http://www.zdnet.com/blog/diy-it/how-to-decide-should-you-buy-a-new-ipad-or-a-kindle-fire/484?tag=search-results-rivers;item0
DIY Tech blog by David Gerwitz.
It is always a great read.
This post was really well written and gives a great comparison about the two tablets and gives insite into how to decide which one would fit your needs.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A Google ChromeBook, Is it better than a tablet?
So my work wants us to try using different laptops to see if our road warriors can get work done and still stay connected to the office while out and traveling. My department was given Google Chromebooks to use and see if we can connect to our work while using these newer devices. This is my review of the device after 2 weeks of getting used to it and learning its features.
I am currently writing this post on the Chromebook and so far am please with the device. It is a samsung laptop with a dual core Intel Atom CPU which is good its faster than the first generation of Atom processors and feels much more responsive while I am navigating through web pages. I have to find out how much ram is in the device, but Im going to guess its probably about 2 gb of RAM. The c.book also comes with a nice light 16GB SSD Drive for storage of files and data. There is a usb slot for other devices to be connected such as flash drives and cameras and things of that nature. There is also a monitor connection that uses the included VGA connector to connect to a bigger screen if needed. There is also a headphone jack and mic jack for sound input/output. It even includes an SD slot to load memory cards from Cameras and camcorders.
The screen is 12.1 inches and very bright. I opened up the laptop in bed one night and my sleeping wife grumbled that the light was too bright turn it back off!! So after dimming the brightness, I was busy thanking the Google gods for a nice bright screen that one could see anywhere they needed it! The weight of the device is about a pound and its super thin about 2 inches when closed and one inch when opened. It also includes a built in web cam that can take pictures and be used for different apps like Skype.
The battery life... oh sweet heavenly battery life!! The range of time the device can be used in between charges is 8 to 12 hours!! Are you serious?? Yes I am! I am super excited about this because I am coming from a 6 year old laptop who's best length of battery life was 40 minutes! Just to give you an idea of real world usage, I have used this moderately and have charged it once in the 2 weeks of use-sage. My boss who is a power user has been running his non stop and keeps hammering on it while doing things at the office, he has charged his about 4 times since getting it. I have yet to find out how my other co workers have done in this area. (Work has been super busy!) My boss said he gets closer to the 12 hours of life he was also able to keep his charging overnight the first night. I was thinking in terms of how regular users use these devices, so I plugged it in and only charged for a bit then started useing it when I got home. I have only gotten to about 8 hours of use. I know a regular user will see its getting low and then plug it right in. But I am going to use it till it tells me it cant go any more and keeps shutting off. Then I will recharge it.
One of the nicer things about this over a tablet is since its a laptop it has a built in keyboard and you do not need to reconnect one when you need to do some serious word crunching. The keyboard is a nice fit and would fit a variety of hands including larger hands who are clumbsy on a smaller netbook in the 11 or 10 inch form factor. The Track pad is nice and big and can be seen and felt without much searching. The click button is at the bottom of the track pad and is easy to use and has a nice mechanical feel to it. using right click takes some getting used to as the button does not really differentiate between right and left clicks. Instead you have to click with both fingers in the center of the button and you will get right click options such as menus and spell check options. (Thank god because I am a horrible butcher of the English language! To scroll up and down you simply take 2 fingers and slide them up and down the trackpad... it takes some getting used to if your used to a scroll button or a mouse with a Wheel.
The Google chromebook is not a standard Operating system like what you think of with windows and Mac. It is a cloud based system that integrates tightly with Google and its cloud service. You are recommended to have a Gmail account to work with and when you sign up for one you are then given access to the storage and Google office apps to do Productivity tasks with. Being this is a small lightweight system such as this one boot up time is short about 6 seconds worth! you then sign into your google account and have the ability to do what ever tasks you want. The great thing is you have access to all flash based sites and sites that use java, as Google Chrome is your browser as well. If your used to Chrome on your desktop OS then the browser will be very familar to you and works well syncing your bookmarks and such. I have even been able to log into my work cloud and do remote desktop tasks if needed with the c.book! Being that I started moving my important files into the cloud and trying to think that I would need my data to be protable and accessable from anywhere, getting used to this OS has been a breeze. A regular user might have some issues with this and find it hard to do and annoying. Someone who has all their data locked onto a desktop or laptop may opt to travel with a regular laptop to keep all their data with them and transfer documents into the cloud that way.
The Samsung model comes with built in WiFi and has access to Verizon Wireless data packages. It comes with 100MB of data a month for the first year. I have yet to turn this feature on as you need a credit card right away to sign up and I'm sure they would have no problem banging your card if you go past that first 100MB. I have been told by others that using our work cloud can eat through data almost as fast as streaming a netflix movie on a new 4g equipped Ipad.
Youre wondering, "How do I get apps installed onto my ChromeBook? The system comes with access to the google app store which has a few thousand apps and growing. I downloaded Tweetdeck to see my twitter feed and feel it has a much nicer interface to follow than the standard twitter page. There is also a facebook app as well as a Skype app to communicate with. There is also a built in app called scratch pad that you can put notes on and will send them into the Google cloud under a folder called Scratch pad notes. Youtube is included as the standard video player, but other players can be used to view content if needed. There are many free apps as well as pay apps that I have not even delved into yet. I know I am going to research if there are any good IP PHone apps so I can connect to my work phone and make calls with it.
