Few days ago, Google debuted its much awaited Google Chromebook. This beauty has been on the cards for a long time since the introduction of the Cr-48. The Chromebook will be officially available on June 15th on Amazon and Bestbuy, and later on will be available for the EU. I’m envious of those who were able to try out one of these beauties.
Everybody thinks that Samsung series 5 Chromebook is the first foray forGoogle into core Microsoft territory. We must not forget the “old” Cr-48, which was sent to developers in the last quarter of 2010 so they could try it out and comment about it.
The Chromebook is way better and faster than the Cr-48, and the main reason for that is: the dual-core Intel Atom chip. The rest of the specs seem to be similar. After reading the Techcrunch review, all I can say is that the first impresion was described as cheap when you have your hands on it, specially the trackpad (but I have my doubts). Of course, you have to take into consideration that it only costs $429 or $499 (WiFi or Wifi/3G respectively). I think it is a good start for Google. But (there is always a catch) due to the requirement of ubiquitous Internet access, it is actually useless until such a thing exists. Yes!, Iknow that 3G is a solution to this problem but think about it twice when you want to buy it.
Some people compare it to the MacBook Air in the sense of the ease to carry and simplicity. But I don’t think it is a good comparison due to the fact that it only cost a bit less than the half of the cheapest Mac.
Talking about the Hardware of the Chromebook:
- The Battery cannot be removed easily, like in the MacBook Air. Battery lifetime claimed to be 8.5hrs, which is very impressive nowadays. In my opinion, I think it will last longer due to the few tasks that requires processing power. It is just the web browser
- The screen is pretty awesome. A1280 x 800 with a very good wide view angle. We have already seen Samsung’s good work on screens like Monitors, TVs and of course on Smartphones like the amazing Samsung Galaxy S.
- The trackpad is very big, which is a good thing compared to a netbook of the same price. I have a Macbook Air and the trackpad is one of the amazing things that it has. You feel very confrotable and with a lot of space.
- A 3.5mm headphones, 2 USB 2.0 ports and a SD card slot in the front. Really good distribution in my opinion.
- A video out socket that requires a proprietary dongle. Ok I understand this because of my MacBook Air, but seriously? I really hate my MacBook Air in that aspect but come on!, they could have set a HDMI output to please the users and make an awesome $400 computer to surf the web, but NO! Somebody always have to set something crappy to ruin a beautiful machine. SHAME ON YOU SAMSUNG.
Finally, the software is pretty simple to describe: Fast and Furious.Google claims that the Chromebook on Samsung 5 series boots in 8 secs or less. Ok, I have to admit that this is really impresive even for the Macs with new SSD. Besides there is a dev mode to jailbreak and customize it the way you want!. So it seems to be that there is no limit for this and we can expect to see custom builds soon.
I hope you all enjoyed my thoughts on the Chromebook.
