My new Chromebook

[Seilerbird]

I bought a new Chromebook about a week ago and I thought I would share my initial thoughts on this new product with the forum. Since Ned is one of the few people on this forum who actually know what a Chromebook is I better start with a description. Briefly a Chromebook is a web browser in a box. Or to put it another way it is a cloud based terminal running Chrome web browser with the new Google Operating System which uses the Linux kernal. One important point here. This is not a replacement for a traditional PC. It is similar in this regard to a tablet, a netbook and a smartphone which most people would not use to replace their PC.

So why would anyone want a computer that is a one trick pony? Well it depends on how much time you spend surfing the net. The only thing I use a PC for anymore is photo editing with Lightroom. There are thousands of apps at the Chrome App Store and there are a few photo editors available, but none have the functionality of Lightroom. So when I edit photos I break out the PC and the rest of the time I use my Chromebook.

There are many pros and cons to Chromebook so let?s start with the pros. It boots up in 8 seconds. It comes out of sleep in a few seconds and shuts off in a few seconds. No real need to turn it on, just open the lid and seconds later you are connected to the Internet. Battery life is about 8 hours on a single charge. So like my smartphone I charge it up in the evening and it usually lasts me all day long. There is no desktop, start the Chromebook and it boots straight to Chrome. The Internet connections are blazing. It is optimized for loading pages very fast. Unfortunately I am in a very poor reception area so I can?t give specific figures. It automatically updates Chrome and the OS behind the scenes, it is never something you have to think about. You don?t need to back anything up, Google takes care of that for you. You don?t have to put up with anti-virus software since Google built virus protection right into the OS. Everything runs in a sandbox amongst other features. Disk deframenting is a thing of the past since it uses a 16 gig SSD instead of a hard drive. Malware protection is also built into Chrome as well as a great spell checker.

If your Chromebook gets lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed you simply buy another one, log on and you are back to where you were. No settings to mess with, no crapware to uninstall, no apps to install and no data needs be transferred.

The biggest con is that you can?t load traditional applications on it, and you must use a Wifi printer.

The reason you probably haven?t heard of Chromebook is because the product was only introduced about a year ago and it is only on the second generation. Basically it is still in beta. The are only two companies making Chromebooks at the moment, Acer and Samsung. There are two basic models from each company, a Wifi only model and a Wifi and 3G model. They currently cost between $300 and $550. That makes them more expensive than Walmart?s cheapest current laptop ($27 and less expensive than a lot of iPads. I bought a refurbished Acer 3g model for $239. I expect them to come down in price as popularity rises. One of the factors keeping the price high is the total lack of crapware, which subsidizes the laptop and desktop market.

The keyboard is one of my favorite features. The stupid function keys and dual function keys are gone. In place of the function keys is a row of real keys that do real things like volume, screen brightness, and mute. The Windows keys, Caps lock key (yeahhhhhhh) and the number keypad are also gone. Mine has an 11.6 inch screen but it still has a full sized keyboard, the Chiclet kind which is my very favorite. Typing on it is a dream.

The people who will be most interested in a Chromebook are those who spend at least 80% of their computer time on the net, like me. If you love Google as much as I do you would also be a prime candidate. I have been using Google Search, Gmail, Chrome, Google Docs, Drive, Play, Picasa, Images, Maps, Youtube and Google News for years, so it is a perfect fit for me. Everything syncs automatically. And anyone who is interested in cloud computing will be a potential user. Cloud computing has been talked about for years but has not yet gone mainstream. I don?t know that it ever will go mainstream but it has definitely been mainstream for me for years. A lot of people don?t trust the cloud, they think it is unsafe for some reason. But personally I feel that Google?s servers are a lot more secure than any PC sitting in your living room.

If you buy a 3G model Chromebook it comes with 100 megabytes of ?free? Internet. If you wish more you can buy 1 gig for $20 a month, 3 gigs for $35 a month or 5 gigs for $50 per month. And there is no contract. I have stopped my 4G service with Verizon and I bought 3 gigs this month. As soon as I get to a place with better T-mobile reception on my smartphone I will be teathering my Chromebook. So as far as I can tell this device will be saving me a lot of money in the future. It should pay for itself in a few months. I love the idea that I don?t have to pay for 5 gigs per month when I am only using less than half of that. And I can start and stop it anytime I wish. You might say that I have downgraded from 4G to 3G but I don?t feel that way. I don?t stream video or download large files. I feel like just surfing the net that the 3G on my Chromebook is just as fast as 4G on a Windows or a Mac. But like I said I can?t really say that for sure since reception is so poor here. Right now my speed test shows 0.65 Mbps but it feels way faster than that.

