Reference model of Google Chrome Cr-48 laptop released

Bangalore: As a pilot program to get a feedback of its fans on its new operating system and laptops, Google has gone ahead and released a reference design of the Chrome OS Notebook called the Cr-48. The design release is for gathering useful data from consumers so that any unsatisfied feature or application can be further modified or reworked to give better user experience. These reworks will help Google chrome to perform well in the market when it is realesed in stores in 2011 along with products of Acer, Samsung, and others. The first look at Cr-48 does not give us the impression of a commercial product, which means that it does not have the flashy colors, logos and attractive traits that are usually found in many of the laptops. The Cr-48 is a 12-inch notebook that has a footprint of 9.8" by 6.1" and is 0.9" thick. It's fairly portable in its weight too at 3.8 lbs. It uses an Intel processor chip and the CPU is powered by Atom N455. Going hands-on, gives a plastic feel coating. It's the sort of rubbery-feeling coating that we've felt on ThinkPads, which are great in this day and age where everything gets either scratched easily or is a fingerprint magnet. There's no logo on the back of the lid or anywhere else on the notebook making it a stark, bare and arguably quite beautiful. The keyboard is the island-chiclet design.One notable change is the replacement of the Caps Lock key. Instead of TOGGLING LETTER CASE, the Caps Lock by default is mapped to Search. For those who want the old way back, a systems setting will allow the key to be mapped back to Caps Lock, or even changed to control or alt. As far as inputs and outputs, on the right is the charging plug, headphone jack, a single USB port, and an SD card slot. On the left there's a lone VGA-out and a fan vent. There are speakers on both sides of the notebook. For memory and storage there's a 2GB stick of Hynix RAM inside, plus a 16GB SanDisk SSD. Its Verizon 3G chip is the Novatel Gobi2000 PCI Express Mini Card, the Wi-Fi is handled by the AzureWave Atheros and there's also Bluetooth which is powered by Atheros.