I took the Chromebook Plunge...and I'm glad I did.

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.