Dell's new Chromebook 13 might be the one that hits the sweet spot. It's made from a combination of carbon fiber and aluminum/magnesium, the same kinds of materials used in its premium XPS
laptops. It has a 13.3-inch 1080p IPS display, available with and without touch. It includes
Intel's Broadwell-U processors, weighs a respectable 3.2 pounds (a less impressive 3.53 pounds with touch), and promises 12 hours of battery life. It goes on sale "likely in early September."
The $399 base model will include a Broadwell Celeron processor, 16GB of storage, and 2GB of RAM—the RAM is a little low, but it's a good mix of performance and build quality for the price. Core i5, Core i7, 32GB storage, 4GB and 8GB of RAM, and the touchscreen are all available as options (a fully loaded model can cost as much as $899). A backlit keyboard, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 is standard on all models, and while it doesn't include the handy USB Type-C ports we liked so much on the Chromebook
Pixel, it does have a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, a full-size HDMI port, and an
SD card slot.
