I never got a free demo unit but I did “get a chance” to purchase the laptops for each of my employees one 2 weeks before they would go on sale to the general public. Everyone I know got this email who applied to get a demo unit. +1 google marketing.
I bought one. $499. I am the guy who has to always have the latest gadget…. My employees love it cause they usually get it after I am bored with them in a week.
But on to the ChromeBook and my impressions. Please keep in mind I currently am always torn between taking my ultra heavy macbook pro 17” and my 11” macbook air.
First of all before even turning it on I was in love. This thing has everything I have been wanting in a laptop for a long time.
Screen :
Screen perfect size it feels like a 14”. Very usable on aircraft and all around use. Nothing spectacular. Would not be surprised if it was not a LED. Felt like a standard LCD.
Always connected Internet:
When you are not using a wifi network you have the built in 3g through Verizon. Free for 100MB of data then priced up from there. I currently pay for tethering on my iPhone and a Verizon mifi. So this will save me about $650 a year with the 5GB plan per month (even tho I don’t Think I would use anything close to that.
I can’t tell you how nice it is not to have to lug around a 3g card and making sure its charged and crap. Then it always seems like when you need it the most it has issues.
SD Card Slot:
This may come as a surprise to most but my 11” Macbook Air and my 17” Macbook Pro do not have a SD Card slot. I have to have an adapter for both.
Having a built in SD card slot is nice to have.
No Cd drive:
I love this. I don’t know why ANY laptop comes with a cdrom anymore. It adds a lot of weight and takes up a ton of space that could be used for more battery life.
Solid state drive – Enough Said
Keyboard:
Very nice layout. The keys feel good almost like a ruber finish. A lot nicer to type on than my Macbook’s.
Ok so now lets get into the actual “real life” use of the computer. I have only used the Chromebook since I got it so I could give it a real review.
The operating system
The operating system on the front end is basically like the chrome web browser. You can download the chrome operating system for free if you ever want to check it out. If you are not a linux users I recommend downloading Parallels free trial and choose install ChromeOs from the menu.
Applications:
This is the one area that actually really surprised me. There are TONS of applications already for the ChromeOS and tons being developed every day. I was happy to be able to grab dropbox and other stuff that I enjoy on my MacOSX computers.
However I was unable to find a 1password extension/app or a few others. That is pretty close to a deal breaker for me as I can’t log in anywhere without it. But I expect a 1password app very soon.
My day to day use:
I find I am far more productive on the chromebook than my macbook pro’s. I think this is mostly due to the fact that I can’t do anything other than access web applications and the terminal. But that is what I do when I actually “work”… so its pretty sweet.
Overall impression:
This is a slick laptop and its got productivity written all over it. I got one for my assistant instead of a 2k+ macbookpro and she loves it. Its very lightweight and snappy. Depending on what you are looking for in a laptop it could be a perfect fit.
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2424 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice review, thanks for the info. I got the same email that you mentioned but have held off.. figured I would wait to see what the rest of the world had to say
My only potential issues that I can see making it a no go for me are the need for an adequate photo editor (use photoshop now), a solid text editor for coding (use notepad++ now) and a FTP/SFTP client..
I don’t travel as much as I used to though, so I figured a way around these limitations would be to use logmein from the laptop to connect to my beastly desktop in my office and work on it remotely if needed… hmmmm
Shoe, how about posting a video or at least a few photographs of the laptop?
Don’t they already sell these at Amazon?
http://amzn.to/koSBmv
Great review, looks like the Chromebook is cost effective and feature rich. Seems like it could be a nice alternative to Mackbook.
Sounds great! I can get to mostly everything I need on the web. All I need is something light weight with a long lasting battery. Did you notice how the battery performed?
I use LastPass (which can import from 1password) and it works great on the Chromebook:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hdokiejnpimakedhajhdlcegeplioahd?hl=en-US
Nice review. I love my Chromebook, too. Password isn’t an issue for me because I’m just using google sync and it does a pretty good job. That’s one thing you didn’t mention (but I guess maybe because you are mostly a Mac guy it doesn’t matter?), but I love how Chrome keeps my settings, bookmarks, theme, apps, etc from computer to computer. It is incredible. Whether I am on Ubuntu, Windows, or the Chromebook. You can read my review here: I joined this forum this week and I am really enjoying seeing everyone’s excitement about the Chromebook. I ordered mine on launch day and got it last week. So far I am loving the experience.
