Chromebook - Any experience?

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  _Bruce_ on 13/11/2012 - 10:57

  I really like the idea of them, but I feel that being essentially browser only is just a bit too limited currently. For not much more I can get a real laptop. The magnetic HD in the Acer seems a bit silly to me (probably saves them a few dollars I guess).

  Buying one and replacing the OS sounds like a good option though.

  • 

    scotty on 13/11/2012 - 13:01

    That's what I'll probably do after getting bored of Chrome OS (if I do end up buying the Acer C7).

    I can't see how a 320GB hard drive can be cheaper than 16GB SSD though.

    • 

      _Bruce_ on 13/11/2012 - 14:27

      I'm not sure, put I can't see why else they'd put it in at all?

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  ProspectiveDarkness on 13/11/2012 - 14:52

  I think they're a brilliant idea. For a student, they would be perfect for just taking to Uni and taking notes in a lecture; inexpensive, but still capable.

  If I didn't already have a laptop for schooling, I would be seriously considering one of these. I have a desktop at home to use, as well as a Nexus 7 for portable media consumption around the house. A regular notebook would just sit around collecting dust, when not out and about. Chromebooks fill that small but crucial hole for me; a combination of portability, productivity, and affordability. Anything more would be overkill for the requirement (taking to uni), and would be a needless expense.

  The constant criticism from naysayers irks me; Chromebooks obviously are intended for a certain audience, with a certain purpose. They are, by no means, intended to replace regular notebooks.

  If I were to choose between the Samsung and Acer, I would have to pick the Samsung. Even putting aside my reservations over Acer build quality, the battery life on such a device is of the utmost importance - and that's where the A15 processor and SSD on the Samsung win out.

  Also, I'm sure with the release of W8 RT, someone out there would find a way to port that to the Samsung Chromebooks, since it's designed to run on ARM processors. Whether or not it can handle the OS is another thing, though.

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  scrimshaw on 13/11/2012 - 15:22

  I can't live without a full desktop version of Microsoft Office, so unless Chromebooks can run an ARM version of MS Office (though there technically is an ARM version of Ms Office for W8, it doesn't exist on Chrome) it's not going to replace my Thinkpad.

  However for people with low incomes and who can't afford MS office to begin with (say, a highschool student), or doesn't need much in terms of computing, this seems like a good replacement for an expensive ultrabook.

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  rockycape on 13/11/2012 - 16:25

  The boot up time on these appears to be really quick which has it's appeal. One of these will be my next PC purchase though my existing PC has a couple of years of life left yet.

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  fchis on 13/11/2012 - 18:50

  Personally, ultra cheap price (I.e. 199 aud) is the only reason I would buy this over normal laptops just for the sake of trying it out and give it to my parents who don't care much about performance of pcs.

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  tonyjzx on 13/11/2012 - 19:09

  the celeron 847 is as slow as a slow early core2duo so it should run win7 fine

  its pretty good value IMO but a netbook in 2012? surely thats a day late and a dollar short to the party?

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  scrimshaw on 13/11/2012 - 19:24

  There is a 12 minute hands on with the new Chromebook
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=LoK8p1OZDV4

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  plasmapuff on 21/11/2012 - 21:05

  I've discovered a key limitation to the Chromebook – it can't read pdfs or documents greater than 2mb :-(

  This is a show stopper for me unfortunately as most of my resources are pdfs larger than this.

  Tried pdfzen but found it incredibly hit and miss and very buggy unfortunately. Doesn't recognise the pdf as text and the highlight mode is just like paint over an image.

  Is there any work around? Support suggests splitting the pdfs but that's going to be so impractical with hundreds of these.

  • 

    shawn_low on 22/11/2012 - 01:19

    Yes, load Linux onto the Chromebook and you'll get a full-fledged OS. I believe that there is work being done to release various distros onto the Chromebook.

    Otherwise, you'll probably have to wait for PDFZen to get sorted. Still, $249 is tempting…

    • 

      plasmapuff on 22/11/2012 - 01:24

      Indeed, costs $300 shipped flat, which is much better than any other net book, W8 or Android tablet with dock.

      Do you have any links with more info about Linux distro porting?

      Lots of maverick guides out there but from what I've read the track pad isn't fully working and there are issues with hardware acceleration and battery life. No real support forums for any of this either, just 1 off posts on blogs about the port. :-(

      Is this the norm for Linux ports? Maybe I've been spoiled by the community at xda. :-P

      • 

        _Bruce_ on 22/11/2012 - 09:27

        Well the Chromebook is ARM based, so many of the distros either don't focus on this or don't support it at all.

