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Lenovo Chromebook C340 and S340 officially announced, available in September

Unofficial news of the Lenovo Chromebook S340 landed late last month but now Lenovo has officially taken the wraps off of this model, as well as a new Lenovo Chromebook C340.

However, we previously heard about both a 14- and a 15-inch variant S340; as of today, only one is official: The Lenovo Chromebook S340-14. This laptop starts at $249.99, with expected availability next month.

Lenovo didn’t share detailed specifications in its news release, so, for now, I’ll list what we saw prior for this clamshell that folds flat. There are likely multiple configuration options but these specs line up with the base model starting price (Update: see official specs below post):

  • Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core processor
  • Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 600
  • 4GB LPDDR4-2400
  • 14-inch full-HD touch display
  • 32GB eMMC 5.1 storage and microSD card reader
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2
  • 720p webcam
  • Non-backlit keyboard
  • 42 WHr battery

What was previously thought to be an 11-inch version of the S340 looks to be the Lenovo Chromebook C340 announced today.

This 2-in-1 convertible will start at $289.99 with September availability, and again, I’ll share the previously reported specs as they too line up with that price point (Update: see official specs below post):

  • Intel Celeron N4000 dual-core processor
  • Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 600
  • 4GB LPDDR4-2400
  • 11.6-inch 1366×768 IPS touch display with 250nits and glossy finish
  • 32GB eMMC 5.1 storage and microSD card reader
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2
  • 720p webcam
  • Non-backlit keyboard
  • 42 WHr battery

There is also a larger version of the Lenovo Chromebook C340 coming in at 15-inches. This bigger 2-in-1 starts at $429.99 when it goes on sale in October.

And continuing the match-up of leaked specs for a 15-inch Lenovo device from last month here’s what I expect the base model to have (Update: see official specs below post):

  • Intel Core i3-8130U dual-core processor
  • Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620
  • 4GB LPDDR4-2400
  • 15.6-inch 1920×1080 IPS touch display with 250 nits and glossy finish
  • 64GB eMMC 5.1 storage and microSD card reader
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2
  • 720p webcam
  • Backlit keyboard with number pad
  • 56 WHr battery

I’ll update these specs here and/or in a separate post once I get confirmation from Lenovo or see the devices on Lenovo’s site.

While there’s always a market for basic, low-cost Chromebooks, I’m intrigued by the Lenovo Chromebook C340-15 model. Based on the price and potential configuration options, it appears to be a lower-cost sibling to the current Lenovo Chromebook Yoga C630 thanks to the U-Series Intel processor.

Update: Official specs from Lenovo below.

author avatar
Kevin C. Tofel

3 thoughts on “Lenovo Chromebook C340 and S340 officially announced, available in September

  1. Why the 14 inch would be offered with 8Gb DDR4 (What is _LP_ DDR4 anyway?) but NOT the 15 inch is amazing to me. I believe that for non-obsolescence 8Gb should become standard for Chrome OS… Anyone else?

  2. No fingerprint scanners. Two year old processors. “Update” seems a bit too generous a term here.
    It looks like this year’s crop of Chromebooks are going to be yet more disappointment. I’m a super-fan of the platform but the hardware in all but the expensive high end is a real let down the past several years.
    An n4000? Barely an upgrade from my now-out-of-date Acer c720 that I have been using for about half a decade. And more money than I paid for that at the time.

    1. It’s ok to envy features, but if you are going to compare two Chromebooks bought at different times by price,you need to compare apples to apples.
      n
      First, purchase price is not the same as cost of ownership.

      The Acer C720 platform was more than a year old in 2014, with 5 years remaining AUP. . That increased its cost of ownership per year by 30% relative to the C340 because of the shortened AUP period (6.5/5= 1.3)

      Because of inflation, 2014 dollars are not 2019 dollars. You paid ~8% more than your 2014 receipt in 2019 dollars.

      So take your receipt and multiply the number by 1.404 (1.3×1.08) . That is the number to use to compare your C720’s cost of ownership with a new platform Chromebook bought for MSRP of $289+tax.

      You don’t say which processor your C720 had the 2955U (MSRP $249) or the i5 introduced in 2014 (MSRP $379), but you said it was cheaper than the $289 MSRP of the C340, so I’ll assume the 2955U.

      Despite having a slower base speed, the Lake 4000 mobile chip’s burst/turbo speed is notably faster than the 2955 processor. It has 4GB on-chip L2 cache, 33% more total cache than the 1GB L2 + 2GB L3 cache of the 2955U. It uses half the power. This Chromebooks I/O ports are faster and more up to date than the C720 . The C340 is a faster machine overall than the C720.

      If you have been okay with what you’ve been using for 5 years, why would you be less so with a faster machine with more modern ports – that costs less to own than the machine you have had that’s past AUP?

      Don’t get victimized by Microsoft and Intel marketing that makes people believe that major hardware performance increases are necessary to maintain a level of delivered computer performance. That’s only true when software becomes less efficient and bloated over time.

      Microsoft wants to keep selling more software and Intel wants to keep selling more processors to a market that is becoming saturated with computers the-at people are keeping longer.

      It is in Intel’s interest for software to require newer hardware every year to deliver the same amount of output to the users, so they do what GM did in the 1960’s sell new vehicles by power and computers by capacity numbers, ignore that the vehicles they power aren’t doing any more work than before and encourage the software makers to load them up with heavier loads of bloat. (That’s the origin of shovelware.)

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