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With this new Chromebook, Samsung is trying once again experience all Google by offering a cheap netbook running Chrome OS. The question is whether the limitations of this system is not restricted by (too) the possibilities of the machine.
The latest in the range Chromebook, the Samsung Chromebook arrives in France a more attractive price (€ 299) and pay the original run with a made in Samsung ARM processor: the Exynos 5 Dual, double clocked at heart 1.7 GHz and a Mali T604 GPU. The rest of its features fits perfectly with its low price: 2GB DDR3L, 16 GB of storage and a 11.6'' screen display limited to 1366 x 768 pixels resolution. In short, there is like a strong smell of this Chromebook netbook.
A feeling confirmed by its design and finish. By far, the Samsung Chromebook looks like a Macbook Air: same color aluminum, same size, finesse, size keyboard similar ... except it costs three times cheaper than the Dell laptop, which can be felt from that was in his hands. Entirely of plastic, it does not necessarily inspire a rock solid, but is extremely light in against. With its 1.1 kg and 2 cm thick, the Samsung Chromebook is a very discreet and comfortable to hold in hands Dell Inspiron 1545 netbook. Certainly, we would have appreciated the presence of a little more noble materials, but this is probably the price to provide an inexpensive machine.
Nice keyboard, connectivity unadorned
Connectivity, again, it goes to the essentials: two USB ports (one 2.0, the other 3.0), an HDMI output and an SD card reader. No Ethernet, but 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth module, which is fully consistent with the philosophy of Chrome OS. By cons, we regret the Dell XPS M1330 inability to add a key or a 3G chip, and the location of all the connectors on the back, which is very accessible. For outdoor use, a WiFi access point is the only salvation, or possibly a connection sharing with a smartphone. Storage side, if 16 GB chick look good, you should know that Google offers 100 GB of space on Drive. Another choice that goes with the direction "hyper connected" of Chrome OS. And, as you'll see, 16 GB is sufficient for the Google OS. End this way for the presence of a front 0.3 megapixel webcam ... Who does not used to much.
Keyboard side, wide enough and spaced keys provide them a very nice and quiet typing. This time, it is clearly closer to a Macbook, especially with the Dell E4310 Battery presence of a fairly comfortable touchpad. Note that the right click is done by tapping the surface with two fingers (like Apple once again), which is fairly unintuitive when one is not accustomed. Some keys handy shortcuts are also present on the upper part: lighting control and volume, refresh a web page, full screen mode ... all is, of course, very web oriented.
We do not buy it for the screen
Moving quickly on the screen, which is definitely not the highlight of the HP G42 Battery . In addition to providing a fairly feeble definition, it establishes relatively poor viewing angles and a low-end tile, leaving her appear slightly dithering. The brightness is good though and the whole is still basically honest for office use. For the media, however, this is not it. But this is anyway not the height of this laptop.
With its ARM processor and a 30 Wh battery, it was expected that the Samsung Chromebook enjoys an impeccable range. Samsung announces 6 hours of life, which is not very far from the truth. Indeed, we have been using it for a little over 5 hours of conventional use, Web and HP G6 Battery desktop (third brightness and WiFi on) and playing a 720p video ran for 5:50. This is correct, even if the score is far from the best laptops. A machine on ARM be better waiting on this point, but our judgment saw the onboard battery, fairly limited capacity on tempers. By cons, we appreciate the absolute silence of the machine and the absence of unwanted heat. Two essential qualities for this kind of mobile devices.
The hardware side, the Samsung Chromebook is a very decent machine for the price, although we would have preferred a little more carefully screen. But the most important thing here is not the form but the substance. Is Chrome OS, this lightweight HP Envy 17T system designed primarily to work online is not too small?
Chrome OS: light and limited
At first light, you will necessarily surprised by the speed of boot pretty unbeatable. Between when you press the power and launch the browser button, it takes less than 6 seconds, and when the machine is idle, restarting is almost instantaneous. True happiness, it must be said, as the Latitude E5520 Chrome OS is a model of lightness and speed. And for good reason: outside the Chrome browser, there is not much installed on the machine.
Almost everything, does entail the Google browser and you better be adept services Mountain View company, in which case you can go your way. Based on the Linux kernel, so use Chrome OS Chrome 90% of time, the rest being a partion E6320 batteries explorer summary file, which displays both your downloads your stored locally on flash memory or on a memory stick files. You can play music in mp3, m4a or ogg, view and edit (briefly) images or play videos to mp3, avi or mov. We regret the absence of well mkv in this list and also some annoying judder when playing some videos in 720p.
The remains through a Google service and a Chrome tab, whether managing emails via Gmail, creating office documents via Drive or viewing videos, obviously via YouTube. The few shortcut icons located on the taskbar (email, Drive, YouTube ...) therefore refer only browser Dell Latitude E6420 and all through the web.
And when you're offline? Google is happily thought and it is always possible to use Gmail or Drive so disconnected, the service then instantly synchronize when back online. So you can start typing a document on the train or plane, for example, and it will automatically end up in the Google cloud once WiFi recovered.
However, of course, do not expect to install any application, in addition to those present in the Chrome Web Store.
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