In the past 6-8 months, Google has really been pushing Chromebooks. We’ve seen a variety of them released. Ranging from $199 to $300, from Lenovo, HP, Samsung and Acer. The Samsung Chromebook Series 3 runs on a mobile processor. In fact it’s the same one as in the Nexus 10, the Exynos 5250. It also weighs 2.5lbs and is very thin, making it pretty portable. Now the productive part comes if you are able to be productive in a web browser.
The Samsung Chromebook has a 1.7GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 processor which is pretty fast. But of course there are some downsides to that. Since it’s based off of the ARM architecture there are a few parts of Chrome OS that aren’t supported. Just recently, Netflix became supported on the ARM-based Samsung Chromebook. The reason why it wasn’t supported before was Netflix see’s the Chromebook as a mobile device, because it’s using a mobile processor. This is also the first Chrome device to have a mobile processor, so Google is still working to support it better.
I’ve owned the Samsung Chromebook for a few months now, and while it’s not good enough to replace my desktop, it is good enough for me to get some work done while I am away from my desk. It’s also easier to work on then my Nexus 7. When you compare the Chromebook to other tablets, it beats it in just about everything, except the Chromebook Pixel. Which we aren’t talking about here. The Samsung Chromebook sells for $250, while most tablets sell for $400 or more that are in similar size.
Now there are still quite a few things you can’t do on the Chromebook. Since the OS is all browser-based, anything you can’t do in Chrome, you can’t do on Chrome OS. It’s as simple as that. For me, since I work from home and work here at Android Headlines, I basically live in Chrome all day long so it works fine for me. But it is a bit sluggish. I would like to have seen 4GB of RAM put into the Samsung Chromebook. Other than that it works really well for what I use it for.
The keyboard and trackpad are really nice. In fact the trackpad is probably the best one I’ve used that wasn’t from a fruit company in Cupertino. I admit, I used to use a Macbook Pro when I started college. I really liked all the gestures on their trackpad, that when I switched back to a Windows laptop, I really started to miss that. Now with the Chromebook it has most of those gestures. Like two-finger scrolling, and it being a single button.
The Samsung Chromebook is an excellent buy for $250. Not only do you get an awesome netbook type laptop, but you also get 100GB of Google Drive for 2 years. So if you’re someone that just wants to use the Chromebook to surf the web while you’re on the couch, it might be a good alternative to a tablet. But before you buy it, ask yourself “Is there anything I want to do on my Chromebook that I can’t do in a web browser?” If the answer is yes, then you don’t want the Chromebook. I’ve seen many people complaining on different forums that Chrome OS is horrible, mostly because they didn’t do their homework.
How many of our readers use a Chromebook? Which one do you have? Let us know in the comments below.