As mentioned in our brief first look at a Samsung Series 5 Chromebook through a unit that we stumbled upon at the launch of Yes 4G – Konsortium Transnasional Berhad launch event yesterday, it seemed that the unit comes with an internal WiMAX module. This is due to a “WiMAX MAC” label underneath the notebook which we believe is the module’s MAC address.
Our curiosity got the better of us and we decide to investigate further. Since there are two SIRIM stickers stamped on the unit, we figured that the WiMAX module within the Chromebook must have gone through certification. We then take a look at SIRIM-QAS database and true enough, there are two references (shown below) to Samsung Chromebook XE550C22 under YTL Communications (Yes 4G’s official company name) although we have no idea which exact module is fitted into this particular unit. The database also revealed that Yes 4G is testing out 11.6-inch Samsung Chromebooks (XE303C12) with WiMAX module and minicard as well.
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The revelation above doesn’t surprise us much though as it is a common knowledge that Yes 4G together with another YTL’s subsidiary, FrogAsia are working together with Google to drive the Ministry of Education’s 1BestariNet project and with that, the Chromebook fits into the picture very well. However, we didn’t expect the company would go all the way and fit WiMAX modules into Chromebooks.
It is quite unfortunate that we realized about all these facts only after we processed our hands-on photos back in the HQ or else, we would have test drive the WiMAX capability on the Samsung Chromebooks that was on our hands yesterday. Oh well.
Meanwhile, we didn’t spot any listing that could potentially be the follow-up device to Yes 4G Eclipse smartphone on SIRIM-QAS database. Thought you might want to know that.
