With its faulty power charger recall behind it, Hewlett-Packard is expanding its HP Chromebook 11 lineup with the addition of an LTE-enabled model. At this point, it appears it will only available in the U.S. where it will connect to the Verizon Wireless network. While HP and Google have been quiet about this new Chromebook, chipmaker Altair appears to have let the cat out the bag by announcing that one of its 4G LTE chipset will provide the necessary connectivity.
The chosen solution, the Altair FourGee-3100/6202 chipset, only supports LTE connectivity to keep component costs down. That means that it will not be able to fall back onto 3G connectivity when LTE is not available, relying instead on any available Wi-Fi hotspot.
“We are extremely proud to have been selected by Google and HP to power the world’s first low-cost LTE Chromebook,” said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Altair. “Our solution equips the Chromebook with a dependable and incredibly fast Internet connection. By focusing on 100% LTE and eliminating costly 3G components, we were able to help our partners lower the cost of this critical LTE connectivity feature. We see this product launch as another important milestone towards achieving our mission of bringing LTE-enabled devices to everyone.”
Altair also pointed out that this LTE-enabled HP Chromebook 11 is the only LTE-only Chromebook currently available.
Despite the lack of any announcement from Google or HP, the LTE HP Chromebook 11 is already on sale in the U.S. through Best Buy. It sells for US$379 but a US$50 account activation rebate brings that down to US$329. Verizon will also charge an additional US$10 fee per month for data.
Sources : Altair // Best Buy // Liliputing