Chrome OS Site

More and more users in our forums are beginning to receive their CR-48 Chrome Notebooks. It’s as if manna is falling from heaven! One user though (InlineSkate) wrote a short and sweet review of his personal experiences with his Chrome Notebook. He goes through all the major issues from the device’s build quality to a look into the usability of the current Chrome OS Beta. Check out his review below and don’t forget to also join our growing community.

Build Quality

The CR-48 is a solid device in pictures, even so it does have a sort of ‘cheap plastic look’ to it but when you hold the device it really does have a nice solid feel to it; it’s not flimsy at all.

The Operating System

As far as the operating system goes; at first I was a little disappointed because it is literally a bootable Chrome browser. The more I used it though I started to realize, that’s what makes the device great. I’m always in my browser anyway. Hence the device cuts out the OS middleman which is not being used 90% of the time.

Hands on use

Now as far as first hands on use impressions; the device does work well’ it’s not really glitchy but I think more optimization for the hardware and usability is needed.  The reason why I say that is because the laptop has decent specs for what its designed for (1.66Ghz Atom N455). But on sites with a lot of content (some which my 4th Gen iPod Touch loads perfectly) it seems very sluggish. But I expect that this issue will be resolved by the time OEM’s are ready to ship production machines.

Glitches and small annoyances

Now on usability, some issues I noticed were that the replacement of the caps is in my opinion a design flaw. I think it could have been better made as one of the specialty keys that line the top row of the keyboard. The double finger tap for right clicks is also commonly mistaken by the laptop as a normal click or it doesn’t register at all. In other words the trackpad is unfortunately not very good.

Those are the negatives, now some of the positives are that:

• The device has an amazing battery life and stays cool almost under any condition.
• Everything is synced together between your main desktop and the laptop.
• The device has a non-existant learning curve. You turn it on and pretty much already know how to do everything.

Those are just some of my basic thoughts on the device but if there is anything specific feel free to ask.