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A message shown in Google Chrome urging users to consider a Chromebook.
If you fired up Google Chrome recently for your daily traverses of the web, you probably saw a gentle note asking if you’d be interested in a Chromebook, by Google. If you’ve been following the development of the “Google laptop” since it was first announced in Dec. 2010, you’d have heard about the Cr-48 prototype machine given out for free to select beta testers. And since June of this year, two full-fledged units manufactured by Acer and Samsung respectively, have been shipping out to to the general public. However, the devices haven’t caught on like wildfire so much as Android phones and tablets.
Google has created a very different product from most mainstream laptops and netbooks, with their offering of the Chromebook. The Chromebook runs an extremely simplified version of the Linux, dubbed the Google Chrome OS. Little data is intended to be stored on the hard drive, indicated by the relatively small 16GB SSDs contained in both devices available in the market today (Samsung Series 5 and Acer AC700). Instead, the Chrome OS is based upon the well-known Google Chrome browser, as a window to Google and third-party web apps. Users do not install programs locally, but are offered the lineup available at the Chrome Web Store.
The key advantages of the Chromebook which Google touts are simple operation,security, and easy management in an education/corporate environment. It could either be said that they are promoting something which “simply just works”, or alternatively, dumbing the whole PC experience down. Whatever it is, the architecture of the Chrome OS undeniably has some distinct qualities over traditional Windows or Mac systems. Something which will be immediately apparent to the user when he or she first picks up a Chromebook is that the lightweight system boots up unbelievably fast, 8 seconds according to Google claims. Furthermore, through the course of day-to-day use, data is uploaded to Google datacenters in real-time, essentially eliminating the risk of losing all data from a hard drive crash or physical loss. Also, the design of the Chrome OS was originally made with security in mind. A low-level self check of the integrity of the software system upon each boot, along with the “sandboxing” technology used to run apps make anti-virus software irrelevant, at least for now. And to top it off, users will not have to worry about keeping the Chrome OS updated, as new releases will be pushed to the devices automatically, invisible to the user.
A shot of the sleek Acer AC700 Chromebook
Of course, the near-total dependence of Chromebooks on their Internet connectivity can be as much an downside as an upside. Although there is limited offline functionality in some apps for the Chrome OS such as Google Docs, most web apps will not run without a live Wi-fi or 3G connection. On this note, choices of Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi/3G Chromebook models are available, with Google offering a free 100Mb/mo (with additional prepaid data available) on the US Verizon network for 2 years on the 3G models. These accommodations are supposed to bridge the gap when a user is on the road, but it is ultimately up to you to decide if Internet is ubiquitous enough in the locations you frequent to make the Chrome OS useful.
At this point, Chromebooks are only available officially in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. This is primarily because Google only has agreements for 3G data with network providers and large retailers in the following countries. Some users worldwide have reported however, that it can feasible to buy a Chromebook from these countries when travelling there, or online. You would probably still be able to use most Google services via Wi-Fi or 3G tethering from a separate data device (best to check for sure first, if you decide to do this though).
There’s word that the Wi-Fi versions of both the Samsung Series 5 and the Acer AC700 will be reduced to $299 for the holiday season, so you may want to keep your eyes peeled if integrated 3G is not a must for you. The differences between the Samsung Series 5 and the Acer AC700 are actually quite few and far apart, since both come with a 1.66GHz Dual Core Intel Atom N570 and 2GB of RAM. Besides that, it’s mostly cosmetic differences, and the fact that the Samsung has a VGA output while the Acer has an HDMI port instetad.
