In a move that will certainly have those of you thinking about getting a Chomebook jumping for joy, Acer and Google have announced a new C7 Chromebook for $199. This lovely machine is ready to take on the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook with a price that under-cuts that machine by $50! This machine has an 11.6-inch display and many of the same perks that come with the Samsung machine, starting with 100GB free storage for 2 years on Google Drive.
This machine also has a beastly 320GB hard drive, so you’ll have no worries when it comes to keeping all your media safe. The C7 Chromebook comes with an Intel Core processor for awesome power – here with an 18 second boot-up time, so says Google. This device also comes with all the lovely Google Chrome apps you love – the same as every Chromebook, as it were, since they’re all based in the Chrome web browser.
This device is 1 inch thin and weighs in at 3 pounds. It’s got dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and ethernet access for the web, and both a VGA port as well as a full-size HDMI port for video output. This machine is added to the burgeoning family of next-generation Chromebooks that also includes the Series 3 Chromebook from Samsung and the Samsung Chromebook 550. It’s also got additional bonuses such as 12 free sessions of Gogo Inflight internet – connect up high!
This device is sure to add to the madness that is next-to-free notebook devices, especially and particularly because of it’s $199 price point undercutting the already undeniable $249 of the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook. If you’re thinking about getting a device for web browsing only – this is certainly going to be one of your best bets. Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on the Chromebook universe as it ramps up to the 2012 holiday season.
We found ourselves quite enamored with Samsung’s latest entry into the Chromebook line, mostly thanks to its incredibly low price of $250. Now Acer’s done gone even lower: $199 for its new C7 Chromebook. It’s an 11.6-inch (1,366 x 768) machine with a 320GB HDD and an Intel processor, rated for 3.5 hours of battery life — just about half that of Samsung’s ARM-powered entry. It still manages to be under an inch thick and packs a full-size Ethernet port, plus 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, three USB 2.0 ports and both HDMI and VGA output. (Cellular connectivity does not appear to be an option.) The C7 is available starting tomorrow at the link below, and while we know many of you still aren’t sold on the Chromebook idea, at a buck less than $200 maybe it’s time to start pondering more seriously.
Whenever we review Chromebooks, we alwayscome to more or less the same conclusion: it’s a neat idea, a computer where everything is done online, but it’s not worth the money. That was back when Chrome OS devices were priced at $500, competing with netbooks that could run not just the Chrome browser, but all manner of Windows apps. Ditto for tablets, which can be tricked out with many thousands of apps on both iOS and Android.
But what if we told you the price had been slashed to $249? Then could you see yourself pulling the trigger? That’s the gamble Google and Samsung are taking with the new Chromebook, which retails for $249 with an 11.6-inch display, 6.5-hour battery and a more compact design. All told, it’s as good a piece of hardware as any netbook you’ll find, only cheaper. And good luck finding a tablet-and-keyboard combo for less than $250.
There is one major change this time around, though, and that’s the Chromebook’s dual-core ARM processor, instead of something from Intel’s Celeron family. The performance isn’t likely to be as good, but will that matter if all you’re running is the Chrome browser? Will the lowered price be enough to lure in parents, travelers and other folks looking for a cheap second laptop? Let’s see.
Uses your Google account for easy setup of computer and Google services.
10 second boot time, near-instant resume from sleep.
ARM processor keeps power requirements low, computer cool and quiet.
Comes with 100GB of free Google Drive storage.
Easily switch and add user and guest accounts.
Pros:
Price. This is the main selling point of this computer, and pretending otherwise benefits no one.
Chrome OS is essentially Chrome with a little Android thrown in. Anyone should be able to pick it up easily.
This is a very portable device, and it’s well-built enough to endure some rough handling.
Cons:
Chrome OS is very focused, but that also means it’s limited in what it can do compared to Windows, OS X or Linux.
Quality of display and other build material choices reflect the $249 asking price.
Limited support for some times of external memory cards.
Short Version
Samsung and Google recently introduced the simply named Chromebook, a $249 computer with an 11.6-inch screen and around 6.5 hours of battery life in a slim and svelte 2.5 lb, 0.8-inch-thick shell. It’s a bare-bones approach to the concept of a Chrome OS notebook, and it’s probably what Google should have done with this type of hardware from the very beginning. But does that mean it’s good?
