I really wish i could find a use for the chromebooks for my family, but i failed. This one seems similar to the samsung chromebook, which i tried for a while (also lending it to mother, sister, children) but we all found it basically useless for any everyday task.
Surely one can blame the ecosystem; but still the conclusion does not change, and as a comparison, tablets and phones had a more successful approach at adapting or modifying the ecosystem and become usable.
You cannot use an arm chromebook as laptop because of lack of storage, applications, limited options to connect peripherals (no drivers for anything except storage). No way to print that occasional document or boarding pass (unless you have another computer or perhaps network enabled printer); no way to scan a document. The samsung had an SD slot (this one does not); but you could not show videos from your camera because of unavailable codecs (and no way to install them, despite plenty of android apps for arm that play the same formats).
Casual browsing also fails a lot because of unsupported codecs (flash, silverlight); a lot of chrome extensions do not work for arm. Apps, almost non existing.
Compared to a tablet, you get a keyboard and the ability to display multiple windows on screen; but in exchange you lose almost every other sensor or peripheral (accelerometer, gps, camera, light) which make the device useful.
Now if there were at least a sandbox to run android apps, one could (temporarily ?) address the lack of applications.
I'm kind of surprised. My dad is an over the road truck driver who isn't too tech savvy. The most I've ever been able to teach him to use on a computer is how to browse the web with Google Chrome. When he left to go back over the road, I got him a Samsung Chromebook with the built-in 3G and he loves it.
He plays his online Texas hold'em (flash based), looks up unfamiliar destinations on Google Maps to see the satellite imagery, and checks the weather radar regularly to avoid storms. He's also able to better keep in touch with us now that he can shoot off e-mails whenever he wants.
I had the exact opposite experience - our chromebook is used all the time while or tablet collects dust. Having a real keyboard is a big advantage. The features you list that a tablet has that the chromebook doesn't are all on our phones anyway.
We'll probably take the plunge and get one for someone in the family when the next wave come out. Most of our documents are in Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Docs, etc. We also have a RaspberryPi and PogoPlug serving up plenty of local network storage. The only printer we use now is an all-in-one with wifi and support for Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print. Scanning from it is a little trickier but it can also scan right to an SD card from the printer panel. I can't think of the last time anyone else in my family attached a USB peripheral other than a mouse or storage.
>> I really wish i could find a use for the chromebooks for my family
My family mostly browse the web. Actually, they don't call it the web. They call it facebook and google. This is the 99% use-case. For that matter, this laptop is perfect.
Ordered. I absolutely love my ARM-based Chromebook, and have wished for the same specs with a bit better construction and build quality. This is absolutely perfect for my needs, and the keyboard looks to be marginally better as well.
I've hardly touched my MB Air (2012 refurb) since I got the Chromebook. Small and light enough to throw in any bag/backpack without care, cheap enough to not worry about theft.
I don't mind it being the same CPU and RAM specs as the original; I don't need much for the Chrome browser and a SSH session to the beefy server where I do most of my work.
Also owned the C7 Chromebook for a while; upgraded it to SSD and 8G of RAM, but it felt like an abomination with the fans, heat it put out, etc. Sold it to a friend, who absolutely loves it.
On one hand, the form factor and aesthetics are great. The price/power engineering is great. The mission/concept is fantastic.
On the other hand, we've learned something from Android/IOS. We need apps and they do not necessarily lead to a computer that cannot be managed by a below average user. Even the average 'your mother' has some needs that aren't well met by this machine. Skype. Fill out this (Word) form and email it back to me.
I really want android/ios-like (ideally iOS simplicity with chromebook prices/hardware) computers to come out and solve computing for the many many people poorly served by cheap clunky windows laptops.
Even if you're really that set on using Microsoft Word, you can use Office Web Apps with Skydrive.
On the Skype front, until WebRTC is mature enough (soon), Microsoft is stuck using browser plugins if they release a Skype Web App. I'd say chances are near zero that they'd have a Chromebook compatible plugin. Complaining that Skype doesn't work on ChromeOS is like complaining that there's no Google Hangouts app for Windows Phone. The market share is too small to be worth the effort, unfortunately.
