Samsung Chromebook (Wi-Fi, 11.6-Inch) Reviews
The features are exactly as described by Google. It resumes from standby in 1 sec and battery life is amazing so I never really power down completely. Sign off and back on is quick for multiple users. VERY light, portable, and thin. I'm not sure why people think the build quality is cheap just because it's light. I just started using Google Drive and has been great to have access to my files from all my devices (Chromebook, Windows 7 laptop, cell phone, etc.)
The majority of my time on a computer is spent on the internet or typing emails. This is perfect for that. When I need to quickly check something online when in a hurry, I flip open the chromebook and can search much faster than my windows laptop (which even has an Intel SSD and weighs 7 lbs). Webpages load well, sometimes I can tell its not as fast as the Chrome browser on my Windows laptop, but the SSD alone for that cost me $230. Compared to my friend's laptop WITHOUT an SSD, the Chromebook kills the competition.
The track pad is larger than normal and easy to use. I like the double finger moves for right-click and scrolling, which are difficult to do on other track pads. Keyboard spacing is normal size.
The camera seems just OK. I havent tried it with Google Hangouts yet, but you can open the camera to take pics. Seemed to have a lag (compared to my samsung galaxy S3), but that phone is a $600-$700 device...
Demoed this to my mom, not the most computer oriented person, and she likes it too. Very easy to use. She just uses the internet and some word processing occasionally, and now doesnt have to worry and windows updates, virus protection, installing programs to clean up windows, and is very reasonably priced.
I love the direction this type of computing is going. Seems like it is focusing on just doing what you need well, instead of being overly bloated like windows.
Overall, a great product and definitely worth purchasing.
This little gadget is alot nicer then I expected for the $. Very nice keypad and touchpad quick to startup and last about seven hours on a charge. So far I've used it for surfing, email, and youtube and playing some of the google app games. I really like the idea of all the google apps, docs and cloud drive so you can find all you stuff anywhere you log in. The screen resolution and sound are also very nice for a small laptop I will be taking this everywhere I go...
Rob D
Got the 3g version about a week ago, and love it so far. Lightweight, good battery life, good screen, ample/appropriate number of ports. The included data plan (100MB) works fine for me because, even though I have a 5GB hotspot as well, for email, web, and the like, 100MB is more than adequate for ordinary content consumption.
Pros:
Virtually no setup required beyond account info and network connectivity.
Lightweight OS performs very well from a performance perspective.
Activating the verizon service was painless and quick (quick phone call, setup the account, provide device number, done).
If system is on Wifi, all traffic routes through it even if 3g is turned on (no wasted 3G)
3G service shuts off at 100MB included cap, which prevents overages.
Fair number of plugins and apps for the OS and browser.
Quality display.
Good keyboard and touchpad.
3G service is great for what this device is intended.
Deep integration with Google services.
Browser support for Office365 is good; run MS Office on the Web if you don't like Google Apps, no need to install MS Office locally.
SD Card slot for expansion.
Near instant power on.
Multiple account/user support.
Can function as a hotspot.
Fast recharge.
Very lightweight.
Cons:
No audio support in bluetooth (huge shortcoming, requires a dongle)
Single, combined 3.5mm jack for headphone & microphone (have to buy a dongle/adapter or new headset).
SIM card slot, but apparently deactivated for US devices
Inconsistent support for large flash apps (example, Harley's bike builder app), but still looking into this.
Power brick is larger than expected.
No netflix support yet (surprising)
Tablet sized storage a (16GB; however, this is a cloud oriented device, so this isn't a big deal)
All in all, a very good device if you're not interested in running MS Office locally (you can do that at Office365) and don't have a need for a bunch of specialized third party apps. Between the generally good hardware design and performance, the available web apps, hosted productivity solutions such as apps Google Apps and Office 365, and the growing third party apps & extensions, this is a fairly complete offering at a ridiculously low price.
I'd much rather carry this than an underpowered e2-1800 AMD based netbook or i3/Pentium laptop weighing twice as much simply because they offer a big hard drive and more local app installation capability. This is a much better proposition for me, and it goes everywhere with me.
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