Chrome OS is minimal; it’s a web browser, essentially, with features added that make it possible to access local files and work more easily offline. Hardware for an OS like that need not be overly complicated, or overly powerful. It really just needs focus, and that’s mostly what Samsung and Google have delivered with this new bargain-basement notebook.
Long Version
User Experience
The Chromebook is as easy-to-use as Chrome the browser itself – which is to say very easy. In fact, there are a good numbers of users who aren’t comfortable doing much outside of their web browsers, and that is the ideal target audience for this device. If what you want is the web, Chrome delivers that, with a very functional keyboard with web-focused functions like dedicated reload, back and forward buttons, and a trackpad that does its job better than those on most Windows computers, even if it does move the cursor when scrolling once in a while, which is surprisingly annoying over time.
Thanks to Chrome’s large app and extension store, there’s plenty of software here to meet basic computing needs, and even handle some more advanced tasks including photo editing. For daily casual computing, and even a good chunk of my work tasks, the Chromebook is a device that meets my needs. It doesn’t go very far beyond, and there are some tasks that are less frequently part of my gig that I’d have to go back to a more capable computer for (like video editing for instance, or anything other than light retouches for photo work). But for remote web workers on a shoestring budget, Chrome OS running on Samsung’s intelligently pared down hardware is a heck of a combo, providing a user experience that’s hardly frustrating, and definitely spends a good amount of time in the ‘enjoyable’ range, too.
Hardware
The Chromebook’s hardware is about as far away from high-end ultrabooks as you can get: it uses plastic, the screen feels taken directly from a netbook released around 2008, and it feels like it’s got quite a bit of flex in the body. But it’s also incredibly small, slim and light, and while ports (save the SD card slot) are around back, they’re there, and with USB 3.0 and HDMI out, they’re modern and capable. In other words, Samsung cut corners where it should have on this design and made sure not to when it was important to how the notebook handles.
If I had to sum up the Chromebook’s hardware in one word, it would be “smart.” The screen (which appears low-contrast and somewhat washed out compared to more expensive contemporary devices) is its greatest weakness, but it’s far from unusable. And there are other areas where the Chromebook actually pleasantly surprises, like with the built-in speakers, which are actually pretty good so long as you don’t crank the volume up too high. The camera for video chat also does the job, and an included USB to Ethernet dongle makes it possible to connect to a wired router. Even the keyboard is a good one, with dedicated buttons for browser-specific features, and comfortable, well-spaced and placed keys, though keyboard backlighting is understandably missing.
The Chromebook’s battery is maybe its key hardware feature. Google says it gets around 6.5 hours from a full charge, and in my usage that turned out to be right. Plus, when sleeping, it sipped energy slowly enough that I could close the lid, pick it up a couple of days later and still jump back in. For a computer like this, that’s meant to offer instant-on convenience, a good battery is a crucial measure of success, and one that’s impressive on its own at this price point.
Software
If you’re a Chrome user, which I am, then Chrome OS is like an old familiar friend. All that this has over a traditional Chrome experience is the addition of a simple file browser and user account switching. If, like me, you spend 95 percent of your day in Chrome, then that means what the Chromebook can accomplish is significant, but not all-encompassing. For instance, plugging in SD cards from my DSLRs had mixed results; an older 8GB standard version was recognized immediately, and I could open JPGs (not RAW) for viewing and editing, but a 128GB SDXC wasn’t picked up by Chrome OS.
Still, with instant on, and customizable settings for the trackpad (I’ve gotten used to Apple’s so-called ‘natural’ scrolling), the Chromebook’s software offered everything I needed for light use at the airport or on the couch, and I can easily see it meeting the entertainment and casual needs of a huge swath of everyday users. Chrome’s app store has grown considerably since its introduction, helping out with a variety of social, productivity, gaming and entertainment apps to satisfy most needs for those who aren’t hardcore gamers or working on the next Dreamworks masterpiece.
Chrome’s Remote Desktop feature is also very useful if you’re adding the Chromebook to a network of existing computers and want to access them for any reason, but I found it had trouble with more complicated multi-screen setups like the one I run in my home office. Still, for basic remote access, it’s a good tool to have around.
