SAMSUNG CHROMEBOOK based on ARM
Journalist Stephen Shenklend (Stephen Shankland) from CNet got the opportunity to get acquainted with the Samsung Chromebook, presented recently by Google along with the program for more active promotion of Chrome OS, and make the findings of the study of the device for a whole day. First, he decided to say that he was impressed device, taking into account its low price of $ 250, of course.
Google believes this device a good choice as an additional device in the home to perform secondary functions, as well as a laptop for students. CNet believes that the device can be useful for both categories, especially for those who are already actively using cloud services like Google Docs, Drive or Gmail. It has a good, if not jutting hardware, a good indicator of battery life, quick start, and the cost of $ 250 makes it a much less demanding than for Chromebooks Samsung Series 5550, which was released in May for $ 550.
However, the journalist pointed out that sometimes the device proved to slow, so it can not be said that he was struck by Samsung Chromebook. It is good for many tasks, but users accustomed to the discovery of dozens of tabs in the browser, it is best to stay away from this unit.
The essential difference between the new device with respect to the previous Chromebooks is a compact device: it has a 11.6-inch screen, weighs 1.1 kg, is equipped with energy-efficient ARM-based processor Samsung Exynos 5 Dual dual-core Cortex A15.
The design is very compact - the device is somewhat narrower in width than MacBook Air, but slightly thicker and slightly larger in length. Chromebooks island has a keyboard, a large touchpad and a recess on the front of the chassis, which simplifies the task of raising the screen. According to the manufacturer, the battery life up to 6.5 hours.
One day of use, not much can be said in this regard, but the battery is pleased journalist.
The screen is quite good: the resolution for a 11.6-inch screen is a good (1366x768), is also worth a mention matte finish reduces glare. However, the brightness and viewing angles are not different outstanding performance. At the same time, on the underside of the dynamics derive bad sound, especially when muted when using Chromebooks lap.
Although the touch pad does not reach the quality used in laptops Apple, it has surpassed the expectations of the journalist, beating many of those with whom he had to deal in recent times, even at a much more expensive devices. Work many multi-touch features: for example, pressing two fingers instead of clicking the right button mouse, fast with two fingers.
Keyboard corresponds to the concept of island style. However, it is not designed for those who are used to swipe or press the keys: When pressed strongly the cabinet a few bends, and with the extra pressure on the front of the wrist when printing published some creaking. LED lighting is also no.
Those who wish from the same device that can offer advanced ultrabooks in terms of design, will be disappointed, especially because of the protruding above the top loop is closed. But while Samsung Chromebook quite thin (2 cm).
Samsung Chromebook keyboard has no backlight, the screen brightness control function, volume, switching windows and navigation are located at the top of the browser. The wide touchpad supports gestures
On the left side of the device, you can find a slot for SD memory cards and a 3.5-mm jack for headphones / microphone. Behind the ports USB 2.0, USB 3.0 and HDMI 1.4. The webcam is located above the screen.
The device is equipped with a 16 GB flash drive, but the video, photos and letters are not very large volume can be stored in the cloud via Google Drive - the benefit of the owners of Samsung Chromebook search giant offers a 100 GB for two years.
But the hardware - just one side for Chromebooks. Far more important than Chrome OS. This is a cloud operating system that is designed, in fact, for one application - the browser Chrome. It is a lot, given that we spend more and more time on the web.
But the multitude of programs like iTunes, Skype, Portal 2, Microsoft Office, Photoshop, Spotify and many other things have to forget.
If Chromebooks considered only as a secondary device in the house for the web, these limitations may not be as significant. Often, all you need from your PC - check email, read news, download a recipe, make bank payment, watch videos on YouTube or spend time communicating via VKontakte and Facebook. For such problems, it is a very cost-effective device at boot time and shutdown the OS which is only a few seconds.
Ordinary web pages will work, as elsewhere. Applications can be chosen or purchased in Chrome Web Store, which can be attached to labels. Many people, however, prefer the tablet: it mass entertainment applications and more attractive battery life. Chromebooks also may be interesting to those who often gaining texts - such a device, of course, the iPad will be more convenient for printing.
It is also important that the Samsung Chromebook has support for 3G-connection - connector for SIM-card is located at the rear.
The biggest drawback Samsung Chromebook, according to the journalist, is performance when multiple tabs open: sometimes the text is slowly eliminated in a long document, Google Doc, and go through the pages, even in a simple and not very long document can be excruciatingly long. The other problem is the fact that the song was opened in YouTube on the background may stop when switching between tabs. Other video stutters while seeking to Google Docs.
Chromebooks have to reload the page that have not been used for some time and have been activated again, it#39;s a clever strategy of saving memory, but it happens more often than we would like, when more than a dozen tabs. It should also be noted that this is the first ARM-based the Chromebooks, so that the optimization problem Chrome OS for the new platform can be offset in future OS updates, the benefit they occur every six weeks.
Among the drawbacks of subjective Chromebooks journalist pointed to the absence of the Delete key on the keyboard, which can irritate those who use it primarily, not Backspace to delete the text. Another drawback may be the lack of speed settings and retry delay before repeating characters that appear on standard long. Lack of keys Page Up / Down can be offset by a combination of Alt and the up and down keys and Home / End may be replaced by a combination of Alt, Ctrl, and the up-and-down.
No button and Caps Lock - in its place installed search key, causing the list of shortcuts and the ability to search.
One way or another, but in general, according to Steven Shenklenda, Google has managed to create a decent secondary device for web features, especially useful for those who are already actively using the search giant#39;s services.
