Samsung Series 5 Chromebook - a review

Recently, I got a gadget gift from Google - a Samsung 5 Series Chromebook with their new Chrome OS.

Based on my 2 weeks of what I would call it, a moderate use of the Chromebook, I'll share my review about Chromebook. (Disclaimer: Note that I have taken into consideration that this is a version 1.0 product - So, my expectation was, that I'll run into some glitches as with most 1.0 products).

Check out the product specs of Samsung Series 5 Chromebook

Thumbs Up

• Packaging
• The package was pretty decent, I wouldn't call it as good as Apple products packaging though.
• Setting Up
• Initial setup was a breeze - just few steps (wifi-setup, google account) and you are ready to go.
• When I setup with my google account, I was bit worried that how to share the laptop with other users since Android tablets have the issue of sharing your google account with other users. It was nice to see that you can setup multiple users for accessing Chromebook and even there is a guest user account access (no google account is required).
• Starting Up/Shutting Down
• Within a few secs you can startup or shutdown the computer, impressive! I am sure that Windows users will appreciate this feature very much.
• Battery Life
• Since there aren't many background programs or apps running - Chromebook battery life is pretty good.
• Once I started playing flash games (my favorite Bejeweled Blitz), then the battery consumption was similar to other laptops.
• SD Card & VGA Adapter
• One issue with my Macbook Pro - I don't have a built-in card slot for SD Card for uploading photos. It was nice to see the multi-card slot.
• Also, there is a VGA adapter for projector displays. Unlike my Macbook Pro, Samsung Chromebook shipped with VGA adapter, which saves you from buying accessories.

Thumbs Down

• He's dead, Jim!
• It was hard to believe the Chrome browser from Chromebook crashing more frequently than I anticipated from a version 1.0 product.
• Chrome browser is the only app accessible for the user in Chromebook - it needs to be rock solid, period - otherwise, it feels like completely useless.
• Touchpad and Gestures
• Samsung Chromebook supports buttonless Touchpad with Gestures support similar to Apple Macbook Pro.
• However, this is really bad - don't know if this is a hardware or software issue - especially compared to Apple Macbook Pro. Try playing a game (again, my favorite Bejeweled Blitz) - its almost impossible use the Touchpad with Gestures. It doesn't respond smoothly and often displays right click menu for swipes or vice versa. This is something that they need to fix right away.
• Transfer of Files
• Since they had SD Card slot and USB slot - I wanted to transfer some photos from SD Card to an USB stick for viewing in other machine. It should have been a dead simple feature - select/copy from SD Card file list to USB folder, right? It was shocking to accept that this is not straight forward and I am yet to find a way to accomplish this.
• I can't believe products get shipped not supporting such basic use cases. Whom are these products getting built for? Sorry, Google. Apple wouldn't be shipping such a product.
• Photos Viewing
• Another bad user experience for simple use case - viewing photos. Once SD Card is inserted, a chrome browser window displays a list of directories. Selecting of the directory to see the content - you need to click exactly on the icon, it took a while to figure that out why my selection, double click/right click on the row doesn't work.
• And, there was a preview of photos - Selecting a few photos to preview - displays with out title information, you won't know which photo you are viewing - duh?!
• Cloud or Cloud Apps
• Even for simple and basic operations, like capturing screen shots or printing documents over WiFi, there are no easy/simple steps like laptops or even tablets.
• Offline Access
• Unlike laptops or even tablets running local apps - working offline is almost impossible with the current release of Chromebook - disappointing!

Verdict

• Disappointing. Is it really worth it or even usable day-to-day? I would say NO as it stands today.
• I don't know if Chromebook has any unique value proposition compared with a Laptop or a Tablet. Leave me a comment, if you think otherwise.