A Week With A Chromebook

I gave my sister my Samsung Series 3 Chromebook for a week to see how'd see like it. She currently uses a run-of-the-mill Dell laptop which she has been using for college. I asked her a few questions about her experience with the Chromebook. Here's what she had to say.

What do you primarily use a computer for?

• A Reddit Machine. Facebook. Email. Writing word documents for school. I use a lot of word, excel and ppt. Streaming TV shows and movies.

Did the Chromebook fulfill those requirements?

• Yeppers.

Could you see yourself using this for school?

• Yeppers. It is small enough to carry around in my backpack. It feels just like another small notebook. My friends would be super jealous. It would be especially useful since I wouldn't have to save my notes at the end of every class; it saves automatically.

What were the major things you liked about using the Chromebook?

• It is light. It seems faster than my own laptop. It saves everything that I make (all documents, excel, emails) without me having to save them myself. I never worried about battery life. It makes no noise since it doesn't have a fan.

What were the minor things?

• It is pretty. The screen doesn't have obnoxious reflections.

What major things did you not like about the Chromebook?

• It doesn't have a CD drive. The speakers are not loud enough. I don’t know how to use many of the applications (but that really is just my own ignorance about Googley things).

What were the minor things?

• I wasn't used to having a search button on the keyboard (in place of the capslock key). It also only has numbers on top of the keyboard [instead of a numpad] the right. It’s not heavy enough to knock anyone unconscious. I never got used to using my fingers to swipe.

What things do you wish the Chromebook had?

• A CD drive.

All in all she seemed to really like the Chromebook. Since she doesn't do any graphical design or any other computationally expensive stuff a Chromebook really seemed to suit her needs. Other than web browsing she just needs Google Docs to get her homework done, it seems. Now I just need to convince her to get one for herself.