New Technology Review

I have officially had my new Chromebook for four days and it is high time I reviewed it. There is a lot of scuttlebutt surrounding the device and I want to clear a few things up. The first question I have been getting often is, “Can I replace my main computer with it?” The answer is most decidedly no. This in no way means that this device is sub-par or lacking in any way, mind you. The Chromebooks were created to fit into that rather infantile ”third device” category. It was developed with the assumption that consumers would already have a powerful machine at home/work, a smartphone, and are looking for something in between. This is the same market that Apple intended for the iPad. All of that being said, lets look into how well the Chromebook fills such a unique need/niche.

The first thing I noticed upon unboxing was how portable it was. Now, I will admit that my standards may differ from that of some as I have been lugging around a 15” MacBook Pro for the last three years. Compared to my MBP, everything is portable! The device is about as thick closed as a penny is tall with a 12.1” screen. It is very light (a little over 3lbs), yet still has a full sized keyboard (more on that later).

After removing it from the box, I plugged it into its power supply and opened the screen. Before I had a chance to admire its ultra simplistic design, I noticed that it began booting up. As promised, less than 10 seconds after opening it, I was greeted with a setup screen. It took me about two minutes to finish the process and another minute for the Chromebook to reboot itself and bring me to a log-in screen. Since I have been an avid Google services user for a while, I simply had to input my Google username and password and I was automatically taken to the browser with my calendar, email, documents, and G+ information being displayed.

I then proceeded to set-up my Verizon Wireless 3G access on the device. If you purchase the 3G model (as I did) you get 100MB per month of free 3G access for 24 months through Big Red. The process was quick and painless and I was up and going in no time.

As I began to use it, I had to adjust to “life on the cloud” as is said. It was slightly odd to use the actual web page compliments to many apps I have on my Mac. At first I was afraid that I would lose quite a bit of the richness of the applications, but HTML5 does a fine job of making the web apps feel like local apps.

Once I adjusted to a stateless machine, I began to really appreciate it’s true portability. I NEVER have to think about saving anything. If I get interrupted while writing an email, I can simply close the screen, throw the device in my bag, and I know that it will be there when I return. Speaking of throwing it around, I am falling in love with the solid state drive in the device.  To prevent hard drive damage on my Mac, I always wait for it to fully sleep after closing the screen but prior to moving it or putting it in my bag. With the Chromebook, that is no longer a concern of mine. Because there are no spinning disks to damage, I can close it and put it away a second later without fear.

In actual use, the keyboard is great. My only complaint about it is the lack of back-lighting. However, the screen is so bright that I can see the keys fairly well in a pitch-black room. The greatest downfall of the device is the track pad. The design is that of the newer MacBooks and MBPs so I had extremely high hopes. While it does it’s job for being a basic track pad, the multi-touch needs work. Because of it’s deficiency, the mouse will very often “skip” across the page because of an input overload on the pad. This minor problem does not drastically interfere with the use of the device.

It’s last, and possibly most valued, asset is it’s battery life. As I type this, the device has been unplugged for 12 hours and I still have another 2+ hours left on this charge. At heavy use (streaming music constantly without break) I was able to get 8.5 hours of battery life from this puppy. If only HTC could find a way to give my EVO such a battery life!

Overall, Google promised a device that would get you on the web in seconds and provide an almost thoughtless and instinctive user experience. Did they deliver? 100%. Is the technology ready to take-over every computer in the world? Far from it. Right now, however, I can think of no other device that fits the needs of that third category better than the Google Chromebook.