Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Speed and features It's got an Atom processor for a heart - Flash causes major stutters, as do multiple tabs. Like Netflix's Watch Instant? Well, no dice - there's still no plugin
- Design and form factor It looks like the classic black MacBook - I get many questions asking why I covered the apple - and the matte black surface is a nice break from metal slabs.
- Battery life I'm routinely able to get a solid eight hours out of the machine, and seven with the cell antenna blazing. Talk about portability!
- Display The non-glossy display is nice - you can actually use it (to an extent) in daylight! - but it occasionally flickers for minutes when coming back from standby.
- Durability My dad stepped on it on day two. It's now been almost two months, and the things still hasn't shown any sign of damage. Not bad for some rubberized plastic.
- Expandability I had to enable the advanced file system to read an SD card, and I've yet to get the USB port to read a flash drive. The cloud can only help out so much today.
- Noise After a while, well, more like three hours of use, that damn fan starts to get obnoxious, and it's easy to hear since it's the only moving part in the machine.
- Portability (size / weight) It's bigger than a netbook, yet smaller than the laptop, but it's extremely easy to bring everywhere. And with its battery life, its small weight is forgotten.
Detailed review
This is a beta device. Keep that in mind. This is a device not intended for the market, but to test out a new operating system and refine it for future devices. With that being said, this is a solid computer, and actually a lesson in the power of the cloud. One of the most frequent questions I get when using it is how I manage with only a web browser for a computer. "How do you survive without Word?" "What about games?" "But ... movies! What about movies?" It's simple: Online.
The Cr-48 is destined to be a web device. Sure, you read now about people loading it up with Ubuntu, XP, and even OS X, but it's only got a sixteen gigabyte drive. That's pretty damn small for storing the operating system, programs, and personal data given modern expectations for a computer - you don't see two terabyte drives at Best Buy because business customers want them. The Cr-48 forces you to turn to the Internet for all purposes. But "forces" is a bit of a harsh word - what's the most frequently used program - or app, if you prefer - on your computer? Odds are, if you're anything like the general population, it's your browser. Your social network, your friends, your pictures, your videos, your news, your stories - almost everything is there, so why wouldn't the browser be so important? The Cr-48 just removes the fluff of a desktop environment and deposits you into the hard, unforgiving core of the Internet. And for the most part, it does a pretty damn good job.
This literally is the Chrome browser expanded into an entire computing environment - and Chrome handles it like a professional, if there were professionals to guide you through the Internet. (Jeeves, anyone?) Yes, the hardware does affect this a bit - the Atom processor struggles with Flash intensive tasks, meaning the YouTube videos - already restricted to a maximum of 480p - tend to stutter, and even slow down the other tabs you might have open. Opening multiple tabs from one site, however, can quickly become a nightmare - like old versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome tends to freeze for a second after the new tab has launched, and scrolling down through an article while waiting for one of those new tabs to load can be one of the most painful experiences of your life. But, if you forgo opening multiple tabs in rapid succession, Chrome handles it smoothly, and the experience is just as pleasant as it would have been on any other computer. One excellent tidbit Google chose to implement in Chrome OS was the Panels feature - think of them as small new windows that stay open no matter what tab you switch to. Running Google Talk as a panel is a delight, since the IM window follows you around instead of forcing you to constantly jump back to a specific tab. Also, video chat through Google Talk is amusing - a large panel opens up from the bottom, and it comes through in surprisingly great quality with very little lag. Well done to the developers on that one. But, to take full advantage of Panels, I strongly recommend the Panelize extension. You can get it on any version of Chrome, not just Chrome OS, but in Chrome OS you can have your Voice or Reader inboxes at the ready, enabling easy texting and feed reading all over the operating system.
As a whole, the Cr-48 represents a strong future for Internet-centric computing. I have been able to accomplish lab reports thanks to Google Docs, Pandora runs quite excellently while I'm studying, and the Cr-48 might just be the best device I've ever used for blogging. Chrome OS is an eye opener to the true power held on the Internet - there is so much in the cloud that can replace much of your typical desktop tasks. When Chrome OS and the offspring finally come to the market, you can be sure that Google has a winner that can easily reach Android-level success. It'll be hard to convince the masses at first, but once the ball gets rolling, it'll be hard to get it to stop once again.
The Cr-48 is destined to be a web device. Sure, you read now about people loading it up with Ubuntu, XP, and even OS X, but it's only got a sixteen gigabyte drive. That's pretty damn small for storing the operating system, programs, and personal data given modern expectations for a computer - you don't see two terabyte drives at Best Buy because business customers want them. The Cr-48 forces you to turn to the Internet for all purposes. But "forces" is a bit of a harsh word - what's the most frequently used program - or app, if you prefer - on your computer? Odds are, if you're anything like the general population, it's your browser. Your social network, your friends, your pictures, your videos, your news, your stories - almost everything is there, so why wouldn't the browser be so important? The Cr-48 just removes the fluff of a desktop environment and deposits you into the hard, unforgiving core of the Internet. And for the most part, it does a pretty damn good job.
This literally is the Chrome browser expanded into an entire computing environment - and Chrome handles it like a professional, if there were professionals to guide you through the Internet. (Jeeves, anyone?) Yes, the hardware does affect this a bit - the Atom processor struggles with Flash intensive tasks, meaning the YouTube videos - already restricted to a maximum of 480p - tend to stutter, and even slow down the other tabs you might have open. Opening multiple tabs from one site, however, can quickly become a nightmare - like old versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome tends to freeze for a second after the new tab has launched, and scrolling down through an article while waiting for one of those new tabs to load can be one of the most painful experiences of your life. But, if you forgo opening multiple tabs in rapid succession, Chrome handles it smoothly, and the experience is just as pleasant as it would have been on any other computer. One excellent tidbit Google chose to implement in Chrome OS was the Panels feature - think of them as small new windows that stay open no matter what tab you switch to. Running Google Talk as a panel is a delight, since the IM window follows you around instead of forcing you to constantly jump back to a specific tab. Also, video chat through Google Talk is amusing - a large panel opens up from the bottom, and it comes through in surprisingly great quality with very little lag. Well done to the developers on that one. But, to take full advantage of Panels, I strongly recommend the Panelize extension. You can get it on any version of Chrome, not just Chrome OS, but in Chrome OS you can have your Voice or Reader inboxes at the ready, enabling easy texting and feed reading all over the operating system.
As a whole, the Cr-48 represents a strong future for Internet-centric computing. I have been able to accomplish lab reports thanks to Google Docs, Pandora runs quite excellently while I'm studying, and the Cr-48 might just be the best device I've ever used for blogging. Chrome OS is an eye opener to the true power held on the Internet - there is so much in the cloud that can replace much of your typical desktop tasks. When Chrome OS and the offspring finally come to the market, you can be sure that Google has a winner that can easily reach Android-level success. It'll be hard to convince the masses at first, but once the ball gets rolling, it'll be hard to get it to stop once again.
good review!
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