I bought a Samsung 11″ Chromebook laptop in February and I love it! I was researching laptops and considered several different types.
Windows 8 is getting bad reviews, and I’m so tired of the unstable, high maintenance Windows operating systems. In addition, to get a Windows laptop with decent processing speed, it was going to cost easily over $500.
If money were no object, I’d get a Mac laptop. No question. But while I think very highly of Apple’s excellent quality products (love my iphone!), they are priced outrageously high!
A friend’s daughter has a Chromebook and really likes it. I started doing research and decided that it was worth trying. The Chromebook runs the Chrome operating system (OS) (as opposed to Windows or Mac OSX) which is a browser based OS. While some have claimed that without WiFi, it’s as good as a brick, there are also apps, such as Gmail Offline, that allow you to continue to work with your email and Google docs without an Internet connection.
For my purposes, I wanted a device with a physical keyboard and a decent size screen for typing long emails, viewing web pages not intended for mobile devices’ tiny screens, doing word processing, working with spreadsheets, doing WordPress web design, and image editing. I had already been using Gmail as my email interface and was using Google Drive for docs and spreadsheets anyway. With the current trend in cloud computing (storing your data on the Internet so that it’s accessible from whichever device you happen to have at the moment), there are a lot of applications available via the web, including several image editing applications (such as Pixlr) which I will share in a future post.
I chose the Samsung 11″ Chromebook because it has very good reviews on Amazon, and I like the feel of the keyboard and track pad. I like the 11″ screen size which is small enough to be very portable and lightweight, but feels to me like plenty of screen space. I read reviews for different Chromebooks which discussed the feel of the keyboard and trackpad, so I went to a couple stores before buying so that I could try them out. The Samsung keyboard has a satisfying clicky feel as opposed to the different feel of some other brands. Seeing them in person also gave me a chance to see their actual size and compare their weight.
The Samsung 11″ Chromebook is about $250 on Amazon. It has a 16 GB hard drive and two USB ports. If you need more storage space than the hard drive (keep in mind that Google Drive gives you 15 GB of cloud storage), you can get a SanDisk 32GB USB Flash Drive for under $20. This Chromebook also comes with an offer for a free 100 GB Google Drive storage for two years.
Set-up was as easy as the reviews say. I just plugged it in, turned it on, and signed into my Google account. I spent a little time becoming familiar with the Chrome browser and settings since I had only recently started using it.
If you’re considering a Chromebook, I’d highly recommend installing the free Chrome browser on your current device. Since the OS is based on the Chrome browser, that is the essence of the Chromebook experience. Now I love that I can use the Chrome browser on my laptop, iPhone, and desktop PC (on rare occasions); and I always have access to all my bookmarks!
While I am very happy with the Chromebook, there are a couple of limitations to the that I’ve found –
- Google Docs does not have a columns feature (looking into Open Office which appears to support columns)
- iTunes doesn’t run on Chrome and it’s required to sync, update and back-up my iPhone
- GoZone pedomenter only had software for Windows and Mac for uploading data to their web site (I’ve sent them feedback on this)
We’re now considering getting another Chromebook for the kids when it’s time to replace their PC. Most of what they do is Google Drive for school, email, and web games anyway.
Following are some videos and web pages that I found helpful in researching my decision to buy a Chromebook.
Chrome OS Guided Tour video – great intro to the Chrome OS
PCWorld – Chromebook power tips: How to work smarter online and offline