Canonical has teamed up with AMD, HP and Ebuyer.com to roll out three Ubuntu laptops designed for business buyers.
The line-up consists of three quad-core 15.6in laptops- the £200 HP Probook 255, the £250 HP Probook 355 and the £300 HP ProBook 455. All three laptops will include 15.6in LED touch screen displays, 1TB hard drives, quad-core AMD APUs with RadeonTM graphics, and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS pre-installed.
The entry-level HP ProBook 255 boasts an AMD A4 processor and 4GB RAM, the ProBook 355 has an AMD A8 processor and 4GB RAM, and the top of the line HP ProBook 455 (above) has an A10 processor coupled with 8GB of RAM.
The screen is a backlit LED 1366×768 and the laptops come with an optical drive and a 720p HD webcam. The speakers are described as ‘dual’ with HD audio support. Port-wise, there are two USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0, HDMI, VGA, stereo headphone/line out, RJ45, media card reader and a power socket which links to the handily included power supply.
The laptops pack a three-cell battery which promises to offer four hours of battery life in optimum circumstances.
Canonical claims the partnership will boost Ubuntu’s presence in the UK, particularly online, with eBuyer claiming previous Ubuntu systems had been well-received.
Maria Bonnefon, global client sales director at Canonical, said the partnership is a key step in the firm’s enterprise growth plans.
“We are extremely pleased to be launching Ubuntu on AMD-based HP devices with Ebuyer.com here in the UK,” she said.
“Ebuyer.com has proved itself to be a stalwart in the UK electronics retail space and we are excited to be aligning with them on offering the Ubuntu desktop OS to local customers. We are thrilled by the growing success of this partnership and what lies ahead.”
AMD commercial channel lead James Blackman said that he expects the laptops to also perform well in the small business market.
“By combining HP notebook platforms with AMD multicore APUs and Ubuntu OS, Ebuyer.com is bringing to market an offering for small to mid-sized firms and small office/home offices that is competitively priced,” James said.
Ebuyer.com general manager Lee Weymouth added that the firm chose to partner with Canonical following the success of a previous trial selling an Ubuntu laptop.
‘’The focus has always been in providing our customers with the widest and most diversified choice of solutions and hence offering an alternative OS like Ubuntu is a natural next step for us,” Lee said.
“We trialled and sold Ubuntu preloaded on one device last year with huge success, which precipitated our desire to expand our efforts and offer customers a wider range of Ubuntu preloaded devices. We are excited to be expanding our partnership with Canonical.”
The new Ubuntu laptop line-up is available for preorders with Ebuyer for prices starting at £199. Delivery is expected at the end of the month.
