Lenovo offers ThinkPad X131e with Chrome OS

IDG News Service - Lenovo announced a rugged ThinkPad X131e laptop starting at $429 with Google's Chrome OS.

Lenovo joins Acer and Samsung as companies offering laptops with Chrome OS. The X131e, announced Thursday, has an 11.6-inch screen and runs on an Intel processor.

Google's Chrome OS is an operating system for those who do most of their computing from the Web. Laptops with the OS are also referred to as Chromebooks.

Lenovo's X131e is more expensive than Acer's C7 Chromebook, which starts at $199 and is also based on an Intel processor. Samsung's Chromebooks, which start at $249, run on an ARM processor.

Other features in the Lenovo laptop include a webcam and HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) and VGA ports. The laptop has rubber bumpers so that it can withstand being dropped.

The laptop will begin shipping Feb. 26, but a Lenovo spokesman could not provide the countries it will ship to then.

Lenovo is targeting the education market with the laptop, which will be offered through resellers in some regions. The spokesman could not say when the laptop will be available to consumers.

The company earlier targeted netbooks at the education market, but stopped selling them because of weak demand.

Lenovo is the world's second-largest PC maker. The company also offers a model of X131e with Windows 7 starting at $699.99.

Lenovo's ThinkPad X131e Chromebook (Photo: Lenovo)

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com