromebit?
An ASUS-built ChromeOS computer the size of a candy bar that plugged directly into an HDMI port ($85, November 2015). It found its market in digital signage and kiosks rather than living rooms.
Why was the Acer C720 so beloved?
It hit the sweet spot: Haswell speed, $199-$249 price, great battery, and easy internal access that made it a favorite for tinkerers installing Linux. Many consider it the first Chromebook with no real compromises for the price.
Was the ASUS Flip C100 the first convertible Chromebook?
It was the first widely sold 360-degree convertible Chromebook, launching mid-2015. Lenovo’s rugged N20p (2014) had a fold-back hinge but stopped short of full tablet mode.
Next in the series: Google I/O 2016 drops the bombshell — the entire Play Store is coming to ChromeOS, and the browser-only era ends.