Now if Google would only open up Hangouts to video bridging solutions like www.bluejeans.com, www.vidyo.com (which.. is the tech powering google hangouts video), etc.
First of all, Google Hangouts replaces Skype, WebRTC eventually will too, and Google Docs or MS Office 365 are both perfectly good Office suites.
Second, the idea is simplicity. Anyone can maintain an up to date Chrome OS system. Anyone's grandmother could have an up to date, virus-free Chrome OS laptop.
Native apps? Chrome has Native Client. It's up to developers to make use of it. Not to mention technologies like Emscripten - again, up to developers. Anyone, what's out there on the web already is enough for most people.
If it's not enough, you can turn on developer mode, and run regular Linux apps (install with Portage), or install Ubuntu with Crouton.
Anyhow, Chrome OS solves 80% of use cases out of the box, and the rest with a little effort.
If we have to have corporate oversight to get a decent OS, then I'd rather one I pay (e.g. Apple for iOS) than one I don't (e.g. Google for Android/Chrome OS). I want to be the customer, not the product being sold. Even if that's not what you want, choice is still a good thing: without choice, we have vendor lock-in and stagnation of ideas.
To pick an example, I think the mobile ecosystem would be a lot better right now were WebOS still a viable alternative. Instead HP left it to rot. How much progress did we lose there?
MacOS is pretty darn good. I'd like to see them own the high end, and devices like this own the low end, squeezing Windows out of my life entirely. For "low end", this is a pretty darn good machine. And it would mean that everything is a Unix.
iOS gives you direct hardware access to the device so you can do photo editing, video editing, music production, high resolution high frame rate gaming, and dozens of other device-local tasks. How does a series of glorified web browser Googlebooks compete with that?
I think Apple could continue to lose a pretty good amount of iOS share still and remain profitable, as the margin on their products is pretty crazy. Windows, on the other hand, is hugely important to Microsoft's bottom line.
This thing being blatantly aimed at the education market, Google really need to do the unthinkable and let people host their own server backends to support these devices, otherwise they're simply data sucking machines. That their own educational programming environment runs on a RaspPi and can't be hosted on a Chromebook speaks volumes.
And I have a Chromebook, which I'll freely admit is brilliant for many things, but they're always going to be slightly useless until running server apps on them is supported out of the box.
The whole thing is remarkably similar to the model Acorn, Sun and Oracle were aiming for with the NC back in the 90s.
Awesome little machine but this brings up questions for me:
1. Do consumers want what is essentially a modern netbook? Didn't this market die once the iPad and tablets took hold?
It would seem from recent consumer buying trends that most prefer a touch screen/tablet form factor at this price point/screen size.
2. How does this compare to an Android tablet (Nexus 10) with a high quality keyboard? Or even some of the "transformer" products with keyboards/additional ports already available?
It seems you pay quite a premium for touch, I wonder if this machine will help sway people back into this form factor without touch/tablet mode.
As a Pixel owner I can confirm that touch on a laptop form factor is somewhat useless. There are precious few times I want to reach out to touch something instead of using the mouse.
The mouse really is a great tool. People need to stop trying to get rid of them.
This is interesting timing, as I am really considering purchasing a chromebook. There are a few things that I am still curious about:
1. does netflix work ? I know that there was some chromebooks that it did not work on.
2. Any one have any experience with playing flash videos?
3. If linux is put onto it using crouton or similar, is it a severly limit set of packages due to the architecture or does it run quiet well.
I want a very casual system that I can occasionally use for some writing/coding. I also have a VPS which I would ssh into for most (if not all) coding.
Netflix was enabled on the Samsung Chromebook last year thanks to EME (the HTML5 DRM stuff that was on the front page a few days ago) but sites like Hulu still might not work. I suspect that this device will work just as well, since the chipset is the same.
Flash works because Google maintains a NaCl version of Flash for Linux and ARM, but it's closed source and requires staying inside Chrome OS. If you install e.g. Ubuntu you won't be able to use Flash on Chromium on the same hardware.
