Samsung Chromebook (Wi-Fi, 11.6-Inch) Reviews
I hunted for this Chromebook at Bestbuys all over Texas and finally managed to get my hands on one.
First Impressions
As I opened my Chromebook up for the first time I was pleasantly surprised by the well laid out keyboard. The spacing of the keys is a nice touch and reminds me greatly of a Macbook. Once I pressed the power button I was greeted with the login screen in under 10 seconds which is quite astounding. I could get on the internet within seconds of powering on the Chromebook and came with about 50% charge straight out of the box.
Software
The Chrome OS is basically the Chrome browser on any computer with a few slapped on features to actually make it a functioning OS. It has the standard WiFi settings and Bluetooth enable feature of most laptops and other than that the OS is pretty restricted. It has apps which can be downloaded from the Chrome web store, but the portfolio is quite small. It has an even thinner offline apps portfolio. The Chromebooks truly shine when they are connected to the internet and without it are very limited in capabilities. Google Docs typed while offline conveniently sync to the Google ecosystem the next time the internet is accessed. It comes with built-in virus protection, but I remain skeptical of the prominence of the feature as for how long can it keep up with the times.
Design
The Chromebook comes with 1 USB 2.0 port, 1 USB 3.0 port(which is greatly welcomes for the price), 1 HDMI port, a headphone/mic port, and an SD card slot. It comes with 16GB of SSD storage and 100GB of Google Drive online storage. The Chromebook resides as fan less due to the processor being one that typically resides within tablets and smartphones. It uses the all new dual-core Samsung Exynos 5250 which is based on the all new A-15 ARM architecture, but do not be fooled by its two measly cores because it can wipe the floor with all current gen quad-core tablet and smartphone processors. The processor was mainly designed with smartphones and tablets in mind and is extremely power efficient which is prominent in the battery life. Those less tech savvy could easily mistake the device for a Macbook when they haven't seen the lid. The camera on the device for video chat is not HD, but does get the job done. The Caps Lock key is gone and replaced by the Apps Drawer button button which quickly allows one to access all of their apps. Although, this key can easily be remapped back into it's original state as the Caps Lock key. I personally have favored the Apps Drawer button for quick access to all my apps. The device is extremely thin in nature, but is only allowed to be so by the hinge which protrudes from the top. The device is light and can easily be carried with one hand. The screen picture is decent at best and the screen does not get too bright. The speakers are sadly at the edge of the Chromebook underneath and can easily be muffled.
Battery Life
While on the go I have managed to achieve 6-7 hours of battery life. To my surprise I found out that it only used a 2-cell battery. To those unaware, a typical Windows laptop utilizes a 6-9 cell and strains to reach such a feat that the Chromebook has achieved. The Chromebook has gotten quite hot on me as I used video services such as Netflix and Amazon Instant Video while charging the device, but this was to be expected.
Performance
While using the Chrome browser I have noticed that it does stutter while over 8 tabs are open due to its low 2GB of ram. This was to be expected and I do not suggest keeping other tabs open while doing anything that utilizes the flash player such as video streaming. Other than that there is not much to say as the entire Chrome OS centralizes itself around the Chrome web browser. It connects pretty quickly to my WiFi network as soon as I open it. While on the go I use my phone as a mobile hotspot which allows me to use the Chromebook practically everywhere so I am always connected to the internet and never hinders the constricted Chrome OS.
Final Thoughts
It is a great 2nd computer and for those that only need to use the web browser and type up documents. It has helped me complete assignments while away from hope and is a great on the go computer. That said, the Chromebook is also extremely limited on its capabilities while it is not connected to the internet. For a quick preview into the Chrome OS, open up the Chrome web browser and ask yourself, can you live solely within the browser and a few offline apps? In my opinion, for the price, it can't be beat.
my wife has a macbook air which set me back over a grand. i could not pay that much again but i also wanted a light and easy to use machine for myself. i also wanted it to be very thin with a solid state HD. well, this thing is awesome and all for $250. the only concern i had was if i could use it offline. when i realized that i could, i was thrilled.
for 90% of what i do on my notebook, it does for little money PLUS takes up little space in my bag PLUS is light weight.
I've used it for three hours and I already am used to it fully.
can you tell im very happy :)
I got this because the add on's appeared to make it a value. And I like Chrome. We travel a fair bit and most of our travel needs can be handled by this machine. When I got it, I found it was like other reviewers had mentioned. Up and running in less than 2 minutes with a 75% charge even though they say its not charged.I was disappointed when I could not get Amazon Prime unlimited videos on it, then with a little searching it appeared to be an Amazon issue, not Chrome. Today it is fixed for me and everything works. If you use Gogo inflight and google drive, then the price to you will be about $20 to buy this device. I just got back from a trip to DC and the 1 segment price for gogo at a value price was $10 for 3 hours. I was on my 11" mac air. This device appears to come with 12 GoGo passes to be used before 2015 (12 x $10=$120). It also comes with 100 gb of Google drive. Google drive is $5 a month for 100 GB of storage. So if you put the 12 GoGo passes ($120) and two years of google drive 100 gb a month ($120) that makes this machine cost $20. You can do the math for yourself if you do not think you will use either google drive or gogo. After using my mac air for 2.5 hours, and now using this machine to write this review, the feel is similar. I like it. YMMV.
