Chase England

Well it’s been a month sense we got our working Google Chrome notebook to play with, and is it worth all the hype? Does Chrome OS stand a chance against the powerful and beautiful looking systems from Microsoft, Apple, and the open source community of Linux distros? Read on to find out.

Software

Google did some research on computer users, they realized that most people spend their time in web browsers. Checking their emails, facebook, twitter, uploading photos, paying bills, rarely did the average user use an application that couldn’t be run from a browser. So Google sat down with the engineers, taking their existing Chrome web browser, and out pops Chrome OS. For those of you who use Chrome browser on a current system will feel right at home.

Boot up the computer and you will notice something right away, it’s fast. From completely off to the log in screen takes at most 8 seconds. Here you are greeted with a guest account log in, or the option to use an existing Google account. Once logged in, you are greeted to the chrome start page where it will list all of your installed apps, address bar, back, forward, a wrench which is the icon for settings, and that’s about it. There is USB support, for flash drives, and external drives; albeit in very very beta form.

Plug-ins

With lot’s and lot’s of “plug-ins” available to be installed, the Chrome OS isn’t just a web browser. These plug-ins are like applications on any other os. They have games, calculators, converters, photo editors and organizers; the list goes on and on. It’s basically an app store, similar to what you would find on modern smartphones. (Iphones, droids, ect..)

Hardware

The chrome notebook is what a lot of people have been waiting for. A very simple looking, matte finish, small form factor laptop. There are no flashy logos, or writing anywhere on the case. The keyboard is solid, very easy to type on. Even the trackpad is performing like you would expect, with smooth scrolling and easy clicks. (Thanks to a recent update pushed out by google. Prior to this update, the trackpad was almost unusable.) The screen has a matte finish, which is a rare sight these days. It may not get the clarity of a glossy finish, but you wont be sorry when you step into any lighted room or outside under the sun.

There is a single usb port, 3.5mm audio out, SD Card Reader, and a VGA out. It also has a front facing webcam. Not much in comparison to modern HP’s, Dells and the like. But it follows along nicely with the entire theme of the Chrome Notebook and OS enviorment, it’s simple.

Wrap-up

So does this stand up? In it’s current form no, It’s definitely a BETA. With random flash player crashes, hangs on certain pages, and the occasional full lock up, it has it’s bugs. But with every update it gets better. Software aside, the computer is great to use. If HP (the manufacture of the netbook.) sold this like any other netbook on the market, I think it would be quite popular. Overall I am extremely happy with how Chrome OS works. It has taken over duties as my daily machine. It’s exciting to see a tech giant like Google using a different approach to computing. I think they have a winner in the near future.