I was in the US last month and went into a best buy to test out the latest Samsung Chromebook (using a similir ARM-based chip that the HP Chromebook 11 does) and I was surprised to find out that Flash worked incredibly well on it! I own one of the first intel-based chromebooks (also from Samsung, I don't remember the exact model name) and Flash is choppy, but on the new ARM-based chromebooks, it's great! And also, Netflix announced a couple months ago that they were planning on releasing an ARM-compatible chrome extension for Chromebooks. I don't know if it has been released or not yet, as it isn't compatible with my chromebook I think.
Woah, this is the kind of developing book I'd like:
6 hrs battery life
IPS viewing display (without 1080p!)
Mirousb universal charging cable
11 inch portability, weighing only 2lbs.
I have the acer c7 chromebook, and am really fustrated I can't simply trade it in for this chromebook. It really is one of the most appealing deals.
HN has also recently been talking about crouton, which I found very usable.
The biggest issues I see in this is 2.0 usb and that non-celeron processor.
For anybody considering developing on a chromebook, this looks like one of the most efficient chromebooks for you. A shame it doens't have a celeron though...
(Side note. I await installation for that IPS onto the acer. I may not be able to turn in the acer c7 for the hp, but if I can get ahold of that 11 inch IPS, I'm game for that :)
These things are getting increasingly more tempting. I'm actually in the market for something to give my parents, but I actually think an 11" screen is too small for them. 13" might be more like it, but in all honesty they probably still need a 15" machine.
But I'm getting increasingly close to picking up one of these just for the hell of it.
Initial impressions (probably all negative): What's the deal with "Just because it looks cool?" A 640x480 webcam in 2013 seems kinda sad (people have become obsessed with video chats these days, quality matters). Using stylized curse words in the copy? Childish. The font on the page is way too small—people have big screens and bad eyes (plus, lots of words/details/reading trying to figure out what/why this things exists).
What's the advantage of this thing over a tablet with an external keyboard?
> What's the advantage of this thing over a tablet with an external keyboard?
Am I the only one who sits on a couch anymore? There's no way I'm juggling a tablet, something to prop it upright with, and a bluetooth keyboard in my lap all at once.
I like the fact it uses a microusb charger but they removed all the other ports I wanted, like HDMI, Ethernet, VGA and sd. I was planning on getting an Acer C7 and this won't change that.
I have a personal distrust towards HP products. Their customer service has always been good to me, but I've owned 3 separate HP laptops (from before and after the Compaq merger) and all three have essentially fallen apart after the first 12 - 18 months. Same goes for Toshiba (2 laptops). In comparison, every thinkpad I've owned (3) has always outlasted my need for them due to outdated specs over time.
[+] [-] lrizzo|12 years ago|reply
Surely one can blame the ecosystem; but still the conclusion does not change, and as a comparison, tablets and phones had a more successful approach at adapting or modifying the ecosystem and become usable.
You cannot use an arm chromebook as laptop because of lack of storage, applications, limited options to connect peripherals (no drivers for anything except storage). No way to print that occasional document or boarding pass (unless you have another computer or perhaps network enabled printer); no way to scan a document. The samsung had an SD slot (this one does not); but you could not show videos from your camera because of unavailable codecs (and no way to install them, despite plenty of android apps for arm that play the same formats).
Casual browsing also fails a lot because of unsupported codecs (flash, silverlight); a lot of chrome extensions do not work for arm. Apps, almost non existing.
Compared to a tablet, you get a keyboard and the ability to display multiple windows on screen; but in exchange you lose almost every other sensor or peripheral (accelerometer, gps, camera, light) which make the device useful.
Now if there were at least a sandbox to run android apps, one could (temporarily ?) address the lack of applications.
[+] [-] jodoherty|12 years ago|reply
He plays his online Texas hold'em (flash based), looks up unfamiliar destinations on Google Maps to see the satellite imagery, and checks the weather radar regularly to avoid storms. He's also able to better keep in touch with us now that he can shoot off e-mails whenever he wants.
It's actually a handy, useful tool for him.
[+] [-] rsheridan6|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ja27|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d0m|12 years ago|reply
My family mostly browse the web. Actually, they don't call it the web. They call it facebook and google. This is the 99% use-case. For that matter, this laptop is perfect.
[+] [-] oscargrouch|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrbill|12 years ago|reply
I've hardly touched my MB Air (2012 refurb) since I got the Chromebook. Small and light enough to throw in any bag/backpack without care, cheap enough to not worry about theft.
