

Ask HN: Chrome OS Notebook - hokiewater

I am thinking of picking up one of the new Samsung Series 5 ChromeOS notebooks instead of a tablet.I wanted to get a few opinions from the HN community before converting over.
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apress
I actually did this. I was using an iPad for blogging on the go but got sick
of the virtual keyboard and cursor placement hijinks. The Chromebook's build
quality is pretty darn nice. Good keyboard and screen, battery lasts forever,
built-in 3G Verizon connection -- and I have not had any track pad problems
that some complain about. You can always wait 6 months and get something
better but today's Chromebook is pretty sweet hardware-wise.

Then there's the OS. The one huge failing in my mind is the lack of offline
capability. No Internet = useless brick. That is supposedly coming this
summer.

But what software/activities are you planning to use? I can give more detailed
thoughts. It's great for light writing, blogging, web browsing etc. Easy to
post photos via the SD card slot though less great for photo editing.

~~~
iqster
I'm curious if you have run into out-of-memory errors? It has happened to me
2-3 times and I don't think I stressed it that much.

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iqster
I've been using a Chromebook (Samsung) for the past few days. I keep it next
to the iPads in the living room and have been experimenting to see which one I
go to the most for basic browsing tasks. I don't have a strong opinion either
way as of yet. I got a few out-of-memory errors on <10 tabs. This surprised me
as I usually work with 30-40 tabs open.

In your case, it seems to be an either-or trade-off. I'd recommend an iPad 2
... great games and apps, decent web browsing experience, pretty good for
note-taking. I was worried about the on-screen keyboard myself. However, the
larger screen real-estate makes the keyboard very usable (at least for me).

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Khao
Right now the Chromebooks seem good, but as they are the first version out of
beta I think they can still do a lot better. I think that the 500$ price tag
is really too much for the relatively cheap hardware that is in those
Chromebooks. The only good thing really is the battery life, but I'm not sure
if this is because the battery costs a lot and is excellent or because the OS
is really optimized for this. I am certain that if you wait 6 months or a year
before purchasing a Chromebook you will have a LOT more for your money.

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johng
Couple of good places to discuss Chrome OS and Chromebooks here:
<http://www.chromeosforums.net/> <http://www.thechromebookforum.com/>

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marklabedz
It would really depend on what you want to use it for. (My experience is with
the CR-48, so I can't speak to the commercial iterations of the ChromeOS
notebooks.) I throw the CR-48 in my bag when I'm headed to the lake or on a
trip and just need simple email/web access. Its also become great in the
kitchen for recipes, in the living room for adding to my Netflix instant
queue, and on the boat dock for looking up random stuff (always something that
needs to be fixed, examined or researched on a boat dock).

In summary, its a very useful tool, but absolutely not a replacement for my
MBP or T400.

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dstein
Considering a used iPad can be bought for about the same as a Chromebook, I
can't think of a single reason why you would choose a Chromebook.

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nextparadigms
I would wait for Chromebooks to be based on the quad core 1.5 Ghz Tegra 3.
They will probably have better battery life and be cheaper. We might see one
or two of them by the end of the year. Nvidia said they have 5 PC
manufacturers and 5 phone manufacturers as customers for Tegra 3. I'm sure
most of the designs wins are for Android tablets and notebooks, but I think a
couple of them might be for Chrome OS.

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revorad
I cannot understand why anyone would you buy a Chromebook instead of something
like a Lenovo Thinkpad Edge. At their current price, Chromebooks seem like a
really bad idea to me. They are more expensive and less capable than low end
laptops and, unlike tablets, offer no new benefits.

Can someone please tell me if I'm mistaken?

