Samsung Chromebook Review
It has been all about back to school around here for the last few weeks.
So when Staples Canada asked me to review the
Samsung Chromebook I was thrilled!
This notebook computer is just the ticket for kids who may be coming home from school with homework soon. Homework doesn’t start in Kindergarten does it? Oi.
I really love that Google Chrome is the operating system for this computer. It is a system that I am very familiar with. I already run Google Chrome on my PC and do a lot of social networking through Google + so having a computer that is set up and ready to go as soon as I sign on with my Google account? Awesome!
Okay here are a few stats on the Samsung Chromebook if you are into that kind of thing:
1.17 GHz Samsung Exynos 5250
2GB DDR3 system memory
16 GB e.MMC iNAND Embedded Flash Drive
11.6″ HD LED screen size
ARM Mali T604
Stereo Speakers
2.43 lbs
To be honest I don’t understand half of the product information jargon myself so I am going to try to put into lamens terms for all of us.
Starting up the Chromebook was as easy as 1-2-3.
It has a smaller memory than some computers but as we use an external hard drive this was not an issue for us.
It is small and light weight, making it portable and easily handled by kids.
It has built in speakers and video which makes movie watching and video editing a breeze.
After firing up the computer there was a great step by step tutorial to get us started.
Since this was a computer that I wanted the boys to be able to use in the future for homework, I had Cameron hop on it right away to get a feel for it.
A few of the things that we loved:
an easy straight forward operating system
the compact, lightweight design
and the kid friendly touchpad
I was surprised at how quickly Cameron caught on to using the touchpad. It was fun to open up discussion about homework and computer use too. In the past the boys have never had access to a computer but now that they are in school it was important to talk about computer use with them. At this time they may use the computer for homework only with adult supervision.
The Samsung Chromebook is the perfect computer for web browsing, document editing and email answering. One of the sites that I love for the kids because it has a great educational component is PBSkids.org. Cameron had fun checking out all of the educational games online.
I found that this notebook had a few limitations, especially when it came to blogging. Some programs are not compatible with Google Chrome. Picasa, a photo editing program that I like to use, for example, could not be downloaded to the chromebook. And while there are two USB ports in the computer, when I tried to download photos from my camera to my external hard drive I was unable to due to the capacity of the Samsung Chromebook.
So the final verdict? I love this for the kids school work and home work. I love that it is easy for them to use and I don’t feel like they will get lost trying to use the Google Chrome operating system. For this blogging momma? While I love the operating system the compatibility options limit my number of uses for this cool new notebook.
If you would like to know more about the Samsung Chromebook be sure to visit Staples Canada.
I would love to know.
What is your go to computer?
very cool! I would have loved to do that review as my computer is on its last legs :o) I keep expecting each crash to be the last… Ha!
EMily@nap-timecreations.com
I had a Chromebook for over a year. I used it for blogging but found that it was very limiting for that as I wanted to use specific programs. It is a great family computer though. For older kids, you could have them log in with their own email and it will bring up their own bookmarks, history, email, documents, etc. Great for people who already use Google’s cloud services.
~ Bethany the ngnrdgrl