All in all I feel this is an excellent tablet replacement and can do very well for a traveling user. It does not have touch interface so if you really like that then a tablet is a better way to go. For my needs, I always need a keyboard so this is a better optoion for me. It all depends on your needs, for example David Gerwitz a blogger on ZDnet.com commented that he was able to use the Kindle Fire tablet to read electric manuals while he was trying to work on a wall switch in his house. He said his Ipad would be to large to do that with and the same would be true with this Chromebook. Its light enough but a Kindle is a 7 inch form factor and would be better suited for what David was trying to do.
I am currently writing this post on the Chromebook and so far am please with the device. It is a samsung laptop with a dual core Intel Atom CPU which is good its faster than the first generation of Atom processors and feels much more responsive while I am navigating through web pages. I have to find out how much ram is in the device, but Im going to guess its probably about 2 gb of RAM. The c.book also comes with a nice light 16GB SSD Drive for storage of files and data. There is a usb slot for other devices to be connected such as flash drives and cameras and things of that nature. There is also a monitor connection that uses the included VGA connector to connect to a bigger screen if needed. There is also a headphone jack and mic jack for sound input/output. It even includes an SD slot to load memory cards from Cameras and camcorders.
The screen is 12.1 inches and very bright. I opened up the laptop in bed one night and my sleeping wife grumbled that the light was too bright turn it back off!! So after dimming the brightness, I was busy thanking the Google gods for a nice bright screen that one could see anywhere they needed it! The weight of the device is about a pound and its super thin about 2 inches when closed and one inch when opened. It also includes a built in web cam that can take pictures and be used for different apps like Skype.
The battery life... oh sweet heavenly battery life!! The range of time the device can be used in between charges is 8 to 12 hours!! Are you serious?? Yes I am! I am super excited about this because I am coming from a 6 year old laptop who's best length of battery life was 40 minutes! Just to give you an idea of real world usage, I have used this moderately and have charged it once in the 2 weeks of use-sage. My boss who is a power user has been running his non stop and keeps hammering on it while doing things at the office, he has charged his about 4 times since getting it. I have yet to find out how my other co workers have done in this area. (Work has been super busy!) My boss said he gets closer to the 12 hours of life he was also able to keep his charging overnight the first night. I was thinking in terms of how regular users use these devices, so I plugged it in and only charged for a bit then started useing it when I got home. I have only gotten to about 8 hours of use. I know a regular user will see its getting low and then plug it right in. But I am going to use it till it tells me it cant go any more and keeps shutting off. Then I will recharge it.
One of the nicer things about this over a tablet is since its a laptop it has a built in keyboard and you do not need to reconnect one when you need to do some serious word crunching. The keyboard is a nice fit and would fit a variety of hands including larger hands who are clumbsy on a smaller netbook in the 11 or 10 inch form factor. The Track pad is nice and big and can be seen and felt without much searching. The click button is at the bottom of the track pad and is easy to use and has a nice mechanical feel to it. using right click takes some getting used to as the button does not really differentiate between right and left clicks. Instead you have to click with both fingers in the center of the button and you will get right click options such as menus and spell check options. (Thank god because I am a horrible butcher of the English language! To scroll up and down you simply take 2 fingers and slide them up and down the trackpad... it takes some getting used to if your used to a scroll button or a mouse with a Wheel.
The Google chromebook is not a standard Operating system like what you think of with windows and Mac. It is a cloud based system that integrates tightly with Google and its cloud service. You are recommended to have a Gmail account to work with and when you sign up for one you are then given access to the storage and Google office apps to do Productivity tasks with. Being this is a small lightweight system such as this one boot up time is short about 6 seconds worth! you then sign into your google account and have the ability to do what ever tasks you want. The great thing is you have access to all flash based sites and sites that use java, as Google Chrome is your browser as well. If your used to Chrome on your desktop OS then the browser will be very familar to you and works well syncing your bookmarks and such. I have even been able to log into my work cloud and do remote desktop tasks if needed with the c.book! Being that I started moving my important files into the cloud and trying to think that I would need my data to be protable and accessable from anywhere, getting used to this OS has been a breeze. A regular user might have some issues with this and find it hard to do and annoying. Someone who has all their data locked onto a desktop or laptop may opt to travel with a regular laptop to keep all their data with them and transfer documents into the cloud that way.
The Samsung model comes with built in WiFi and has access to Verizon Wireless data packages. It comes with 100MB of data a month for the first year. I have yet to turn this feature on as you need a credit card right away to sign up and I'm sure they would have no problem banging your card if you go past that first 100MB. I have been told by others that using our work cloud can eat through data almost as fast as streaming a netflix movie on a new 4g equipped Ipad.
Youre wondering, "How do I get apps installed onto my ChromeBook? The system comes with access to the google app store which has a few thousand apps and growing. I downloaded Tweetdeck to see my twitter feed and feel it has a much nicer interface to follow than the standard twitter page. There is also a facebook app as well as a Skype app to communicate with. There is also a built in app called scratch pad that you can put notes on and will send them into the Google cloud under a folder called Scratch pad notes. Youtube is included as the standard video player, but other players can be used to view content if needed. There are many free apps as well as pay apps that I have not even delved into yet. I know I am going to research if there are any good IP PHone apps so I can connect to my work phone and make calls with it.
All in all I feel this is an excellent tablet replacement and can do very well for a traveling user. It does not have touch interface so if you really like that then a tablet is a better way to go. For my needs, I always need a keyboard so this is a better optoion for me. It all depends on your needs, for example David Gerwitz a blogger on ZDnet.com commented that he was able to use the Kindle Fire tablet to read electric manuals while he was trying to work on a wall switch in his house. He said his Ipad would be to large to do that with and the same would be true with this Chromebook. Its light enough but a Kindle is a 7 inch form factor and would be better suited for what David was trying to do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)