Taking a break from Mac Vs PC - hello Chrome OS !!

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So I bought a Chrome OS laptop a few years ago and sent it back.

The screen was washed out, the keyboard was terrible, the case was bendy and there seemed to only be a browser!

 

Of course I was forgetting my own cardinal rules, make sure its made nicely before you get involved ....

 

Recently I had a requirement to edit spreadsheets and documents whilst at work permises, answer emails and look at web pages, but for private purposes. I needed something really light to take into work each day

 

Looking at some ultra light laptops, like the Yoga 700, UX305, macbook, etc. a bit pricey for this application to be honest.

 

Whilst I was browsing I noticed an Asus C100PA, a 10.1" chrome book. Now I don't mind saying that Asus is my number 1 laptop brand, in terms of quality and features.

 

It was made almost entirely out of aluminium, a lovely keyboard for the size, an actually usable landscape style trackpad and a super screen (a bit glossy but really high quality with deep blacks).

However this wasn't the punch line - it was £250 !!! almost as cheap as chips. After a bit of research I discovered:

1. Chomebooks come with 2gb or 4gb (except for the pricey uber Google Pixel). This had 4gb. And a 4 core ARM CPU (although it was distinctly mid-range in terms of chrombeook benchmarks - the intel chromebooks are more powerful)

2. Chrome OS can now work offline with documents. There was a micro SD slot - users had reported 128gb working, I boughtone for £23 from mymemory.co.uk

3. Two USB ports with the ability to attach USB sticks or portable HDs

 

Ok what the hell. Lets try it,

 

I eventually managed to find one new from the respectable Argos store on ebay .... for £199. About the value of a scratch on my 35mm f1.4

 

All I can say is wow. The battery life is just over 9 hours. So this is a laptop I actually use more disconnected then connected. For example I never take the powersupply to work (although it only weights 80g). and the C100PA weights aroung 900g.

 

Googledocs are working perfectly for word and excel documents. I love the way I can update a spreadsheet and click the share button and enter anyone's email I want to either review, or edit it. Also there is no save function, for example in excel as soon as you finish editing a cell it saves automatically. In terms of shareing and anywhere access its brilliant (I suppose MS Office 365 is just as good, probably better, but 15gb of google storage is free permanently with chrome OS and additionally 100gb for 2 years).

 

There is an inbuilt file transfer and viewer which can view raw files !! I don't know the latest compatibility list but DNG is fine. There is also a decent raw & photo editor called Polarr

 

In summary this device is great for transferring photos from SD cards to a portable hard disk in the field (e.g. on holiday), previewing photos and light editing for web posting or sending to family or business. Its also great for web browsing and document editing. The HDMI port mean it can be plugged into a larger monitor and although the Chrome OS app store has loads of useful stuff, Google has confirmed the whole Android app store is coming to Chrome OS later this year (not for every chrombook, there is a list of compatible ones on Google's web site).

 

For a light weight travel machine and camera companion this is totally ace. As a full editing tool it is isn't, but you need to pay at least 4x more for anything decent for full editing. IMHO the Intel My processors (as featured in the macbook and Yoga 700 etc) are too sluggish for full editing in Lightroom or Photoshop, but no better then Chrome OS for simple tasks, the jump is pretty high in price to something a whole level better

 

Very pleased with this device. Perhaps not as a main device (although my Mum could use it for this) but as a cheap companion for travelling, or finishing that report on the toilet, its ace .....

 

Worth trying out a chromebook near you ....

 

 

[Exodies]

How does it work with an android phone? Do they share bookmarks, open web pages, etc?

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How does it work with an android phone? Do they share bookmarks, open web pages, etc?

I believe so if you use the chrome browser, but I haven't tried it myself.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mnsh]

I noticed you mentioned your chromebook has Polarr as a raw & photo editor.  I needed something that would work on Linux as well as Windows so have bought Polarr full version and although I like all the features you can do on JPGs, it doesn't open DNGs.  Please am I missing something in it?

Thanks

Matthew

[mnsh]

I noticed you mentioned your chromebook has Polarr as a raw & photo editor.  I needed something that would work on Linux as well as Windows so have bought Polarr full version and although I like all the features you can do on JPGs, it doesn't open DNGs.  Please am I missing something in it?

Thanks

Matthew

Actually it will open DNGs in the Linux version

Any other Polarr users out here with tips?

Matthew