Exactly what I was going to say, it costs 700 CAD... not sure where OP got 300 EUR from. Those specs, even on a normal laptop, go for around $600
Yeah when I saw they're $600+ my first thought was "There has got to be cheaper models of this." You can still get Chromebooks for less than this.
It's nonsense to compare with Chromebook that is made as cheap as possible. Small != Cheap.
But you're not paying for a laptop by its mass, more like lack thereof. And Chromebooks has about literal kilograms more than strictly necessary, so there comes the delta.
In Japan, the cheapest I could find was 68000 JPY which is about 500 USD in the current exchange rate. It's better than your situation but still.
$534 from Ali express which is about $100 more than the 2021 price of $445. It is going on sale on 8/22 for $417 which is much closer to the price in TFA.
Here, aliexpress automatically adds 22% vat, so it's more :/
A small AliExpress tip: if you’re going to buy anything from AliExpress for more than throwaway money, always use a credit card, because if it doesn’t arrive they will not honor their guarantees and will not refund your money. Make sure you can honor their guarantee by doing a chargeback, if necessary.