My personal story is probably much different from most. I am a history teacher, but spent 6 years in the technology industry in Houston (mostly energy and chemical company experience there). Also I have been diagnosed in the past year with Multiple Sclerosis. So I was looking for a computer that “just works” and provides the web quickly and simply. Although I do own 3 other computers in my house (Ubuntu Linux, Windows 7) and an Android Phone). I wanted to see what Google’s approach would be like.
I have been very pleased so far. Here is my first day review: http://fordee.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-new-chromebook.html (links to lots of video and pics of my Chromebook)
Planning to get a ChromeBook as soon as I am able as I am convinced this is going to be widely used soon. It’s the death of CD/DVD drives too as everything will be stored and accessed in the Cloud. Why spend for more hardware? Another great advantage is that you do not have to worry about upgrading/updating your software because the application service providers does this for you (i.e. upgrading/updating Chrome).
I’ve tried the Chromium OS.
Well, yeah it’s too limited and look like Google Chrome web browser.
On the other hand I still do not like it, I still prefer to use my MBP for work and it’s more productive than when I’m using Windows notebook.
The feed is back to full post again yay…
About the ChromeBook… I thought ChromeBook is a Chrome Browser cost $499?
Hey great review.
I’m thinking of getting a Macbook because I’m into music production; but seeing this review I’m hesitating about it!
I do lots of internet blogging and website work, and I also make tunes.
I’m gonna check it out. You may have influenced my decision-making process
No competition with a Mac, see the price difference!
Great review Shoemoney! I have one of the free beta test versions and It’s great, but the hardware boost in the productions version are much better, I’m sure. Love how fast it boots and the battery life is incredible. The Beta lags often and is slow as I often have 15-20 tabs open at any given time. Like Kyle above, I use lastpass which i find better as it also logs me into sites on my Android phone with the dolphin plugin. Also, it is tough to use as a daily driver as I need Visual Studio–until someone makes that a cloud-based app.
I was unfamiliar with the ChromeBook so I did some research. The idea seems interesting. I like the fast boot up and having everything stored on the internet.
Only concerns is not every application I use would be from the internet. Microsoft Word, Photoshop, DreamWeaver, etc. Is this software that will not be able to be used on the ChromeBook?
Yea was expecting a picture : /
I got the CR-48 and I like it a lot. It does take a bit getting use to especially if you are accustomed to working with offline applications but as you mentioned, there will soon be apps developed which can be legit alternatives. .
Chrome while interesting does not work well for me because you can’t center click on a link and open it in a new window. Funny thing is it does open in a new window but chrome does not switch to that window – I have to switch to it manually. The even funnier thing is if a link is set to open in new window then it works right – the link opens in a new window and chrome switches to that window. DAMN, close bit…. no cigar.
This is how I roll with Firefox and it works very well. I don’t want to change. Some day I hope I will be able to do this in chrome. After that the next problem chrome needs to over come is tab management. I keep lots of tabs open and as of now Firefox beats hell out of chrome in this area.
I am webmaster of many sites and build sites for customers, I am a web designer and web host. In Firefox I can have lots of tabs open for my sites, like site stat pages etc open plus have tabs open for the customer sites I am working on.
I just keep everything open instead of bookmarking and having to go to bookmark for everything. This is how I have done things for years with Firefox. It works well and I love it.
Come on google get these 2 things right so I can use chrome instead of Firefox.
Right now I’ll some times use chrome to browse ebay as keeping lots of ebay tabs open in Firefox results in problems such as memory hogging and slowdowns etc.
Chrome works for that because it limits my number of windows I can keep open. This reminds me to watch out and not open too many plus chrome seems to handle eBay pretty well with the way it manages memory. If one eBay window acts up I can close it without having to reboot the entire browser. That does happen in Firefox, It needs a restart from time to time.
Come on chrome, just 2 little changes and I’m with you baby!
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I’ve heard similar reviews from other people, the hardware looks awesome! But I think that the OS is still too far ahead of it’s time to be practical as a primary machine. The cloud still has some catching up to do in terms of available applications. Looks like it would work great in certain situations but if I was in the market for a ultra portable, I would put my money on a MacBook Air all day, every day.
So…No dvd drive = no watching a movie? I love Chromebooks, but I love movies, too!
Google is so smart for putting out something like this with a free 3g plan. How heavy was the laptop?
Review was nice but how do you manage without CD drive?
Very Good explained review.. I’m thinking to buy one, but only thing that stop me is not having DVD Drive.. What to do ?