HP and Acer are bringing some new competition into the Chromebook world with the introduction of AMD processors. HP’s newly announced Chromebook 14 and the 15.6-inch Acer Chromebook 315 is are the first ever to use AMD chips — existing Chromebooks are largely dominated by Intel, and even mobile-friendly ARM-based processors made their debut long before AMD.

Both the HP Chromebook 14 and Acer Chromebook 315 will go on sale early this year with a new dual-core AMD A4 processor inside, with an A6 processor option also available in some markets.

Generally, AMD’s A4 and A6 laptop chips are roughly equivalent to Intel’s Pentium and Celeron line, which means these are lower-end processors designed for simple, power-efficient machines. (HP estimates nine hours of battery life, while Acer claims 10 hours.)

But AMD also says the new 7th-gen AMD A6-9220C CPU should also be notably faster than the entry-level competition — 24 percent faster at web browsing than a Celeron N3350, for instance. AMD didn’t provide numbers for the A4 chip, though.

The HP laptop starts at $269 for 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 14-inch screen with resolution just above 720p when it ships later this month, while Acer’s machine bumps up to a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS screen for $279 this February. 8GB of RAM and a touchscreen are optional.

It’s not clear why HP made the jump to AMD

I asked HP why the company wanted to put AMD processors in a Chromebook, and the only answer I got was that it was “past time.” But that doesn’t really answer the question: it’s not clear whether switching to AMD allows for cheaper Chromebooks, improved performance, or just creates more options. It’s not clear that this is better in any way — just different.

More competition for Intel is a good thing and likely will lead to cheaper choices (AMD has already been positioning its chips as the better value), but it’s not entirely clear what the motivation is to make the change now. A report from Chrome Unboxed indicated that HP and Acer might not be alone here — the site spotted references to up to three in-development Chromebooks with AMD processors back in August.

Correction, 4:26pm ET: Both HP and Acer announced Chromebooks with AMD processors simultaneously today, so they share the “world’s first” here. Also added AMD’s speed claims.