I don't mind it being the same CPU and RAM specs as the original; I don't need much for the Chrome browser and a SSH session to the beefy server where I do most of my work.
Also owned the C7 Chromebook for a while; upgraded it to SSD and 8G of RAM, but it felt like an abomination with the fans, heat it put out, etc. Sold it to a friend, who absolutely loves it.
[+] [-] mellamoyo|12 years ago|reply
Full specs
Screen
* 11.6" display with 16:9 aspect ratio (IPS Panel)
* 1366 x 768
* 60% Color Gamut
* 300 nit screen
* Wide viewing angle (176 degree)
Inputs
* Chrome keyboard
* Fine-tuned, clickable touchpad
* VGA Webcam
Ports
* 2 x USB 2.0
* Micro-SIM slot (3G and 4G/LTE model only)
* Micro USB for 15.75W charging and SlimPort video out
Industrial design
* Magnesium chassis for strength
* Available in black or white with a choice of 4 accent colors
* Silent, fanless design
* No visible screws, vents, or speakers
Size
* 297 x 192 x 17.6 mm
Weight
* 2.3lb / 1.04kg
CPU
* Exynos 5250 GAIA Application Processor
Memory
* 2GB (4x 4Gbit) DDR3 RAM
* 16GB Solid State Drive1
Audio
* Combined headphone / microphone jack
* Digitally-tuned speakers with sound ported up through the keyboard
Battery
* Up to 6 hours of active use (30 Wh battery)2
Network
* Dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
* Bluetooth® 4.0
* Verizon LTE connectivity (optional and coming soon)
Goodies
* 100 GB Google Drive cloud storage, free for two years3
* 60-day free trial with Google Play Music All Access, and $9.99/month pricing after that4
* 12 free sessions of GoGo® Inflight Internet5
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/hp-chromebook-1...
[+] [-] netcan|12 years ago|reply
On one hand, the form factor and aesthetics are great. The price/power engineering is great. The mission/concept is fantastic.
On the other hand, we've learned something from Android/IOS. We need apps and they do not necessarily lead to a computer that cannot be managed by a below average user. Even the average 'your mother' has some needs that aren't well met by this machine. Skype. Fill out this (Word) form and email it back to me.
I really want android/ios-like (ideally iOS simplicity with chromebook prices/hardware) computers to come out and solve computing for the many many people poorly served by cheap clunky windows laptops.
[+] [-] omni|12 years ago|reply
Word has a competitor called Google Docs that works just fine in the browser.
Desktop-only apps need to adapt or get left behind.
[+] [-] clauretano|12 years ago|reply
On the Skype front, until WebRTC is mature enough (soon), Microsoft is stuck using browser plugins if they release a Skype Web App. I'd say chances are near zero that they'd have a Chromebook compatible plugin. Complaining that Skype doesn't work on ChromeOS is like complaining that there's no Google Hangouts app for Windows Phone. The market share is too small to be worth the effort, unfortunately.
Now if Google would only open up Hangouts to video bridging solutions like www.bluejeans.com, www.vidyo.com (which.. is the tech powering google hangouts video), etc.
[+] [-] guizzy|12 years ago|reply
http://www.google.com/intl/fr/chrome/webstore/apps-gtd.html
[+] [-] Mikeb85|12 years ago|reply
First of all, Google Hangouts replaces Skype, WebRTC eventually will too, and Google Docs or MS Office 365 are both perfectly good Office suites.
Second, the idea is simplicity. Anyone can maintain an up to date Chrome OS system. Anyone's grandmother could have an up to date, virus-free Chrome OS laptop.
Native apps? Chrome has Native Client. It's up to developers to make use of it. Not to mention technologies like Emscripten - again, up to developers. Anyone, what's out there on the web already is enough for most people.
If it's not enough, you can turn on developer mode, and run regular Linux apps (install with Portage), or install Ubuntu with Crouton.
Anyhow, Chrome OS solves 80% of use cases out of the box, and the rest with a little effort.
[+] [-] alrs|12 years ago|reply
I hope the same thing is happening to Windows marketshare.
