Providing stiff competition to its competitors, Google recently announced the release of its new Chromebook priced at an affordable $249.

Manufactured by Samsung, the new Chromebook is not meant for just working professionals, but for everyone who wants an additional, easy-to-carry computer.

“Many people use the Chromebook today as the perfect additional computer for their home. For families, it’s easy to use and share: for kids doing homework on the couch, parents catching up on emails at the kitchen counter and grandparents staying connected on video chat. There’s no need to worry about security updates and maintenance is easy; all you need to do is charge the battery. It just works,” Sundar Pichai, Senior Vice-President, Chrome & Apps, wrote in Google Chrome’s official blog.

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The new Chromebook is easy to share as it weighs just about 2.5 pounds and is a mere 0.8 inches in thickness. The chiclet keyboard, large touchpad and compact design further make it easy to use and carry it around all day.

On the performance front, the Chromebook has a battery life of six hours and has a 100 GB of free storage on Google Drive. It boots up in less than 10 seconds and is said to be perfect for an active user of Gmail, Drive, Search, Maps, YouTube, Play or Google+ Hangouts, according to the blog.

Users too agree, pointing out that the new Chromebook is perfect for those who use a lot of Google Docs, Google Drive and Gmail. “I find it a reasonable device … especially for people like myself who already have their heads in the Google cloud with Google Docs, Google Drive, and Gmail. It's got workable if not standout hardware, its battery life is good, it switches on quickly, and the $249 price tag means it's not as much of a commitment as the $550 Samsung Series 5 550 that arrived in May,” according to a review posted on CNET.

However, there are minor glitches when it comes to performance. The CNET review shows that the performance is “struggles under a load, especially when there are many browser tabs open.”

But on the whole, the new Chromebook is perfect as a second computer lying around the house and is an affordable purchase at $249, especially for Google-centric users.