Australians could by the cheaper-priced Chromebook for as low as $299 from retail outlets and the Google Play Store beginning March 19.

The $299 is the Acer Chromebook C7. However, in the U.S., the same unit retails for only $199. It features an 11.6-inch screen, 1366x768 pixel display and a 320GB hard drive, and is run by an Intel Celeron 847 1.1GHz COU with 2GN of DDR3 RAM.

Samsung Chromebook has a retail price of $349.

The model has an 11.6-inch screen, 6.5-hour battery life and 16GB SSB and retails for $249 in the U.S.

Google Australia has no plans yet to release in the country the Chromebook Pixel - the search engine giant's touchscreen, high-resolution model that comes with a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor that was just launched in the U.S. and sells at $249.

However, it may soon make available to Aussie consumers the HP Pavilion Chromebook which would sport 14 inches of screen.

Chromebooks are lower-priced laptops from Google built by a third-party manufacturer that runs on the Google OS, the ChromeOS. The OS is not like the iOS or Android, but is based entirely upon a web browser.

These devices don't install software but owners can install apps from the Chrome Store and run not on Office but on Google Drive and Google Docs. The manufacturers are not marketing them as replacement for existing laptops but as secondary device for people who need a spare unit but want to spend only so much.

The Chromebooks are available at JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman and Google Play Store.

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