Samsung Chromebook (Wi-Fi, 11.6-Inch) Reviews
I LOVE it! I bought it primarily for travel because I wanted something small and light. I'm now also using it as a second laptop when my kids are using the other one. I got my unit about a month after I ordered it.
The unit starts up immediately upon opening, and shuts off in three seconds. The body isn't quite as pretty as Macbook Air due to the awkward hinge. The wireless connection is strong and it never drops a signal. HDMI seems to function well. I was able to stream ESPN3 onto my TV without problem. I'll focus my review on the 3G feature since I haven't seen too many reviews on it.
3G Feature
The 3G feature was easy to set up. Once you click on the setup box on the bottom right of your screen, it takes you to a VerizonWireless site where you register online with various plan options. It also assigns what looks to be a phone number for the account. I selected the free option which gives you 100MB of data/mos. for two years. The couple of other options I recall seeing are one that's based on the amount of data you select that expires after 30-days, and an unlimited data for a day for about $10. Nice to have when you've exhausted your free allowance and you're in need of connection. Having the flexibility to buy only the amount of data for as long as you want is a great option to have because it doesn't force you to commit to a long-term deal. And since its Verizon, the coverage should be excellent. I've been using the 3G for almost a month now, primarily to check my personal email at work, and so far I haven't run out of my monthly allowance yet. For a paltry premium of $80 over the wifi unit, what you get from the 3G unit is not only 100MB of data, but more importantly, access to 3G Verizon network. Most of the time, I'm on wifi, so the plan works for me. When you're in an area without wifi, it automatically connects to 3G.
The unit also comes with 12 free sessions of Gogo inflight internet access on a plane. Each session, if purchased separately, costs $14 so its quite a deal! When you start your Chrome on a flight with wifi and select Gogo, it'll recognize your unit and also recognize how many sessions are remaining. You punch in a security code on the screen and you're on line. It's that easy. I had a chance to use it twice on couple of American flights and it worked great. The only down side is that the signal on the plane is not sufficient to stream video. I tried to watch a movie on Amazon Prime and it took so long to load the video that I gave up. I also tried to do a video chat with my daughter using Google+. I was able to talk with her and send IM, but the video portion didn't come through, although toward the end of our short session, my daughter did tell me that she was able to see the old man. I did watch a movie via hotel wifi off of Amazon Prime without much problem, so I'm sure it was the signal on the plane that was lacking.
The only drawback for me was the quality of the screen. I would've gladly paid another $50 to have a better screen than the one they put in. I suspect it'll be fine for most folks, but for someone getting on in years and one that needs a new eyeglass prescription, it may be a small issue. For that, I'm knocking off 0.5 star.
I also ordered the Case Logic 12.1" Laptop Sleeve. At first I wasn't sure if I would like the handle because it looks a bit dorky. But it's working out good because with the power cord in the front pocket, it's not easy to store it in a brief case.
With every iteration, technology seem to be getting better. This is one very impressive unit - especially for the cost.
I absolutely love this thing, but this is information that I think is valuable when considering which Chromebook you want. There is software/online functionality available to the other Chromebooks (any of them that use an x86 Intel processor) that isn't available on the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook (ARM based processor), as of this writing (February 12, 2013). For example Netflix and Native Client, which is made by Google and allows Chromebooks to play some third-party games and programs, don't work yet on the Series 3 Chromebook. They promise they're working on it, so hopefully they'll be up soon and make this review irrelevant (please!).
Also I had a temporary issue where the Chromebook would not wake up from sleep mode. I don't know what caused it, and I don't know what fixed it, but it works flawlessly now.
An inexpensive, yet well made, laptop that works for 90% of what I do on a computer these days. I can't see the point of waiting for my Windows laptop to spin up, wake up and tease me for a few minutes, just to check email. If you realize that the bloated Windows operating system is a business system that Microsoft is always trying to shove into smaller devices, it will forever be a losing proposition. Mac OS suffers the same signs of old age.
The fact that Chromebooks are basically running an OS that is still young and small and built on what has always been considered a superior OS (Linux and Unix), means that they are lean and light.
The hardware in this Chromebook is also minimal, with no hard drive, no removable battery and limited ports. But this tends to keep the user focused on what they're using this device for. And for surfing and running web apps, this thing rocks.
If you want to hack around the registry, overclock your CMOS or clean your dirty cache buffers (or whatever you kids do), build your own Windows PC and rock on.
This is not that. This Chromebook is great!
Note that Netflix doesn't stream on Chrome OS, but Amazon Prime videos do. Go figure.
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