Summary
At $400 or $500, the Chromebook always struck me as an unusual device aimed at an enthusiast market; after all, who would want to pay as much as you might for an entry-level Windows machine for something with a far narrower, less capable software ecosystem? But now at $249, the Samsung Chromebook makes perfect sense: it’s a cheap, effective portable web browser with a full keyboard and nearly all-day battery life. If you’ve got four or five times the asking price, buy a Mac or a PC. But if those machines are overkill for your needs, you won’t regret picking up a new Chromebook, either now for $249 or when the $329 version brings cellular connectivity to the mix.
Last year, Google launched its Chrome Remote Desktop in beta. This app allows users to remote access their own computers while away, and to access other computers running Chrome with the remote desktop extension. Google announced Monday that the application is now out of beta, and that it includes some new features.
As the announcement touts, “from adjusting printer settings on your mom’s computer to finding a lost file on your dad’s laptop,” Chrome Remote Desktop simplifies the task of hopping on someone’s machine (or your own) and getting stuff done. The new features include real time audio for Windows users, and the ability to copy and paste between local and remote machines. Says Google, more features are in the pipeline, and will be announced as they become available.
Getting started with Chrome Remote Desktop is simple enough that, should you be unfortunate enough to have to play tech support for someone, walking them through the steps on setting up the app should be relatively frustration-free. After downloading the extension, you’ll be prompted to choose your Google account from a list if you have more than one. Once you’ve selected the account, you’ll be presented with a list of requested permissions, which includes permission to view your email address, your Chrome Remote Desktop computers, and to view and send chat messages, as well as permission to perform all three actions when you’re not actually using the app.
After clicking the “Allow Access” button, you’ll be presented with two options: connect with a different computer, or set up a connection with your own. Under “Remote Assistance,” you can either share your computer with someone else by clicking “Share,” or you can access another computer by clicking “Access.” In order to access your own computer, you’ll be prompted to click “Enable Remote Connection,” and then set up a 6-digital PIN.
Over all, using Chrome Remote Desktop proved to be fast and simple. Google touts it as a useful tool for those using Chromebooks, allowing users to remote desktop from the Chromebook into a laptop or desktop computer to access files while on the go. You can check out our review of the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook here.
It would appear that the folks at Google – or at least one of their ranks – wants to prove the versatility of the hardware behind the newest Chromebook on the market with a port of Ubuntu as an operating system. We’ve reviewed the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook in full and can say with some confidence that it’d be amazing to have more options than just Chrome as an OS, especially given the undeniably low price point of the unit at $249 USD. The process has already begun with Google’s Olof Johansson, right on down on the case – with a dirty port going strong here right as the Chromebook is arriving in mailboxes!
What Johannson has shown thus far is that he’s been able to do a “messy” dump of Ubuntu to his ARM-based Chromebook thus far, starting with putting the device in devmode. For those of you that wish to enter devmode, you can do it via instructions provided by The Chromium Projects – but KNOW THIS: you could seriously mess up your device if you do anything wrong inside this very fragile state. This mode is made for developers (and hackers) only, not the general public, and Google will most certainly not be apt to give you a new unit if you bust yours up from the inside out.
Johansson moved forward with a tarball Ubuntu filesystem he created himself with the “rootstock” tool – this available in a Ubuntu-distributed Ubuntu-core tarball if you like as well. The process requires a full-sized SD-card (which you’ll be popping in to the device in its handy-dandy full-sized SD card slot), and a few code tappings along the way. Of course it’s much more complicated than that, and you’ll want to check the full instructions over on the Google+ post that Johansson made just last night to make it all work.
It would appear that Johansson is essentially done with his part of the work here, pushing others to continue on at this point. If you’re a lover of the Ubuntu universe or just straight up want to get some other sort of operating system working on your Chromebook, let us know! We’ll be following this hacking project as long as there’s interest, folks!