Overall I am thrilled with my purchase of my Chromebook. I have ordered a ?skin? for my Chromebook and it should arrive on Monday. There are hundreds of skins available for it. Here is the one I ordered:

http://www.decalgirl.com/skins/92703/Acer-AC700-ChromeBook-Skin-High-Gloss-Finish-World-of-Soap?utm_source=amazon&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=Laptops&utm_term=ACB7-WORLDOFSOAP

And here is a link to the Chromebook I bought:

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-AC700-1090-11-6-Inch-Chromebook-3G/dp/B005WPUQES/ref=sr_1_11?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1344567465&sr=1-11&keywords=chromebook

All of the Chromebooks on sale at Amazon currently get 4 to 4.5 stars, so basically the early adopters seem quite satisfied. There is also a Chromebox available for the desktop.

In conclusion I feel this is the perfect computer for an RVers who just wants to keep up with email and the forum while on the road. It is smaller than a laptop and a lot more functional than a tablet or smartphone.

 

[Ned]

Good review.  The Chromebook is a niche product but if you fit the niche, it's an excellent choice.  You do have to buy into the Google experience to make the best use of one, but I don't see that as a problem.  It's comparable to the Kindle Fire and Amazon in that respect, but with more services available.

 

[Seilerbird]

Thanks Ned. My Chromebook arrived last Friday and as soon as it did I put my Toshiba Netbook up for sale on Amazon. Ironically it sold just moments after I posted this report on the forum. I sold it for $10 more than I paid for the Chromebook so now I am really happy.

 

[taoshum]

Q: if you have no wifi or cell service what does it do?

 

[Seilerbird]

Q: if you have no wifi or cell service what does it do?

I don't know what you mean by no cell service, it is not a phone. If you have no Wifi or 3g service you aren't getting onto the Internet no matter what except for a LAN based computer.

 

[taoshum]

I don't know what you mean by no cell service, it is not a phone. If you have no Wifi or 3g service you aren't getting onto the Internet no matter what except for a LAN based computer.

I'll try once more... if there is no cell (3g) signal or WIFI, will the Chromebook still operate without an internet connection?  If so, what can it do?  i.e., will it allow stand alone Word Processing for instance? 

 

[Seilerbird]

I'll try once more... if there is no cell (3g) signal or WIFI, will the Chromebook still operate without an internet connection?  If so, what can it do?  i.e., will it allow stand alone Word Processing for instance?

If there is no signal then it is basically a brick. It is designed to be connected to the Internet at all times. It is not a replacement for a computer. You can't even install a stand alone word processor or any other program. Which of course completely eliminates the ability for a virus to be installed on your computer.

 

[Tom]

Chromebooks can be dual booted to run an alternative OS, and will run standalone apps under one of the alternate OSes. A Google search on 'dual boot Chromebook' will turn up numerous discussions and articles. Some may question why bother to buy a Chromebook if you intend to run Windows or Linux apps, but I assume it gives you the best of both worlds.

 

[Seilerbird]

Thanks for that Tom, I did not know people were dual booting Chromebooks. I don't really think it is the best of both worlds. A Chromebook comes with a 16 gig SSD. So that would need to be replaced with at least a 256 gig SSD which is $200. You could replace it with a standard hard drive I guess, but that would slow it down considerably. For a few dollars more you could just buy a 15 inch Windows laptop and dual boot to Linux with that and you would be much better off. A Chromebook has no optical drive, no LAN connector and a small screen. But I guess you could change a spoon into a fork but that doesn't mean it is wise to do so.

 

[Tom]

It's unlikely that I would buy a Chromebook, and therefore wouldn't need the dual boot or larger SSD. I've found myself using the Samsung Galaxy tablet more and more over the last few months. It doesn't replace my primary PC (a 17" notebook) for some things, especially tasks requiring a mouse, but I've surprised myself how many tasks I've migrated to the tablet.

OTOH a Chromebook makes sense for your use.

 

[Seilerbird]

Chromebooks definitely are not for everyone and therefore I do not expect them to become massively popular.

But I love not having to put up with long boot times, disk defragging, viruses, malware, patch Tuesday, updates, a desktop, the blue screen of death, freeze ups, crapware, installing applications, reinstalling the OS, backups and many other things that make using a PC a drag.

 

[Ned]

The whole point of the Chromebook is that everything lives on the server (in the cloud), programs and data.  It's not intended to be used without an internet connection and is really just a high powered browser.  Dual booting one seems rather pointless to me as it has no local data storage.  If you want to run a standalone OS, then buy a cheap notebook or netbook and install Linux.

