The first Chromebook Review: Samsung Series 5

[Jack]

The first Chromebook, the Samung Series 5, is being shipped and while it’s not a great laptop, it is a very good one. Just don’t think of it as a full Windows laptop replacement. It’s not.

Hardware:

The Samsung Series 5 comes with a matte 12.1-inch display. It’s powered by an Intel Atom N570 dual-core CPU running at 1.66Ghz, has 2GBs of RAM, and a 16GB solid state drive (SSD). For graphics, it uses an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150.

On the netbook sized system’s left side you’ll find a headset/mic jack, with a USB 2.0 port and a proprietary port for a VGA dongle hidden behind a plastic door. The second USB port and a SIM card slot hide behind plastic door on the right side. In the front you’ll find a card reader that can handle SD, SDHC, SDXC , or MMC cards. At the top of the display, it also has a video-camera.
[.....................]


Software:
The be-all and end-all of the Chromebook is the Chrome Web browser and your Google account. Without a Google account, you can’t use a Chromebook. Yes, there is Linux underneath Chrome, but only the most hardcore of Linux hardware hackers are going to bother with it.

That means that the Chromebook works hand-in-glove with such Google services as Gmail for e-mail, Google Docs for your office work, and Picasa for photos. That doesn’t mean you have to use Google-based software as a service (SaaS) or cloud-services. For example, I’ve used Salesforce and Zoho applications with it.
[................]
Read more

Price tag :

• XE500C21 - $429.00
  
  
• XE500C21 - $499.00

More details - link

 

[TKFlight]

Why not just buy a regular netbook with Windows on it? I don't think I would waste my money on this. A Windows netbook does a lot more than this, and it only has a 16gb SSD? I think I'll pass. Thanks for sharing.

 

[jamescv7]

Like how 8 seconds boot does, however concerned in internet connection you need as unlimited due to the cloud, well like in Philippines especially in province having a limited or no connection is not good.

 

[Tom172]

Why not just buy a regular netbook with Windows on it? I don't think I would waste my money on this. A Windows netbook does a lot more than this, and it only has a 16gb SSD? I think I'll pass. Thanks for sharing.

Agree With TKFlight. Not appealing to me in the slightest.

16GB SSD is fine in this case though, considering nearly everything is stored in the cloud.

 

[jamescv7]

Also the specifications are really good, just only in internet connection issue as you need it when files are stored from cloud..

 

[TKFlight]

And the fact that its Unix-Like means that it probably doesn't use a lot of HDD space. And it really takes using the cloud to the next level. Now Google is behind two open source OS's. Well they are both different operating systems, Android is for mobile and Google Chrome OS is for personal computing. Its really amazing how big open source operating systems are becoming. And how far GNU/Linux has come.

 

[Vextor]

I wouldn't use it as I can't have many offline items. I also don't have photoshop and a very advanced or decent editor, such as Sony Vegas. So No.

 

[moonshine]

A laptop with Windows 7 is still the better choice for me, :sleepy:

 

[Jack]

The Chromebook OS got a bad review from PCWorld , they've re-published an article called : Whatever You Do, Don't Buy a Chromebook
Basically they are disappointed to see that a newly release OS isn't perfect, now I don't trust PCWorld articles but to be honest at this point I would't buy and use exclusively a Chromebook,the main reason being that the rest of the world is using Windows so at some point I'm sure I will have some compatibility problems.
Overall the Chromebook concept is good but Google OS still needs some time to mature...

 

[TKFlight]

I don't even think you can buy a chrome book for another person for a gift. I mean what are they going to do with it? All they can possible do is browse/play games on the internet. Maybe Chrome OS has some other built in things. I just think its useless.