The Joy of Chromebook

After great deliberation I finally took the plunge and bought a Google Chromebook. Regular readers will know that these are items I have debated and promoted greatly in the past and strongly believed they would be a terrific addition to the pc market. After using my Chromebook for the past week or so I am absolutely ecstatic with the product - it has been everything I had hoped for and more.

I plumped for the Samsung Series 5 wifi only model in Titan Silver (charcoal) and obtained it for an obscenely cheap price at a local discount retailer. I figured that I wouldn’t need the 3G option as my Nexus S can operate as a wireless hotspot giving me a portable connection when required.

First impressions when opening the box were that it was a refreshingly spartan product offering - no manuals, warranty cards etc. - just the laptop, charger and vga adapter cable. With everything plugged in and charging I then opened the device and hit the power button...

First boot sees you taken through a very quick walkthrough to establish a link with your wifi connection (which took seconds) and on how to use the nifty touch pad. You are then presented with your standard Google log-in page and a few keystrokes later - voila! I am then staring at Google Chrome with all my bookmarks, my own familiar desktop wallpaper (an image of the Nissan GTR if you must know!), my own Chrome apps and extensions and a rock solid internet connection. I was then off and surfing!

The device nice and quietly downloaded an update in the background which I applied at a later stage and that has been the only service activity - beyond that it has done exactly what it said on the tin - simple, web-centric computing based on the cloud delivery model. Google’s products are perfectly integrated with the device whilst I have yet to hit a glitch anywhere on other sites. As a result I have spent very little time in front of my traditional Win7 desktop pc preferring the portability of the Chromebook. What was particularly striking was the battery life (it went a whole week of use without needing charged) and the boot up speed - from off to surfing definitely takes under 10 seconds as advertised. You can tell the slowest part of the process is the establishing of a connection with the wifi - beyond that everything else just flies.

During the course of the week I was repairing a couple of friend’s laptops and had the Chromebook open to provide web-based assistance. Having a chance to compare a Windows laptop alongside the Samsung gave me further belief that the Chromebook is the future - no mucking about with patches, nagging software updates, slow boot times, limited storage space, installing apps, virus scans etc....the ability to open the lid and go is both refreshing and liberating and family members who tried the device thought it was too...

In short, I cannot rate the Chromebook highly enough and roundly recommend it to everyone...