Intel and partners introduce “socially conscious” Bay Trail Chromebooks with 11+ hour battery life

Chromebooks seem to be getting a foothold where the netbook failed. At the Chromebook event today, Intel introduced a bevy of notebooks from its partners, powered by Google’s Chrome operating system.

With the PC market dwindling, Intel is keen to expand its portfolio. By jumping on the growing Chromebook market it can keep doing what it does best–making silicon–while partnering with Google and its emerging OS.

At today’s event Dell and Acer also announced 4th generation Core i3 processor Chromebooks. With additional announcements from Asus and Lenovo, the chip maker was also able to keep its promise to create conflict-free microprocessors while delivering all-day battery life.

At today’s event Dell and Acer announced 4th generation Core i3 processor-powered Chromebooks. The Core i3 notebooks will have a distinct power advantage over current offerings. The Acer C720 will ship in time for back to school season for $349. The new Dell Chromebook 11 will be available later this year with no information on pricing as yet.

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In addition, Asus will ship the 11.6-inch C200 and 13.3-inch C300 this summer; Lenovo announced the N20 and N20p Chromebooks. The N20p will have a touchscreen; Lenovo also has the education-focused ThinkPad 11e and ThinkPad Yoga coming. The Yoga, like its Windows brother is a twist and flip hybrid that doubles as a tablet.

And finally the HP Chromebox will be available at US retail in June.

The notebooks, part of the Bay Trail Chromebook line, feature the conflict-free Intel Celeron SoC (system-on-chip). The minerals tin, titanium, gold and tungsten usually come from the Democratic Republic of Congo where warlords control the trade. Intel has created an audit and verification system for the region to determine if a mineral has originated from a militia-run minning operations. It’s an important system from the company that leads the microprocessing market.

The Bay Trail Chromebooks have an impressive 11 hour-plus battery life, up from 10 hours from Haswell-based Chromebooks. The low-power chips also allow for fanless, thinner form factors and wireless networking that’s three times faster than previous models with 802.11 radios, Intel says.