Samsung Chromebook review

DMGrier

DMGrier

VIP Member
So I started following Google's work on the Chrome OS when word got out about two years ago. Hearing a rumor that it will be a Linux distribution that will be released, I was excited knowing that google may be one of the few companies that could release a OS to become popular and sell well among the Windows and Apple systems.

I got my Samsung Chrome on Friday, been running test on it and ready to let you know how the computer and OS lived up to my standards.

We will start with the computer itself.

The 12" Samsung Chromebook is $429.99 with wifi and 499.99 for wifi and 3G with Verizon.
Comes with a Intel 1.66 Ghz N570 Dual Core, 2 GB DDR3 memory, 16 GB SSD, 1200x800 LED (WXGA) 300 nits brightness screen, NM10 Graphics, 8.5 battery life and two usb ports and a VGA port.

There is also the Acer Chromia that has a 1366x768 screen resolution and a hdmi port with the same specs for $349.99 for wifi and $429.99 with wifi and 3G through verizon.

I chose the Samsung cause it looked far nicer and so far I am not disappointed. It is technically it is a netbook but honestly it feels more like a laptop due to the high quality of design and 12" is a perfect size. Even the the hardware is netbookish, with Chrome being one of the lightest OS's on the market it has more then enough power.

Google has placed down some requirements to the manufactures to ensure performance with there OS, example being that Chrome is compatible with HDD but Google has asked for SSD for performance and reliability.

Now onto the OS itself. So many people who have got to read about it or been following it would say it is just the Chrome Browser, you are about 90% right. It does have a few things onto it. The OS is built on Linux and they did this to help in boot times and be able to give it more functionality in the sense of a media player and when you use such apps like google talk and amazon cloud player it will minimize to the bottom no matter what web page you are on so you can continue to use it.

Now you may ask does it have the applications to make it a functional desktop? Yes and no, it is kind of like using a Linux or Apple OS from back in the day, there is available but limited. Example being there is no skype but in my test the video chat on google talk with my wife with on her Windows PC worked just as good. That is what is truly nice, since it is in the browser what ever program you use it works on all computers. In the Chrome webstore there are apps out there to make the OS as functional as possible such as Amazon cloud player to upload your own music now, buy music and even sync to your android phone. Picasa for your photo manager and even the ability to edit your photo's. There is google docs which has a word processor, powerpoint, excel and drawing which in my testing is no Microsoft Office but it can get the job done and games ranging from mini games to full mmorpg, FPS and RTS. They are currently working with companies like netflix for support and has been announced on it's way and even there is talk of Photo shop on the cloud.

Can this replace your desktop? No, for a lot of us it can and in the future as google and many other companies continue to make the internet capable of doing more for us as far as applications then yes but currently no. There is no advance video or photo editing, there is no high end graphic games and programming is a not possible yet. In my test I got about 8 hours of battery life and boot time was about 8 seconds and waking up from a sleep mode was about 2 seconds.

The computer build quality and design has surpassed my standards and the OS has shown me how much the internet has come since using it from the dial up days. I would say for me it has replaced about 95% of my desktop needs where I can get the same thing done in the cloud.
 
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Great review thanks DMG now what do you do when you're out of wifi range and don't pony up for the 3g model?

what are the data plans?

Is 16gb of storage enough? A friend of mine uses his ipad as his only computer. so it must be possible.
 
Well For The SSD, 16 GB is quiet is enough when you think about it, you live in the cloud. My music is stored on Amazon Cloud player cause I buy my music through there. If you have music not through there you can purchase storage space for real cheap. I keep my photos saved on Picasa and it is $5 for 20 GB for a year. In reality if you use the services in the cloud and do the math over a three year span it is still a fraction of a cost of a windows OS if you choose to keep all you things in the cloud.

As for internet I always have internet cause my Android phone can turn into a 4G wifi hotspot. If you want to purchase the 3G from Verizon the plans very on how much data usage you need (in GB) which for me was no good cause I use a lot of data with online games, my Amazon cloud player and my Slacker Radio app. Now there are some apps (Thanks to HTML5) that you will be able to run without wifi and once you do get connected it will automatically update its cloud example being google docs.
 
The way I look at is there going to be two types of user for this OS. One you will have the type that already has a gaming or production desktop for work or play and they will want to get online as quickly and fast as possible in a notebook that is not to expensive but the quality is up there.

Two, users that are interested in the cloud and attempt to use the Cloud to make there desktop as fully functional as possible. I don't care if people have access to pictures or music but in reality I know that where these things are stored being on Google and Amazon servers they are probably safer then being on my computer from viruses and sypware and from hackers.

I guess if you really want this product but you are still not liking the idea of cloud services for storage then you can still rely on external HDD cause they do work with Chrome or the Chromebook does have a SD card slot reader so you can buy a 32 GB SD from Amazon these days for about $50 and expand your storage space to 66 GB, just a idea :).
 
Very nice review. I wish I had one, but $400 is a little much for just using the internet. I work security at one of the dorms here on my campus, and all night the only thing to do is go on the internet. This would be the ideal netbook for me, but my $50 Dell does the trick. Maybe if the google OS is cheap enough, I might pick it up.
 
claptonman said:
Very nice review. I wish I had one, but $400 is a little much for just using the internet. I work security at one of the dorms here on my campus, and all night the only thing to do is go on the internet. This would be the ideal netbook for me, but my $50 Dell does the trick. Maybe if the google OS is cheap enough, I might pick it up.
Click to expand...

Check this out. Seems free to me. Details for the install
 
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Well I returned mine today. I gave it the test and it seemed okay other then I started to notice a lot of the apps in the store where having problems cause they were made to run in a browser ontop of Windows. I got my new Sony and I plan on having this one for a while, the question is to for me is to keep windows or install a Linux Flavor. I will cross that bridge when i need to.

That CHROMIUM OS is made by Hexxeh off the Google Chrome source code but it is not a Google released product. I am sure it is still good though.
 
I think if they would have ensured all there online apps to work with there OS it would have been really nice and I think would have been extremely competetive on the market. To bad though cause that Chromebook in looks and build quality was right up there with higher end models.
 
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