There are varying degrees of "fine". I'm sure it's acceptable, but according to tests, even Chromebooks with octa-core 1.8 GHz Exynos chips are somewhat laggy compared to Intel-based alternatives. Chrome OS is basically a browser on Linux, after all.
I know the variety of hardware; started with ZX Spectrum (3.5 MHz 8-bit Z80), programmed TCP stack on a 25 MHz 16-bit CPU and I could be fine with a six-year-old laptop (typing on one, actually). Still, premium-priced laptop could use more power; especially if it's ARM, there's never too much.
that speaks more about the architecture and requirements of ChromeOS than about ARM SoCs. For example, I have Firefox OS running pretty well on an APC Paper with specs so modest that they are trumped by most mid-range smartphones these days. Both systems are very similar in the sense that its a linux kernel and the interaction with the user happens on HTML5 based apps but one is striving to run on single core with 128mb of RAM and the other is running on Chromebook Pixel which is one of the best laptops available in the market today.
The poster you replied to said that you can run apps LIKE a browser just fine. Not that you should run (web) apps INSIDE a browser. When running proper native code works just fine why would you choose to run web "apps" anyway?
I know the variety of hardware; started with ZX Spectrum (3.5 MHz 8-bit Z80), programmed TCP stack on a 25 MHz 16-bit CPU and I could be fine with a six-year-old laptop (typing on one, actually). Still, premium-priced laptop could use more power; especially if it's ARM, there's never too much.