The Samsung Chromebook (Series 3 - late 2012) is a pretty great device, only if you can operate on the web alone. Offline capability is fairly weak, consisting of a few offline sync systems and limited media playback. The design is very sleek, the screen isn't amazing but it is a fairly high quality panel and 1366x768 @ 11.6" is a decent pixel density. Speakers are pretty mediocre, but I wasn't expecting much. The processor in this is ARM based, a Cortex-A15 PoP SoC, the Exynos 5250. This means that the processor is very efficient and the device is dead silent, requiring no fan. It's also very capable, all things considered. Videos and web browsing may not be as smooth as an iPad in many cases. All in all I feel like the hardware is a steal at $249, but Google wants you to live in their ecosystem. If you can't do that, it's probably not for you.
Keyboard shortcuts are extremely helpful for getting around, but not necessary. There are lots of features to take advantage of, but it only took me a couple of minutes to set everything up the way I wanted. Much like Android 4.0+, it seems like the OS was designed to suit a power user, but at the same time be very friendly to a simple user of the device.
Can't add much more technical details - plenty of people have covered it. However, want to make clear to people considering this purchase: know what you are buying. You cannot run Windows applications and if you need to, get something else. Personally, I was already entrenched in the Google web apps - have used GDocs exclusively for a couple of years. If you work on several devices, GDrive is the easiest ever. My last netbook was an Asus. I consider this along the lines of a netbook as it is lightweight and inexpensive. It has a perfect size for my older eyes in comparison to my netbook- it seems much bigger. It works great. No, the screen is not the absolute best. No, it is not made of aluminum, but it feels as sturdy as any laptop/netbook I have owned. For 250 bucks, this is looovely! I am very happy with this purchase.
For teachers - you can run Power School by downloading an extension called RNDR. Download your gradebook. Go to your downloads and click on the http link, not the download. It will open the RNDR page and then the gradebook - it is a bit slower opening, but then works the same. I'm sure there are other java apps that people need to use and this extension should work. If there is one that you need to use a lot, google the name and chromebook and you can confirm if it works from posts.
I want to reiterate- buy this expecting a netbook with a bigger screen and great form factor. This is not a cheap Mac, nothing like it. You are not going to have popping images on this little laptop, but you can get work done and feel confident that if you lose it, it gets stolen or your kid drops it down the stairs, you are not going to lose all your work nor cry due to your loss.
Have fun, everybody.
Editing to say a few more things. After using this for a couple of days, I like it more and more. The keyboard is great. Took me a while to get use to the two finger scrolling on the track pad and was concerned about that, but now it feels normal. Going between my Nexus 7 and this, I was a bit worried about the resolution and mat screen on this, but again that has proven to be no big deal - the mat screen is better for working in sunlight by far. There is a slightly more yellow (not like yellow-yellow, just not that bright white of Nexus/tablets) to the screen that concerned me, but again, even that seems to make more sense for extended typing, etc - it is just not as bright/straining on your eyes.
Also, the desktop sharing app works GREAT! Full screen and I'm practically using my Ubuntu desktop on this thing. Love that!
From the time this product was announced, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. A laptop revolved around a web browser with 1000's of apps is a genius idea and to put at $250 price tag with it made it even better.
The second I opened the box, the thin and light form factor for the 11.6" Chromebook really wowed me. It's clearly not built like a MacBook but it honestly looks really nice and feels solid. The keyboard feels very nice and I don't see any lag while typing. I also really enjoy the search, back, forward, full screen, and switch windows buttons built in to the keyboard. They're very useful. The screen looks good. It's not great but I still enjoy watching videos and movies on it. As you may have heard, the viewing angles aren't great. The colors get skewed if you're not right in front of the device, But how often are you going to be watching a movie at 60 degree angle? While were still in the hardware department, the trackpad feels nice but I wish it were better. I'm a very fast scroller and sometimes it doesnt keep up with me. There is a setting to make trackpad speed faster and that helped alot but it's still not perfect.
The Chrome OS software is beautiful. It's everything you already have in Chrome on you're current computer but everything is integrated. The startup time is ridiculous and the ability to let your friends sign in to their account knowing they can't access your data is awesome. All browsing is smooth and effortless. There's an app or plugin for pretty much anything you would ever need. The Google Docs are a perfect alternate for Microsoft Office which I've been using for at least 5 years.
Two problems I've faced that I really hope to see fixed asap is that there is no ability to upload music to Google Music and Xfinity TV online doesn't play. However, that is Xfinity's fault. It's not like there's a plugin that the Chromebook can't get, it's that Xfinity doesn't support this version of Google Chrome yet. The inability to upload music to Google Music is because Google wants you to buy everything on the Play Store but we know that's not going to happen. You can download music and listen to it on the device itself but I can't figure out a way to get it to Google Music yet.
All in all, its a really awesome device that I think everyone should try. Save you're money, get a Chromebook and sweet tablet and you'll be all set.
The review of many products is misguided and off base because of a lack of understanding as to what the review should be. If your buying an SUV you want to know how well the car performs carrying, cargo and maybe off road functions; you do not care about zero to sixty times or the like. Its a classic mistake. Same for the Samsung Chromebook. I bought one and love it...because it does what I expected and needed. I do not care that its not good at large files, or spreadsheets, or playing movies or games. I wanted a light weight, simple, easy to use, device that would let me search web news sites, look up information, and read email. And do it all with no complex BS. The Chromebook does all those things and very well. If you want a machine that is just a delight to use for simple things, this is it. Get one and enjoy. Oh, and please don't review it as if it was a $2,000 PC. This thing is simply wonderful for the simple needs and us simple people.
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