Samsung’s ARM-running Chromebook is barely out of the starting gate, and it’s already being tweaked to run without as much of an online dependency. By a Google employee, no less. Not content to rely solely on Chrome OS, Olof Johansson has loaded Ubuntu on the Chromebook by partitioning an SD card, mixing OS components and booting from USB. The technique unsurprisingly requires being more than a little comfortable with a Linux command line as well as playing fast and loose with the warranty. It also won’t be cheap or quick — commenters note that you’ll ideally have a partitioning-friendly SD card, and running a desktop OS from a slower kind of flash storage creates an inherent bottleneck. Anyone who likes the Chromebook’s $249 price, but isn’t as enraptured with the cloud as most of the team in Mountain View, might still want to try Johansson’s step-by-step process for themselves.
The newest entry in Google’s family of low-priced devices running their own home-grown software has appeared in their Google Play online store – enter the Samsung Chromebook (series 3) for just $249. We have our own Samsung Series 3 Chromebook review for you to take a peek at with full details on how this little beast is about to take the student world by storm. By the looks of it though, it’s not just students that Google hopes to be swallowing up here with the price-floor-busting Chromebook: it’s “FOR EVERYONE.”
This device works with an extremely lightweight body and a display that’s by no means perfect, but certainly gets the job done for the average user. You’ve got this version which is wi-fi only for $249, another coming soon with 3G connectivity availability via its SIM-card slot in the back, and a whole massive barrel of Chromebooks out there on the market from the past two years. This is the newest though, and perhaps the most important.
It’s the price point first, then the high-quality build that makes this notebook – excuse me, this Chromebook – so important to the tech world. Though you wont be able to play any high-powered games, nor will you be working with processor-busting video rendering (for now), you will be getting a web-centric machine for $249 USD. That’s a price so low that it makes the masses consider it, even if they don’t need it.
This unit in its wi-fi-only iteration is available now from Google Play. If you want any other version, you’ll have to head elsewhere for now. Chromebooks are not yet heavily available in stores around the world (or around your neighborhood, for that matter), but they are a big enough deal at this point to be ready for delivery at larger electronics stores in all cities – have a peek!
Samsung’s brand new ARM A15-based Chromebook is now available direct from Google at the Play store. The $249 WiFi only laptop was already available to pre-order through Amazon, but now you can go straight to the source, and Mountain View promises to have one of the light-weight machines in your hands within 3-5 business days. If you’re more interested in the 3G-equipped version of the 11.6-incher, you’ll still have to take your business to Amazon for now. Though, there’s still no word on when the $329 laptop will be released. To order this affordable web-browsing machine now, hit up the source.
It’s no secret that Google is aiming to create a whole new segment in the world of portable computing with Chrome, and here with the newest Samsung Series 3 Chromebook, especially at its eye-opening $249 price point, it appears that the big G will make that move. If you’ve got a need for an internet machine for school, for fun, or for a present for your mother who doesn’t use her desktop anyway, this device might just be perfect. It’s light, it’s extremely inexpensive, and most important of all: it’s a high quality machine. Samsung and Google have made some fabulous strides forward since September of 2011, of that you can be certain.
Hardware
This piece of Samsung hardware is the most basic Chromebook you can buy right this minute, but it’s not the low-quality piece of hardware the price suggests. Instead you’ve got a machine that Samsung and Google very obviously went through a lot of work to perfect, and they’ve taken all the bits from the machines that have been successful in this arena and stuffed them into a quality package here without a doubt. This rings true especially in the keyboard and the trackpad.
The real test a person such as myself must go through to decide if a notebook is going to work long-term is if the keyboard is able to take my non-stop usage and real need to be able to type relatively quickly. With this keyboard I certainly can do both of those things. One of the main reasons for this is that the keyboard is so extremely close in shape, size, setup, and spring to the MacBook series from Apple. It’s absolutely uncanny, in fact, with the main differences being in the special buttons that Chrome uses to execute commands like Full Screen, Back, Forward, and Reload (all of which work directly with the Chrome web browser which is, of course, at the center of your Chome OS experience.)
The trackpad is also extremely nice – the only more perfected trackpad I’ve ever used has been on the MacBook (Pro and Air, the same in the end). You can do the soft-tap we’ve seen running rampant over every Windows-toting notebook here as well, but unlike many notebooks, it’s not something you’ll do on accident. You’ve also got keyboard and touchpad settings in the Chromebook just incase you do want to increase or decrease speeds and such – but you’ll likely be fine right out of the box.
