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Lenovo 300e Chromebook LTE

Lenovo 300e Chromebook LTE pre-orders start next month at AT&T

It wasn’t that long ago that I put a list together of the scant number of Chromebooks with integrated LTE. Now I have another one for that list, courtesy of AT&T. The U.S. carrier announced pre-orders for the Lenovo 300e Chromebook LTE on Monday.

The Lenovo 300e Chromebook LTE can be ordered on September 10 at a retail price of $419.99. Availability online and in select stores on the 28th. I’ll get to the device details in a second because first, I want to highlight what I sense is a trend. At least in the U.S.

AT&T is offering this LTE Chromebook with a 36-month plan if you’d prefer, the same as it does with the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go with mobile broadband. That doesn’t get you any break on your monthly data plan for the device, but it does help tackle your monthly budget. You can pay the carrier $11.67 a month over three years for this device.

I don’t know if these devices are locked to AT&T’s network. If they’re not, then a data SIM from Google Fi or some other carrier may work, which might save you money.

AT&T says, “We make it easy to attach unlimited plans to the laptops which will create a unique, unbounded experience for customers, with access to the internet anywhere the network is available.” And that simplicity will cost you $20 a month to add this LTE Chromebook to your existing unlimited plan.

Lenovo 300e Chromebook LTE

Back to the device.

The Lenovo 300e Chromebook LTE is a fairly entry-level device as you could guess by the price tag. There’s been a non-LTE model with a $299.99 retail price for some time, although it appears as “discontinued” on the Lenovo site.

I’m assuming the LTE version has the same specs which means a MediaTek processor

It appears that this model has an AMD 3105Ce processor, 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 resolution touch display, 4 GB of memory, ]32 GB of eMMC storage, WiF 6, and an optional stylus. It’s a ruggedized, water-resistant model ideally suited for the classroom.

This probably isn’t going to make waves in the consumer space based on the specs and design. But I don’t mind. I don’t particularly need mobile broadband in my Chromebook, but others say they do. The more options out there for that crowd, the better!

Update: Copy reflects a new “coming soon” 3rd gen model of this Chromebook. Thanks to atlman in our comments for spotting and sharing the information. Post updated at 10 pm EDT on August 23, 2021.

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Kevin C. Tofel

2 thoughts on “Lenovo 300e Chromebook LTE pre-orders start next month at AT&T

  1. It is this guy with an AMD CPU with Optional: 4G/LTE Fibocom L850-GL CAT9 LTE modem. (Unlike my HP Chromebook flub I am – hopefully – bringing some accurate information this time)

    https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/coming-soon/300e-AMD-G3/p/22ED03E3EA3

    I honestly WISH that it was MediaTek actually giving an LTE or 5G chip to ChromeOS, but it looks like they are still manufacturing Wi-Fi only versions of their mobile chips for this platform. Like the Helio P60 went into phones and had LTE, but the Helio P60T was manufactured with LTE missing/disabled and went into the Lenovo Duet, HP 11c etc. And the MT8192 and the MT8195 (Kompanio 820/1200) for ChromeOS won’t have 5G but the Kompanio 1300 for phones and Android tablets will.

    I don’t entirely blame MTK for this mind you. Google for years discouraged LTE and 5G on ChromeOS before shifting gears and starting to promote it in 2021. The MT8192 and MT8195 were already designed and on their way to being manufactured according to Google’s previous preferences. And recall that Google, Lenovo and MediaTek collaborated on the Lenovo Duet also. So Qualcomm 7c Chromebooks are going to be the only ARM ones offering mobile connectivity until at least 2022.

    1. I suspect you are correct and I’ll update the post to reflect the AMD processor. I’m basing this on looking at the prior version and it had a MediaTek MT 8173 which is pretty old. This has to be the newer AMD model. And I agree with you on the state of ARM-based Chromebooks with integrated 4G/5G: We’re likely about a 6-9 months out before we see a decent ARM processor and mobile broadband. Cheers!

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