The long overdue Chromebook initial review

It's been three weeks since I purchased my Samsung Series 5 Chromebook from Amazon.com. I realize that three weeks time is a bit long for an initial review of a product, but better late than never I always say. Ok, I never say that...forgive me.

My new Chromebook arrived in a very nice, dare I say Apple-like, white box which contained the Series 5 3G Chromebook, the charging cable, a display adapter, and a very small plastic bag with very little in the way of paperwork and instructions. I plugged in the device and to my surprise it powered on as soon as I opened the lid...very slick! After signing in with my Google account information, I quickly connected to my network. The device then started to download updates. Once that was complete, I was off and running. Everything you have read about the Chromebook booting fast is true, less than 8 seconds from a cold boot and a near instantaneous wake-up from sleep. All my bookmarks, settings, theme, and web apps were automatically brought in when I logged into the Chromebook for the first time. Keep in mind though, if you use the Chrome browser on another machine and you want all your settings to transfer over you must enable google sync in your web browser's settings.

There's a lot to like in the little Samsung Chromebook. I really like the build quality...it's not Apple Aluminum but it doesn't cost $1400 either. The device is lightweight, but not a featherweight. It's the perfect size; large enough for a spacious display and a very good full size keyboard, but small enough to take anywhere. The battery life is truly amazing...8.5 hours on a full charge means not having to lug my charging cable with me everywhere. And compared to my old Samsung netbook and my Dell 17" core i7 work laptop, the Chromebook produces little to no heat so you can use it on your lap without burning a hole in your dermis. Consequently, the cooling fan is quite small and makes little to no noise. And lastly, although I didn't think I'd use it as much as I have, the Verizon 3G connectivity is a fantastic feature. It's liberating to know that if you aren't close to a wi-fi network then you can jump on the Verizon network and get stuff done. The price of the device includes 100 MB per month of free 3G data for two years. This will work in a pinch to send off a quick email or occasionally check Google+, but when you run out you can purchase more data starting at 1GB for 30 days for $20...no contract, and it doesn't renew automatically...pay as you go.

Which leads me to my list of dislikes. The process to register/buy more data with Verizon is quite slow. There's also currently no way to buy more data ahead of time...you have to wait until you run out then go through the lengthy process of buying more time. To be fair, Verizon says they are working on speeding the process up, I hope they succeed. There also is some network quirkiness that happens when you opt to purchase the 3G Chromebook versus the model with wi-fi only. I had to check with other users in the Chromebook community to verify that this behavior was normal. What happens is when your Chromebook connects to a wi-fi network it simultaneously connects to the Verizon 3G network. My first thought was that this would cause conflicts, but I was told it's a feature so that if your wi-fi goes down you can keep working and prevent data loss. You can disconnect from either network manually in the network settings, or you can disable the wi-fi or 3G altogether. however, when I close the lid on my Chromebook and then wake it back up, it will automatically try to reconnect to Verizon even if I manually disconnected it from the network. I don't think this is impossible to live with, I just think that I would have liked the network settings to work a bit more independently and I'd like it if it remembered that I disconnected a network before it went to sleep.

Some other things I don't particularly care for are the weak internal speakers. I knew they were weak when I bought the machine so I don't feel deceived, and the Series 5 is not intended to be a full multimedia powerhouse. I prefer listening to music and movies on headphones anyway so it's not a big deal. Likewise, I kinda wish the keyboard was back-lit, but again at this price point I don't feel it's a problem. I do wish they would have designed the power cable a bit better. The cable and "brick" are nice and slim, but the plug that goes into the machine is very, very small (not Motorola Xoom small, but small...) which makes me paranoid that I might bend or break it accidentally. My old Samsung netbook had a similar sized cable and brick, but the plug was full (normal?) sized. Not sure why Samsung went with the smaller plug, perhaps with the great battery life they figured people wouldn't be lugging it around with them every day.

As far as Chrome OS goes, I only have a couple of niggles. Performance was sluggish on some Flash-intensive websites, and the file manager was too basic in my opinion. One great thing about Chrome OS is how fast updates are released, and in the three weeks I've had my new Chromebook I already downloaded an update that drastically improved Flash performance and added several new and welcome features to the file manager. The OS will continue to get better, stronger, faster (like Steve Austin!) as time goes on. One thing I'd love to see in Chrome OS is USB printing support. Currently, you can't plug a printer into a Chromebook and print anything. Again, I knew this going in and I don't feel cheated. Google Cloud print allows you to print to a printer connected to any other computer on the Internet (like my Mac at home), but that computer has to be on, and you have to be logged in to your Chrome account with your Chrome browser open for it to work. There are allegedly some printers coming out that will be able to cloud print right out of the box, without a computer connected, via wi-fi or ethernet. There are many of us though that have to travel for work, and it would just be simpler to be able to go up to any brand name USB printer, plug in the device and print a document. I wish we lived in a paperless world, but unfortunately we don't yet...my company is proof positive of that.

Now that I've done my complaining, there are a few things I'd like to see others in the blogosphere quit complaining about when it comes to the Samsung Chromebook. For one, stop complaining about the lack of HDMI support. If it's that big of a deal to you, than you can get the Acer Chromebook which has an HDMI port. And although I just brought it up, stop complaining about the lack of USB printing support. I would like to see it, but I'm not complaining about it and I surely don't feel that I was deceived in some way or led to believe by Google that I could plug a printer into the device. Stop complaining about the price. At $450 with 3G connectivity, the Chromebook is a bargain when you consider that a 3G iPad will set you back at least $600, most Android smartphones list for $500 to $700 full price, and the MacBook Air will cost you at least $1100 and doesn't offer 3G connectivity. Finally, please, please stop complaining about the lack of off-line capability in Chromebooks. If you absolutely have to have a computer that will work without a network connection, then don't buy a Chromebook. It's that simple.

If, however, you are like me and find yourself always near wi-fi or in a Verizon 3G area, and the idea of a sleek, well built, lightweight machine that boots almost instantly and lasts all day on a charge sounds right up your alley, then go ahead and jump in. Chances are you're already living in the Cloud with your PC or Mac.