Although they are not must have’s yet, Chromebooks are the buzz device of the moment. I have had the budget Samsung XE303C12 to test for the last couple of weeks to see if working from a cloud connected browser is an option.
Price & Where From
Best price £224 from Currys/PC World
In The Box
Samsung Chromebook XE303C12 and power cable
Device Layout
Standard Netbook layout
Software Overview
Google Chrome OS – self updating so always latest version
Camera
0.3MP centre mounted webcam
Display
11.6″ 1366×768 LED HD
CPU
Samsung Exynos 5 dual 1.7G with 1MB cache
Other hardware info
2G DDR3L Memory
16GB eMMC solid state drive
3w (1.5wx2) speakers
HDMI video output
1xUSB 3 & 1xUSB 2
3 in 1 card slot
Mic input
Headphone output
It’s often said that benchmarks and specifications are not everything, and this is certainly the case with Chromebooks. Unlike other Laptops a Chomebook is not an attempt to replace your Desktop, but rather it is an addition to compliment it. I think these are what Netbooks would have been if we have the on-line infrastructure at the time.
Although Google Chrome OS is not the first cloud based operating system to be released (I remember trying Jollicloud OS a while back) it is without doubt the biggest, and by getting OEM’s on board Google have made sure it gets noticed in the market place. The recent release on the Chromebook pixel with it’s massive resolution screen and just as big price tag has made sure that Chromebook’s and Chrome OS have hit the front pages of almost every technology site out there. But is Chrome OS a viable option or is just another technology fad?
First off you need to get used to living in a browser and while you might spend most of your PC time in one, once restricted it does take a little getting used to. Coming from Linux I have been spoilt by multiple workspaces so this first step was a big one to me but after a few days my natural instinct to open an app in a new workspace for a task died down. The second culture shock to get over is that being locked in a browser means you can only use websites, extensions and Chrome apps to complete your tasks. At first this is trickier than you would think as finding the best sites to complete tasks can be more than a little laborious. I found it was best to start by using official sites and then expanding out. Even then not everything a PC/Laptop is capable of is currently do-able on a Chromebook. You won’t be able to locally do anything too tasking but that is not what they are designed for. As of now I have not come across a task that I have been unable to do (even if some can be a little more awkward than normal) from blogging to touching up pictures the web has not let me down. I have also noticed an increase in Chrome apps that run outwith the standard browser interface, giving more of a standard desktop feel.
The great thing about it is how accessible it is, powering on in seconds, and resuming from sleep almost instantly I find it ready to go when I want it to. Battery life in deep sleep is also fantastic and the best I can describe it is matching a tablet from screen off to screen on. Obviously being browser based social media is well catered for but looking through the Chrome web store you can find extensions for almost any purpose.
The hardware is a very sleek and minimal design, and obviously copied right out the Apple MacBook spring catalogue. Made of plastic (at £230 list they had to make savings somewhere) it has been coloured a metallic silver to give a more expensive look. It is however nice and light making it easy to carry around. With a decent selection of ports connecting to external devices should not be a problem. The screen is a little underwhelming though, the resolution of 1366×768 is fine, but it lacks a certain vibrancy and in fact reminds me of the matt style screens on my daughters Elonex WebBooks. Audio is reasonably loud to the extent I have been using it as my music source while in the kitchen cooking, but as you would expect the quality is not crystal. I found the keyboard to be very good, responsive, tactile and well spaced for a small device. It is worth mentioning that Chrome OS and Chromebooks don’t use a standard keyboard layout. There is no delete key, or Caps Lock for example, but the OS uses it’s own set of keyboard short cuts to overcome this. The Trackpad follows suit and only has a single button, a right click is achieved by a two fingered tap, and you use gestures for scrolling on screen. Tricky to remember at first, but easy to get the hang of.
The other big negative is the size of the solid state drive, at 8G I feel it is just too small (again this will be to help keep the price down). I keep my music on the cloud with Google play music, and my photos are stored on Picasa with Google plus, but there will be times I want more data kept locally. The multi-card reader slot goes some way to address this, but I would still rather the internal storage was larger.
Good Points
Portablilty
Resume speed
Price
Bad Points
Screen
Small solid state drive
To conclude I will say that after spending some time with the Chromebook I really want one. It’s not powerful, or even flash, and the screen is a little poor, but the experience really suited me. I used the word accessible earlier on, and that’s what it was for me. Once I got to grips with Chrome OS it stopped being an obstacle and the device came into it’s own. Easy to use, more than fast enough for the tasks it had, and highly portable with very good battery life (6 hours with constant use).
SCORE
[rating rating=”4″]
What's your reaction?
Love It
0%
Hate It
0%
How To Enable Google Now Notifications in Google Chrome
I’m a little late to the table with this one given that I posted the details on this last night via my Google+ page however it seems it interests a few people so here is how you enable Google Now Notifications on Google Chrome. Simply download Chrome Beta, restart the browser then type chrome://flags into Chrome […]
Feedly as a Google Reader alternative
By Sami Mughal I was not alone who got annoyed, angry and a bit hurt when they logged into their Google Reader and found that the much loved RSS reader had decided to take an (early) retirement and will be becoming one with the likes of Google Wave on the 1st of July. It meant […]
ChromeBook Pixel time lapse wallpaper available to all
The Chromebook Pixel is without doubt a lovely piece of technology, even if it is a little pricey at £1049, and without doubt its killer feature is the ultra hi-res 2560×1700 with 239 PPI screen. To help showcase the screen Google have created a visually stunning live wallpaper called time lapse and now it’s been […]
Remember the Chromebook Link? It seems like it might be real
The Chrome OS expert François Beaufort has shown us more evidence to believe that a new amazing Chromebook is on the way
Beautiful Chromebook pixel on the way? This leaked video says so
A leaked video by the same person who brought the new notification list on Chrome OS shows what could be a new Chromebook named the “Link” or “Pixel”.
Chrome Beta for Android updated to be faster and more awesome
Chrome Beta for Android has already seen many updates and today it’s getting another bringing a wealth of improvements bringing the version number up to 25.0.1364.64 (try saying that 5 times fast!)
comments
