Journalist Stephen Shankland from Cnet got the opportunity to get acquainted with the Samsung ChromeBook, represented recently by the Google program, along with the more active promotion of Chrome OS, and draw conclusions based on the results of this device within a day. To begin with, he decided to say that he was impressed by the device, if we take into account its low cost of $ 250, of course.
Google considers this device a good choice as an additional device in the house to perform secondary functions, as well as as a laptop for students. CNET believes that the device can be useful for both categories, especially for those who are already actively using Google cloud services like DOCS, Drive or Gmail. It has a good, if not pressing hardware part, with good autonomous time, it quickly starts, and the cost of $ 250 makes it much less requirements than the Samsung Series 5550 chromebook, which came out in May $ 550.
However, the journalist pointed out that sometimes the device turned out to be slow, so he cannot say that Samsung Chromebook struck him. It is not bad for many tasks, but it is better for users who are accustomed to the opening of several dozen tabs in a browser to stay away from this device.
A significant difference between the new device in relation to the previous chrombuk is the compactness of the device: it has a 11.6-inch screen, weighs 1.1 kg, is equipped with an energy-efficient ARM processor Samsung EXYNOS 5 Dual with two Cortex A15 kernels.
The design is very compact — The device is somewhat already in width compared to the MacBook Air, but at the same time a little thicker, as well as a little larger in length. The chromebook has an island keyboard, a large sensory panel and a recess on the front of the case, simplifying the task of raising the screen. According to the manufacturer, the battery life reaches 6.5 hours. One day of use, not much may say much in this regard, but the battery pleased the journalist.
The screen is not bad: the resolution for the 11.6-inch screen is good (1366×768), it is also worth mentioning a matte coating that reduces glare. However, its brightness and viewing angles do not differ in outstanding indicators. At the same time, the dynamics located from below remove poor sound, especially when they drown out when working with a chrombucker on the knees.
Although the touch panel does not reach the quality of Apple’s laptops, it exceeded the expectations of the journalist, bypassing many of those with whom he had dealt recently, even on much more expensive devices. Many multimsenceuric functions work: for example, pressing with two fingers instead of a click by the right button, rewinding with two fingers.
The keyboard corresponds to the concept of island type. However, it is not designed for those who are used to hitting a lot or pressing on the keys: with strong presses, the device’s body is somewhat bend, and with excess pressure of the wrists to the front part when printing, some creak is made. LED backlight also.
Those who wish from the device the same that modern ultrabooks can be offered in terms of design will be disappointed, especially because of the loop protruding above the upper lid closed. But at the same time, Samsung Chromebook is quite thin (2 cm).
Keyboard Samsung Chromebook has no backlight, the functions of control of the screen brightness, volume, winding and navigation in the browser are located at the top. A wide touch panel supports gestures
On the left side of the device, you can find a SD and 3.5 mm nest for headphones/microphone. The USB 2 ports are located behind.0, usb 3.0 and HDMI 1.4. Webcam is located above the screen. The device is equipped with only a 16-gB flash drive, but video, photos and letters in a not very large volume can be stored in a cloud through Google Drive — Fortunately, the owners of Samsung Chromebook Search giant gives 100 GB for two years.
But the hardware — Only one side for chrombuk. Much more important Chrome OS. This is a cloud operating system, that is, created, in fact, for the operation of one application — Chrome browser. This is a lot, given that we spend more and more time on the network. But about many programs like iTunes, Skype, Portal 2, Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Spotify and much more will have to forget.
If the chromebook is considered only as an additional device in the house for working on the network, these restrictions may not be so significant. Often everything you need from PC — Check mail, read the news, download the recipe, make a bank payment, watch YouTube videos or spend time in communication through VKontakte or Facebook✴. For such tasks, this is a very economical device, the time of loading and completing the operation of the OS on which is only a few seconds.
Ordinary web pages will work, as elsewhere. Applications can be selected or bought in Chrome Web Store, for them you can fix the labels. Many, however, will prefer a tablet: it has a lot of entertainment applications and a more attractive battery life. Chromebooks may be more interesting for those who often gain texts — Such a device, of course, will be more convenient for iPad for printing. It is also important that Samsung Chromebook has a 3G-link support — SIM card connector is located behind.
The largest disadvantage of Samsung Chromebook, according to the journalist, is productivity when many tabs are open: sometimes the text is slowly displayed in the long Google doc document, and the pages can be transitions even in a simple and not very long document. Another problem can be attributed to the fact that the song open in YouTube in the background can stop when the tabs. Another video stuttering when rewinding in Google Docs. The chromebook should restart pages that were not used for some time and which were activated again: this is a smart strategy for saving memory, but it happens more often than we would like when more than a dozen tabs are open. It is also worth noting that this is the first ARM-based chrombuk, so that the problems of optimization of Chrome OS for a new platform can be left in future OS updates, since they take place every six weeks.
Among the subjective shortcomings of the chrombuk, the journalist pointed out the lack of the Delete key on the keyboard, which can greatly annoy those who use it mainly, and not Backspace to delete the text. Another disadvantage may be the lack of setting up the speed speed and delay before repeating the characters, which, by the standard, seems to be a long. The absence of Page Up/Download keys can be compensated by the ALT combination and upward arrows, and the Home/End keys can be replaced by ALT, CTRL and upward and downwards. No Caps Lock buttons — In its place, a search key is installed that causes a list of shortcuts and the possibility of searching.
One way or another, but in general, according to Stephen Schengland, Google managed to create a good secondary device for web functions, especially useful for those who are already actively using the services of a search giant.
Source:
- News.CNET.com