Buying a computer for someone who doesn’t need much — say a kid — isn’t always easy, but the “Atlas” hopes to give value driven people something to feel on top of the world with.
This week, Kogan is launching a computer, and while the company isn’t known for making a whole heap of laptops and has really only dabbled before, it is a fairly well established brand for finding bargains.
Its latest attempt at that blends computers with bargain seeking to create the “Atlas”, a 14 inch laptop bringing with it a Full HD display, 500GB storage, and the specs to do a job like productivity, web surfing, and general use, but not a whole heap more.
Inside the Kogan Atlas, or “Atlas X14FHD” as we’re seeing it’s called, you’ll find an Intel chip, though not something of either Core or Atom ilk. Rather, Kogan is relying on a Pentium N3450 clocked at 2.16GHz, a low power chip designed for energy efficiency rather than heavy operations.
Paired with 2GB RAM standard or an optional 4GB RAM, we already have the message that Kogan’s Atlas isn’t made for heavy lifting at all, but Windows 8.1 — which comes preloaded — should be fine on the system.
Connection options are fairly decent too, with one USB 3.0 working alongside two USB 2.0, a Gigabit wired Ethernet port in case you still plug in the old school way, as well as 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, because high-speed wireless is better than standard wireless anyway (though 802.11ac is also backwards compatible with previous 802.11a/b/g/n generations, so that’s supported here, too).
There are some question marks, however, such as if there’s an option for a touchscreen, and if Kogan is including a copy of Microsoft’s Office 365 for a year, which hasn’t been confirmed yet.
While the screen sizes and specs are different, it feels like Kogan is aiming squarely at the other budget laptop varieties, such as the Asus X205TA and the HP Stream 11 (the latter of which includes a 13 inch option). On paper, the Kogan appears to be a similar offering, so we’re particularly curious if Office will be included since it is on both of the competing machines.
That said, if you don’t care about Office and just care about what the Atlas looks like on paper, you’ll find a real one available from Kogan’s online store this week from $359.