I hope the same thing is happening to iOS.
edit: Note that I said "marketshare." I'm not wishing bankruptcy on Apple and Microsoft. It would be a weird desire.
[+] [-] Osmium|12 years ago|reply
To pick an example, I think the mobile ecosystem would be a lot better right now were WebOS still a viable alternative. Instead HP left it to rot. How much progress did we lose there?
[+] [-] cicero|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pkulak|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stinos|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harigov|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] seiji|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bdcravens|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] allsystemsgo|12 years ago|reply
Why do you feel this way?
[+] [-] lispm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mark-r|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] malkia|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ScrumMistress|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] fidotron|12 years ago|reply
And I have a Chromebook, which I'll freely admit is brilliant for many things, but they're always going to be slightly useless until running server apps on them is supported out of the box.
The whole thing is remarkably similar to the model Acorn, Sun and Oracle were aiming for with the NC back in the 90s.
[+] [-] thrownaway2424|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|12 years ago|reply
I prefer my laptops, with my data, my native applications, on my hard disk, only accessing the Internet when I say so.
[+] [-] chimeracoder|12 years ago|reply
If I did, though, man, they couldn't take my money fast enough.
[+] [-] josefresco|12 years ago|reply
1. Do consumers want what is essentially a modern netbook? Didn't this market die once the iPad and tablets took hold?
It would seem from recent consumer buying trends that most prefer a touch screen/tablet form factor at this price point/screen size.
2. How does this compare to an Android tablet (Nexus 10) with a high quality keyboard? Or even some of the "transformer" products with keyboards/additional ports already available?
It seems you pay quite a premium for touch, I wonder if this machine will help sway people back into this form factor without touch/tablet mode.
[+] [-] ChikkaChiChi|12 years ago|reply
The mouse really is a great tool. People need to stop trying to get rid of them.
[+] [-] Touche|12 years ago|reply
Yes.
> Didn't this market die once the iPad and tablets took hold?
No, Chromebooks have been successful.
[+] [-] Newky|12 years ago|reply
1. does netflix work ? I know that there was some chromebooks that it did not work on. 2. Any one have any experience with playing flash videos? 3. If linux is put onto it using crouton or similar, is it a severly limit set of packages due to the architecture or does it run quiet well.
I want a very casual system that I can occasionally use for some writing/coding. I also have a VPS which I would ssh into for most (if not all) coding.
[+] [-] cbhl|12 years ago|reply
Flash works because Google maintains a NaCl version of Flash for Linux and ARM, but it's closed source and requires staying inside Chrome OS. If you install e.g. Ubuntu you won't be able to use Flash on Chromium on the same hardware.
[+] [-] Khao|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tbassetto|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jbellis|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aperture|12 years ago|reply
I have the acer c7 chromebook, and am really fustrated I can't simply trade it in for this chromebook. It really is one of the most appealing deals.
HN has also recently been talking about crouton, which I found very usable.
The biggest issues I see in this is 2.0 usb and that non-celeron processor.
For anybody considering developing on a chromebook, this looks like one of the most efficient chromebooks for you. A shame it doens't have a celeron though...
(Side note. I await installation for that IPS onto the acer. I may not be able to turn in the acer c7 for the hp, but if I can get ahold of that 11 inch IPS, I'm game for that :)
[+] [-] untog|12 years ago|reply
But I'm getting increasingly close to picking up one of these just for the hell of it.
[+] [-] seiji|12 years ago|reply
What's the advantage of this thing over a tablet with an external keyboard?
[+] [-] Zlatty|12 years ago|reply
This laptop could be a gateway for kids as they need a entry device that parents can afford.
[+] [-] dnissley|12 years ago|reply
Am I the only one who sits on a couch anymore? There's no way I'm juggling a tablet, something to prop it upright with, and a bluetooth keyboard in my lap all at once.
[+] [-] ihsw|12 years ago|reply
Following the link for the US to Amazon, the HP Chromebook is nowhere to be seen on the resulting page.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=2858603011
[+] [-] vincentkriek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dagman|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scriptstar|12 years ago|reply
Or Use code LAPT20 to make it £209.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/chrom...
Please make this comment come on top so that people will save some money. Thanks
[+] [-] enobrev|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vital|12 years ago|reply