Samsung Chromebook. Buy it.

[ponyo]

ARM15 is the real deal and Chromebook is badass. I don't understand how people can say it's slow. If Chromebook is slow, so are MacBook Air and iPad. For normal browsing and document work, you won't be able to tell you're using ARM rather than Intel chip.

Google and Samsung. I'm super impressed. Desktop Chrome browser rule. For most normal households, I think Chromebook is the perfect laptop. It is exactly what I thought it was. Macbook Air for Google users for $250.

 

[s44]

We're trying to... more Google inventory fail!

 

[Kenmitch]

We're trying to... more Google inventory fail!

Bestbuy is sold out online....But some stores have them in stock if your in the US.

 

[Bateluer]

What do you use it for? I already have an ultrabook and multiple tablets. What advantage does a Chromebook give me?

 

[Zodiark1593]

I encode videos and play games and write programs, what advantages does the Chromebook give me?

*trollface.jpg*

 

[dagamer34]

Being serious, I have a hard time believing that people will want to pay $250 for a web browser, when $300 gets them a far more capable super cheap laptop.

 

[shortylickens]

I've already got a real laptop for getting shit done. I've got a tablet for fun, I've got a fat ass phone for fun and email and camera and more.

Nope, not getting a chrome book.

 

[Roland00Address]

Why the hell would I want this? I have been using 11 inch core 2 duos and core i3 ulv combined with a ssd for years. I also had one of the original 7 inch asus eee netbook with the extremely tiny ssd and an intel celeron m that was underclocked to 630mhz (I upgraded the memory and installed a nlite version of xp on it.)

I can run real software on these, they are faster than the chromebook, cost less than $500. Only downside is they get less battery than a chromebook.

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I have a real desktop with a 2560x1440 ips screen which I rather use when I am home. I also have a htpc for when I want to lie down on the couch yet still want to watch videos or use the computer for lite surfing.

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I also have a nexus 7

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Why the hell would I want a chromebook? All my other technology I have does everything better?

Someone may counter that I am not the intended market which I would respond who is?

• If you are targeting kids who parents want to give them a computer like device I would argue the nexus 7 or an ipad mini would be a far better device. These devices actually have an app ecosystem and are more likely to be used by the kids more than a month after purchase.
• Former netbook users. Great you have something (the chromebook) that competes with a dual core atom netbook in performance, or an amd c series. If they find their current netbook slow all they need is an ssd and they will get similar performance as the chromebook, yet they can run real programs on the netbook. SSDs are cheap.
• Power users (such as me) who are okay with a step down in features due to price, and will use this device in a specialty fashion (something light, small, portable, good battery life, to type papers.) Ironically these same people are likely to already have a similar device already so they do not need the chromebook.
• The person who is new to computers or is intimidated by options (Grandma, Grandpa). You need to get said person an ipad or ipad mini pronto
• The person who is going to screw up a computer with viruses. Once again get an ipad. Furthermore if they are the type of person who gets viruses from illegal downloads from unsafe sources (which is different than banner ads attack), the same person would be sorely disappointed in the capabilities of the chromebook.

Finally Ultrabooks are now getting cheaper. It is not uncommon to see cache based models going as cheap as $499 when they are on sale.

What is the market for the chromebook again? Just being cheap does not make a sustainable market. Especially when you are dealing with a tech industry which due to moore's law means ever depreciating prices.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I wanted one back in October when they first came out. And I was still interested in November, while I kept looking.

In December, I gave up. Just bought a Samsung Ativ Smart PC. It cost a lot more, but I think work it. I much better PLS display and full Windows 8 experience, and a tablet experience as well. I think it is worth the extra money.

 

[Fox5]

Just got the Acer C7 Chromebook for my mom. I like it, it does everything she does with her computer, it feels way faster than any $200 (or I'd say even $500 or $600) laptop, and it's super simple. I'd use one if I had it, and at $200 the price was right.

The Samsung one has additional cool factor, but it needs to drop in price. $200 and below is the right price point for limited use devices like tablets and netbooks.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Just got the Acer C7 Chromebook for my mom. I like it, it does everything she does with her computer, it feels way faster than any $200 (or I'd say even $500 or $600) laptop, and it's super simple. I'd use one if I had it, and at $200 the price was right.

The Samsung one has additional cool factor, but it needs to drop in price. $200 and below is the right price point for limited use devices like tablets and netbooks.

The nice thing about the Samsung is it runs an ARM processor, has no fans. So lighter and quieter. I think it has better battery life too. Don't think Samsung really needs to drop the price (though I wouldn't protest if they did).

