Chromebook only: the experiment begins
by Andy Eldridge
Samsung Series 3 Chromebook – Chromebook Only Challenge
Yesterday, on a whim, I bought myself a shiny Samsung Chromebook. My five year-old PC was beginning to give up the ghost and I fancied something new. I’d been drawn to the simplicity of Chrome OS for some time, and this seemed like the perfect excuse to trial-run one of Google’s new laptops.
It wasn’t a completely unfounded move, though. My computing requirements have shifted over the years. I only really use the internet to blog, email and listen to music. I don’t play games or edit video like I used to, so I have no need a high-performance desktop PC. In fact, since starting my career in PR, a large percentage of my time is spent writing documents or editing spreadsheets – two tasks that are just as easy to complete on Chrome OS as they are on Mac or Windows. To me, it seemed like a no-brainer.
However, that’s not to say that Chrome OS is perfect. I’m less than 24 hours in and already missing Skype, the fact I can’t download Spotify playlists to the Chromebook’s hard drive and also the bizarre lack of a ‘delete’ key, which has been replaced by a two button combination (alt + backspace). The enter key is also a little on the small side, which I’m not used to. Still, these are minor faults in an otherwise well-built, attractive laptop that cost less than £250. Bargain.
As someone who’s heavily invested in Google’s ecosystem (I’m the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S3, Nexus 7 and now a Series 3 Chromebook) the transition was easier for me than it would be for others. That said, I’m still very much in the honeymoon period. There’s no doubt I’ll stumble across other challenges as I begin to use my Chromebook even more.
For this reason, I’m deciding to use my Chromebook exclusively for the rest of January – to see whether it’s possible to conduct my computing needs entirely online. Unless I absolutely cannot perform a task without reverting back to Windows, I’ll be relying on all those lovely apps in the Chrome App Store.
Wish me luck, this could be tricky.
It’s great to hear another person blog about investing in Google’s low-cost, open source ecosystem. Personally, I’m attracted to Google’s initiative to innovate using their cloud expertise while driving consumer cost down for users who adopt their hardware and web-based products. I’m tired of paying the Apple product premium, although Apple’s innovation in hardware and usability design certainly earns multiple praises. Hope that you can blog about your Chromebook experience on a frequent basis. I’ll be following your blog