 

[Seilerbird]

I did a search on using Chromebook offline and it turns out there are plenty of apps available that do work offline. Google is working to make the Chromebook more functional offline. Like I said it is really still in beta and Google is adding functions to it frequently.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/cloud-computing/20486/chrome-os-offline

 

[tnthub]

Chromebooks definitely are not for everyone and therefore I do not expect them to become massively popular.

But I love not having to put up with long boot times, disk defragging, viruses, malware, patch Tuesday, updates, a desktop, the blue screen of death, freeze ups, crapware, installing applications, reinstalling the OS, backups and many other things that make using a PC a drag.

Wow... Long list of issues.  I would definitely go for anything other than a PC if I had a list like that...

However I have found that my three year old duo core Dell w/4G of ram and 500G 7200 rpm drive still chugs along, boots quickly, automatically backs up and defragments on a schedule, that has never gotten a virus, does quite well.  I have not had to re-install an OS on any of my systems (because of problems) in almost a decade...

Chromebooks, and other device based access products are where the consumer tech market is heading, whether we like it or not, and frankly I cannot think of a reason why most people need the CPU capability of a pc or laptop if they live in the cloud.  That said, the day a free service is compromised or a paid service doesn't receive payment for whatever reason, and I can think of a multitude of reasons why cloud backup to brick is a very wise concept...

 

[Seilerbird]

Chromebooks, and other device based access products are where the consumer tech market is heading, whether we like it or not, and frankly I cannot think of a reason why most people need the CPU capability of a pc or laptop if they live in the cloud. 

I am a photographer. On an average day of shooting I take maybe 200 photos. The file size is around 15 megs per shot (shooting RAW). That works out to 3 gigs of photos that I must upload to my computer so I can view them, figure out which shots I like and post process (Photoshop) those shots. To do this in the cloud would mean uploading 3 gigs to the cloud and then work on them in with a Mickey Mouse photo editor providing I could find an online photo editor that recognizes the RAW format of my camera. This of course is totally impossible with today's technology and the cost of bandwidth. So therefore I need the CPU capability of a PC.

 

[tnthub]

I understand the need for local CPU and storage from the perspective of a photography business.  I have an acoustical engineering firm as one of my clients and they regularly transfer hundred of gigs of data for processing so "the cloud" in whatever form, is not really a (bandwidth effective) option for them.  However I do think that many regular consumers with pop email, basic word processing, maybe an online accounting package, social media and basic file sharing can do almost all of what they need with a basic access device be it a conventional tablet or Chromebook.

Microsoft announced the end of the Small Business Server product line (SBS 2011 being the latest), a few weeks back.  That decision changed the entire game in terms of small and micro business options.  Although the line of SBS will be supported for plenty of years to come, the future road map is through device based computing and online applications.  Once uploaded, a server based application can handle the processing capabilities and the catch is that small and micro business will end up purchasing cloud based times in a recurring revenue model that alleviates much of the challenge companies like Microsoft currently have in predicting cash flow.

I am not looking forward to fee based computing but I do believe it is a large train on a slow track that will exponentially grow until the needs of individuals and small business will simply become recurring monthly charges.

 

[Seilerbird]

I have been using my Chromebook now for 8 months and loving it. I still think it is the best answer for my computing needs. I just read something that shocked me this morning. It turns out that right now the best selling laptop on Amazon is the Samsung 11.6 inch Chromebook. This is not the model I got, but it is basically the same computer spec-wise as the one I have.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-XE303C12-A01US-Chromebook-Wi-Fi-11-6-Inch/dp/B009LL9VDG/ref=pd_sim_pc_2

 

[therealsimpsons]

Tom,

Not being funny here. Just curious. Can you define, "crapware"?

 

[Ned]

See crapware.

 

[Seilerbird]

Tom,

Not being funny here. Just curious. Can you define, "crapware"?

My own personal description is any piece of software installed on a new computer that is basically useless unless you pay for it. In other words trial software that rarely works unless you pay. Every laptop I have purchased in the last ten years has an immense amount of it loaded onto the machine and I would always end up spending many hours uninstalling the crap so my computer would run faster and have more hard disc space.

A Chromebook comes with zero crapware, just like my Nexus 4 smart phone. There was so much crapware installed on my last smart phone there wasn't enough room to install the Audubon Field Guide. It came with 2 gigs of memory but that is not enough to hold the program and the crapware. The phone would not allow me to remove the crapware so I had to buy a 32 gig micro SD card to fit the program on. But the program still would not run because you can't actually install programs on the SD card, only data. That was Gingerbread. Because of the crapware on the phone I was forced to buy a Nexus 4 so I could actually use the phone for the main reason I bought it. The amount of time and money that crapware has cost me in my lifetime is amazing.