A couple of weeks ago I took the plunge and purchased a
Chromebook. I had been contemplating it
for some months. Part of the problem I
had is that I view computers like many young men view cars. The bigger and the faster the better. Well maybe not bigger but I like as much ram,
cores, and gigs as I can get for my money.
With few exceptions, Chromebooks are not known for any of that. Sure there are a few i3 and I think even an
i5 quad core Chromebooks but for the most part they are dual core at most some
are even single core affairs with 2 gigs of ram and occasionally 4 gigs.
So I began researching Chromebooks and I came to the
revelation that most of their processing happens in the cloud, I also came
across the Google desktop app that allows you to remotely connect to any
computer via the World Wide Web. Then I
realized what a Chromebook really was, it is a remote terminal. With that in mind, I realized that I didn’t
need Porsche specs and performance, performance was primarily based upon my
internet connection speed.
Still I’m a performance minded guy and I wanted the biggest
bang for my buck. First, I decided I
wanted to spend under $200. In addition,
I don’t consider $199 to be under $200.
I figured if I was going to spend over $200, I should just get another laptop,
which is what I didn’t want. Therefore,
I limited my search to under $200.
In that price range, there are quite a few choices. However, you are limited to 2gig of ram, and
16gig hard drive and really no iCore chips.
As I looked, the Asus C300MA-DB01 came to the surface. It has 2 gig of ram, 16 gig hard drive and
one of the faster dual core Intel Celeron chips at 2.16 GHz. It also has a 13.3” screen it is the only non
refurbished Chromebook with that large of a screen I could find. It also has gigabyte wifi, and with a computer terminal it's usefulness all boils down to it's connection speed and reliability. The fact that we aren't at gigabyte internet connections also makes it relevant for sometime in the futures.
In the end that is the one, I went with the larger screen
and faster wireless adapter along with being the least expensive at the time
sealed the deal.
Am I glad that I purchased a Chromebook? The answer is yes. Aside from a few form factor issues, like the
stupid Mac style touchpad that doesn’t have separate buttons and no separate number pad I
am very happy with the experience and the particular Chromebook I purchased.
The main reason I purchased a Chromebook is twofold. First, I have started driving bus full time
on Wednesday’s, which keeps me out of the office and cuts down on my ability to
do paper and office work. Second, I have
decided to not be in the office as much and do more visiting of shut-ins. However, the nature of North East Iowa is
that I spend a lot of time on the road.
The Chromebook is lightweight and a lot more portable then my laptop and
allows me to do working lunches. I also
have taken to bringing it with me on shopping excursions with my wife.
I have one great advantage over others who may be
considering purchasing a Chromebook. I
have an Android phone with unlimited data.
What that means is that I can create a wireless hotspot without
incurring extra charges on my phone plan and so in places I cannot get free
wireless I can create my own hotspot, which is a lot faster most of the time
anyway.
Since I can connect remotely to my desktop I can still used
any of my desktop programs such as my Bible software and even word. In fact, I began this blog on my Chromebook
in MS Word on my laptop.
Should you get a Chromebook?
That depends. If all you do is
check email, surf the internet, write letters, and have no need to run any Windows
or even Apple based programs then I would suggest that a Chromebook is all you
need. Now I haven’t tired the Google
cloud print yet so I don’t know how easy that it is but it is probably fairly
straight forward as setting up the remote desktop app was.
If you still need to run Windows or Apple based programs but
need to be out in the field quite often then I would highly recommend a
Chromebook over the Ultrabooks. Mainly
because of price. Let’s face it if you
damage your sub $200 computer sure you will be miffed and annoyed but if you
damage your $1000+ Ultrabooks your really going to be upset and if you are
going to drop that kind of cash on a computer and you want portability look at
a high end laptop you will get a whole lot more bang for your buck. Ultrabooks are Chevy Aveos at Porsche
prices. If you are going to pay for a Porsche,
you might as well get one.
