6 hours ago Apr. 11, 2014 - 11:50 AM PDT

Were getting closer to a Chrome OS tablet thanks to Lenovo, which is showing off its touchscreen convertible Thinkpad Yoga 11e. The $349 Chromebook arrives in June and although its geared for the education market, Lenovo is taking a cue from Dell and planning to sell the Yoga 11e to consumers as well.

Lenovo announced the device back in January and is now getting ready for the product launch. Brad Linder of Liliputing got a chance to use an early prototype thats why the touchscreen doesnt work 100 percent for him and shared this video demonstration of what to expect from the Chromebook.

Clearly, the Yoga 11e isnt the first touchscreen Chromebook to hit the market. Googles Chromebook Pixel claimed that prize when it launched a year ago and Acer followed with a lower-costing touchscreen model of its C720 Chromebook. Lenovo can claim to have the first convertible touchscreen Chromebook, however because like other Lenovo Yoga products, you can fold the screen all the way to the back of the laptop.

That makes the on-screen keyboard in Chrome OS a bit more valuable because the Yoga 11e can essentially be used like a Chrome OS tablet as needed. Or you could flip the screen back up and use the traditional ThinkPad keyboard. I suggested this very use case earlier this year noting that it would be more likely to see this type of form factor instead of an actual Chrome tablet because the Chrome OS isnt yet touch optimized.

Subscriber Content

Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.

Originally posted here:
First look at Lenovos touchscreen Thinkpad Yoga 11e Chromebook (video)