This Chromebook weighs in at 2.5 pounds and is 0.8 inches thin, working with what Google and Samsung say is 6.5 hours of battery life. It would appear very likely that Google has been modest in its estimation of how long this machine will stay active, even while movies are playing and oddities are rendering. Even with the 46% battery left I’m looking at right now, the machine has nearly 6 hours quoted as being left – and the machine has been out and on for at least 12 hours without need for a charge. This machine has some undeniable standby power abilities, that’s for certain.
The display is 11.6-inches large with 1366 x 768 pixel resolution across it, this making for a display that’s certainly OK, but not the best in the industry by a long shot. What you’ve got here is Samsung providing you with the amount of pixels you’ll need to watch relatively high definition videos without making a case for having a display that’s mind-blowing. The viewing angles on this device are also far from perfect, but certainly usable in most single-user situations. You won’t want to use this for a YouTube party, if you know what I mean.
You’ve got a VGA camera built-in for average video chat on the web (on Google+ Hangouts, of course) as well as a full-sized HDMI port for video output. You can connect to this device with 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 2.0 port, and Bluetooth 3.0. Inside is a Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core processor – this is the next generation of processors working for mobile devices Samsung introduced last year and made available here in 2012, only available on this Chromebook thus far. The next-newest after this is a Samsung Exynos 4 quad-core which you’ll find on the Galaxy Note II.
Software and Performance
The newest version of Chrome OS provides you with the ability to download and upload files to storage on your Chromebook – this is one of the biggest stumbling points for people who only know the operating system to be an “internet only” sort of situation. Now that I can download an image from one webpage and upload it to another, I can write articles in a blog – I now have a machine with the most basic set of requirements I need.
Its worth noting that it appears the quality of this machine is above that of every tablet we’ve had our hands on thus far – if only because the operating system is made to handle notebook operations. One should not expect that since this device uses a processor from the Exynos lineup with two CPU cores (two less that the Galaxy Note II) that it wont work as hard on everyday tasks as a smartphone or tablet would. On the contrary – this is a minimally powered notebook with all the non-web elements stripped away – that’s all.
You’ve got 2GB of RAM that will not let you down unless you absolutely push the limits of the device on purpose. If you’ve got 20 or more tabs open, each of them playing videos or keeping up with Twitter feeds, for example, you’re not going to see as fast a performance speed as if you’re being a reasonable person working with just a few tasks at a time. This machine is not made to be a workhorse – it’s made to take care of basic tasks, management of your daily duties, and web browsing.
Access to the entire range of Google services here means you’ll be working in the Chrome web browser – the only offline items here are changing your wallpaper, storing files in your local downloads folder, and working on a calculator. You can also use a Beta product on the machine if you want to go bigger: Chrome Remote Desktop. With this environment you’re able to access your larger machine virtually, seeing it through your browser window and controlling it as if you were there at that other machine in-person – though it’s significantly more laggy than real life, when it comes down to it.
What you’re seeing above is a connection between the Chromebook and a MacBook Pro, both of them connected to the same wireless network. It’s not a perfect system, by any means, and it’s a bit difficult working with a display that’s mean to be much larger inside a browser window that shrinks it, but it’s interesting to say the least. This system is not limited to your local network, mind you, you can do tasks remotely, just so long as both devices are connected to the web.
This is all topped off by the fact that current purchases of the Samsung Chromebook come with 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years. That would cost you $100 if you bought it outright.
Wrap-up
This Chromebook from Samsung is a value offer you might just need to think about, if only because the quality matches the price so very closely. Considering the alternatives start at several hundreds of dollars higher, you risk being called “silly” for not considering the Chromebook in your decision making process in purchasing a new notebook. Where this device leaves off at a price of $249, the MacBook Air picks up – starting at $999.
Google and Samsung have created a machine with a price point that’s impossible to ignore. We’ll be using this device for an extended period to see how “game changing” it really is. Meanwhile, please feel free to let us know if you’ve got any questions about this device and we’ll certainly do our best to answer to the best of our ability. Have a peek at the Chromebook tag portal as well to keep up with all things Chromebook through the future!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