        Debian has a long history of working on varied platforms, and Ubuntu inherits this by default, so I'd start with one of those two.

        The other problem is bootstrapping, which means rooting/jailbraking the device. Even on android this can be hit and miss, but with Linux distros there are bigger more commercial organisations behind them and they try to avoid these sorts of legal/political issues.

        Don't expect an official supported installer any time soon.

  • 

    scotty on 22/11/2012 - 09:27

    Spotted your question here:

    https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/chromebook-central/iDeDOliCzf8

    And it appears there's already some kind of solutions. 2MB limit is mainly with Google Docs, but looks like you can download the PDF locally and open it with Chrome's built in PDF reader.

    • 

      plasmapuff on 22/11/2012 - 09:42

      Yup :-)

      Just trying to confirm that now. Is there any way to simulate the native Chromebook reader on a desktop environment? Not reading in chrome Google docs app on pc, also created a USB bootable chromium Os environment but no go there either.

      For those of you lucky enough to have one already, can you please test out this file for me on your Chromebook?

      It's a 17mb pdf:https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_yyhCE40qwUTGxFZ1BRTi1lYjQ/edit

      Mainly interested in a) it reads smoothly offline b) whether you can search for words c) You can navigate to specific chapters from the table of contents.

      Cheers :-)

      • 

        plasmapuff on 22/11/2012 - 15:20

        Sorry new public link here:
        https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_yyhCE40qwUTGxFZ1BRTi1lYjQ

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  csi-lk on 05/12/2012 - 12:52

  +1

  Just to bump an old thread instead of launching a new one,

  I'll be getting one.. its

  • Nice
  • Cheap
  • Lightweight
  • Good battery

  AND Sub $300 with this deal: http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/85010#comment-1116698

  and sticking Ubuntu on it (still in alpha) works pretty well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xTBVA2Nl4U

  Should compliment a Nexus 4 / 7

  • 

    ProspectiveDarkness on 05/12/2012 - 13:24

    You should post a review when you get it (and a before / after with ChromeOS / Ubuntu)… I'd be very interested to hear an account of it's highlights and shortcomings.

    • 

      csi-lk on 05/12/2012 - 16:58

      +1

      Ill pre-order it for the 7th december, see if I can get it / a review up before Christmas…

      Ill keep you posted.

      • 

        ProspectiveDarkness on 05/12/2012 - 18:45

        Thanks :-)

  • 

    scotty on 05/12/2012 - 14:15

    That was a nice video demonstrating Ubuntu 12.04 on Chromebook. That certainly makes that thing a lot more useful.

    Thanks for posting!

    • 

      csi-lk on 05/12/2012 - 16:59

      Also If you're interested, looks like the Alpha build is pretty easy to setup: http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/arm-chrubuntu-1…

      (I do alot of research before making a purchase hah!)

  • 

    plasmapuff on 06/12/2012 - 14:00

    Just a heads up- Amazon UK is the only place to get this at the moment.

    BH Video have a small batch coming in this or next week but its for people who pre-ordered back in Sep/Oct and wont be enough to fill any more orders beyond that.

    The next batch for them is at least mid January…

    Amazon UK has them available from the 8th and is only $25 more with a much better returns policy (they pay for postage).

    On the way now so hopefully will be here by next week :)

    Looking forward to dual booting linux on it too for when I need that extra functionality :)

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  Holysmoke on 18/02/2013 - 17:08

  Hi guys - any feedback from those who bought this unit as indicated above?

  • 

    plasmapuff on 18/02/2013 - 21:22

    Thread about it here on WP:
    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1997734

    I'm happy with mine and would still recommend it :)

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  tonyjzx on 18/02/2013 - 23:54

  how realistic is this:

  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413771,00.asp

  i like the sound of the rumoured Chrome Pixel with the retina display but i reckon i'd blast the drive and put a real o/s on it…

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  justanothernerd on 15/04/2013 - 20:48

  Honestly when I first saw this laptop I really wanted it, but seeing as my brother has it. I checked his out first to see if i liked it.
  Now for the pros and cons.
  pros.
  - small light size
  - the screen i'snt to small
  - the laptop is so damn thin wow
  - fast reboot
  - good keyboard
  - can download google apps such as angry birds

  cons.
  - based on internet use
  - cant get an app which is like word document, instead you have to use google drive
  - being a windows user i no my way around a laptop and when i got this it was like really backwards
  it would be good if you only needed the internet but e being a student I need to do assignments and if the internet is out I would be screwed
  - how the laptop is set out, where you log/turn off the laptop is on the right hand of the screen instead of the left like the windows computers

  I wouldn't recommend this to someone who is a student unless you have internet access all the time.