 

[EvilYoda]

My sister currently doesn't have a laptop/PC of her own, while I have a late-2010 MBP and a few PCs at home (plus the phone and tablet). Since I don't have to travel again until early February, I think I'm going to either sell her my laptop and buy the Samsung Chromebook or forego a laptop altogether until February.

All I use my laptops for these days is email, web browsing, and watching videos off of a portable hard drive. The form factor looks good and the price is fine by me. Then I'll jump to a MBP with retina display or something.

 

[Eug]

I'll have to check it out but I still don't understand why they don't include the features into Android and sell it as an Androidbook. It's ironic but Android, a mobile OS, is probably more full featured for laptop use in many ways than Chrome OS reportedly is.

EvilYoda, can you watch your videos on Chrome OS?

 

[OBLAMA2009]

ARM15 is the real deal and Chromebook is badass. I don't understand how people can say it's slow. If Chromebook is slow, so are MacBook Air and iPad. For normal browsing and document work, you won't be able to tell you're using ARM rather than Intel chip.

Google and Samsung. I'm super impressed. Desktop Chrome browser rule. For most normal households, I think Chromebook is the perfect laptop. It is exactly what I thought it was. Macbook Air for Google users for $250.

no its slow, very slow, esp on rendering web pages. but if youre used to netbooks, its only a little slower than that

 

[Zodiark1593]

Seriously though, is a Chromebook at all useful offline?

 

[dguy6789]

Seriously though, is a Chromebook at all useful offline?

Not one bit. Complete waste money. $250 web browser in a box.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Seriously though, is a Chromebook at all useful offline?

I haven't used one. But I believe with Chrome OS and HTML 5, it does allow you to run some things offline.

Though in this day and age, I feel like any computer I have is useless offline.

 

[EvilYoda]

I'll have to check it out but I still don't understand why they don't include the features into Android and sell it as an Androidbook. It's ironic but Android, a mobile OS, is probably more full featured for laptop use in many ways than Chrome OS reportedly is.

EvilYoda, can you watch your videos on Chrome OS?

I'd have to test it out one day but from what I've read I shouldn't have a problem. They quoted H.264 capabilities in the release and I don't have many videos that are higher than 720p so I think it should be okay. I'll probably try swinging by a BB some time this week and figure it out so that if I decide to sell, my sister can take the laptop with her instead of waiting until the next time I see her.

 

[Eug]

I had thought there are no viable MKV players in Chrome OS.

 

[MrX8503]

I think it would be useful if all you did was web browsing. If you need anything else, it's just better to get a real laptop.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I haven't used one. But I believe with Chrome OS and HTML 5, it does allow you to run some things offline.

Though in this day and age, I feel like any computer I have is useless offline.

Ehh, quite the reason I will never embrace the "Cloud" as more than just for quick file transfers.

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

I really don't understand why people struggle so much understanding the purpose of a Chromebook. If you only use web apps, there's nothing better/cheaper. To a lot of people, a device without a net connection is a paperweight.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

I really don't understand why people struggle so much understanding the purpose of a Chromebook. If you only use web apps, there's nothing better/cheaper. To a lot of people, a device without a net connection is a paperweight.

chromebook is great in concept but for some reason, instead of creating $300 machines with i3, they put arm, atom and low end celeron (not so bad) in them. web browsing these days isnt really a low performance task anymore, most people have lots of pages open, and those pages have lots of graphics, flash ads, etc...you need something more than arm or atom to really be a fully functional web surfing device, a chromebook with i3 would satisfy 95% of laptop users, but the ones out now are barely better than netbooks, which are the same price.

 

[Exophase]

I've been waiting for years for an ARM laptop to do development on. But that's because I've been developing for mobile devices and it involves a fair bit of ARM specific code. I threw Ubuntu on my Chromebook and while it's not perfect it's much easier to develop for it first than for other ARM devices.

I used to use an old Atom netbook for this task.. of course it couldn't handle the ARM specific stuff but I tend to develop x86 versions on my desktop first and it helped for when I was away from it. But the Chromebook has been much nicer even before considering the ARM compatibility. Mind you, I also have an IB laptop and if I'm going on a trip or something I'll probably bring it instead. But I wouldn't say that the Chromebook is too weak for web browsing at all.

 

[shortylickens]

I haven't used one. But I believe with Chrome OS and HTML 5, it does allow you to run some things offline.

Though in this day and age, I feel like any computer I have is useless offline.

Not for me. I can do what I need online at home, in the morning before I go to school. Can do all my work offline if I have to, like if the open wifi is messed up that day for some reason. I even installed Steam and a couple of games to kill time if I have a long wait for some reason. Steam can run offline, no big deal.