Samsung Chromebook: The Chromebook that NOBODY should own

[flibberdipper]

I figured it's about time I did a review on this thing. So, time for the shitstorm.

 

 

INTRO

I've been using this for about a year now, and even though it isn't mine (it's the school's), I have tinkered around quite a bit with it, and messed around with it a lot. But not everything is lolipops and roses.

 

GENERAL PERFORMANCE

Dear god... This this is slow as hell. That "less than 10 second boot time" claim is a load of shit. I timed it and got 15 seconds to login screen, and an extra 5-10 for it to log me in and be usable. The OS is fairly responsive, but it still has some troubles when you have multiple things open. I've run out of RAM more than once, and tabs load PAINFULLY slow. Not even because of my internet, just because of how slow the processor is in this Chromebook.

 

GAMING PERFORMANCE

Alright, so they aren't real games. They're Chrome Apps and flash games. Look up SWOOOP. Great game, and when it does play it, it does so at around 50 FPS. With the latest Chrome OS update (version 37) it won't even run since I need a WebGL compatible browser... What? YOU WORKED FINE WITH VERSION 35.

 

MULTITASKING PERFORMANCE

Again... REALLY slow. Loading multiple tabs was a pain in the ass, and it always had issues with it. The little "tab loading" animations were choppy and jittery, and the tabs just kinda slowly pulled up as they wanted. My netbook with Firefox beat it loading the same tabs, and it has less power in the browser benchmarks. And when you were scrolling through a tab while another one was loading in the background, the tab you're scrolling through gets jittery (and due to the way Chrome/Chrome OS loads tabs) will get blurry or even go to the checkerboard pattern.

 

BUILD QUALITY

Again, complete shit. The laptop flexes more than anything else I have ever seen (more than my friend's Chromebook, which is just a touch bigger and is from another company), and everything about it is crap. The plastic door over the SD card reader? Broke in less than a month, with me hardly using it. Plastic above the headphone jack? Clean crack within a month with frequent use. Plastic around the screen? It's held on by snaps and some glue, and that cracked when the tech guys at my school replaced the screen. When you type the laptop flexes a little. Hell, you can bend the Chromebook and click the touchpad... And the best part? The letters on the outside of the screen that spell Samsung all fell off within a month of use.

 

SCREEN

The screen was nothing to write home about. It can be very dim, and it can be very bright. The resolution of 1366x768 is alright for the size of the screen in this Chromebook. But that's about all I have to say about it in a positive aspect. The colors were always washed out, and they just plain sucked. The viewing angles were horrid, even for a TN panel. The screen in my netbook is FAR better, other than the resolution. And they break EXTREMELY easy. Probably doesn't help that the construction on the rest of the device is horrid.

 

KEYBOARD

Well... More crap. I found it to be very uncomfortable to use, and the keys were fairly hard to actually fully press on my Chromebook. The keys are also pretty damn loud. One nice thing is that the letters on them appear to stay on there pretty nicely, and the keyboard is really easy to clean and all of that good stuff.

 

TOUCHPAD

The touchpad is alright. Using it is pretty easy once you break it in and put some wear on it (otherwise your finger kinda skips along it). It got my touches down pretty well, and is fairly accurate. It is a pretty big touchpad, and looks to be about the same size as the ones that are used on the Macbooks. My biggest gripe: The actual click. It clicks REALLY loud, and works the best at the bottom in the middle. Anywhere else is pretty pointless, since it is pretty difficult to do.

 

OPERATING SYSTEM

Another shining point of this machine. ChromeOS as a whole has matured a TON in the past year, and it always seems to be running more and more stable, and with fewer major hiccups. Sure, not everything about it is perfect, but it certainly seems to be a lot better than what it was. If I were to use a computer just for the web and not much else, I would probably consider something like a Chromebox from ASUS to be a great option, just because of ChromeOS and its ecosystem.

 

CONCLUSION

Yeah... I hate this Chromebook. Maybe it's just because I'm used to the build quality on my netbook, and how it seems to be really freaking tough, but I expected more for close to $250. The build quality is subpar, the plastic is cheap, the hardware used to build it is all complete shit (touchpad is the shining point). But everything that requires WebGL doesn't run or says I need a WebGL compatible browser really pisses me off, since it seems like they only want to work with random releases.

 

IS IT WORTH IT?

Hell no. If you are trying to get a cheap laptop or something for college, for the love of god either save more and get something nicer, or go with a Dell Venue Pro. These things are terribly built, and are really slow. The dual-core Exynos 5 processor clocked at a measly 1.7GHz is painfully weak, and I was running into problems with just 2GB of RAM.

 

Hope you all enjoyed my smashing review of the Samsung XE303C12-A01US Chromebook. I did forget a few little things, but they don't really matter all that much.

[Excon]

I've had great experiences on the Dell Chromebook 11. I'll have to keep track of durability since currently 90 students that are 14 in my school have them

[flibberdipper]

I've had great experiences on the Dell Chromebook 11. I'll have to keep track of durability since currently 90 students that are 14 in my school have them

Lucky.

[Darkman]

That's really odd. The Samsung Chromebooks (Same as the one you are using) are snappy for what they are with actual 10ish boot times. Yeah, they are quite cheap and very bad for what it could be, but the ones at my school I've used seem a little faster than what you're experiencing.. But other than the boot time and multitasking, I've experienced the rest the exact same as you have. Then again, ours have almost nothing on them so I'm going to assume that's it.

[flibberdipper]

That's really odd. The Samsung Chromebooks (Same as the one you are using) are snappy for what they are with actual 10ish boot times. Yeah, they are quite cheap and very bad for what it could be, but the ones at my school I've used seem a little faster than what you're experiencing.. But other than the boot time and multitasking, I've experienced the rest the exact same as you have. Then again, ours have almost nothing on them so I'm going to assume that's it.

I just have some basic GDrive stuff, a few small games, and some apps. Hell, even with my personal account on it, there was only a 3 second longer login time, and I have a TON of stuff on it.

[1823alex]

I've heard the Dell ChromeBook and Acer C720 or C720P are pretty good except most of the ChromeBooks fall short on the display side of things.

[flibberdipper]

I've heard the Dell ChromeBook and Acer C720 or C720P are pretty good except most of the ChromeBooks fall short on the display side of things.

Oh yeah. The display on this one is crap, and the others are meh.

[NerdNinja]

I feel ya man. Although I just installed Ubuntu along side with Chrome OS and I'm having fun lol

 

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-run-both-chrome-os-and-ubuntu-on-a-chromebook/

[LarsReviews]

I should post some pics of my school laptop. Than you know what crap is

 

Nice review, Make a Video about it.

[MuffinTopMike]

Have you thought about setting up dual boot with Chrome OS and Ubuntu? Linux will be much better than Chrome OS and you will have more access to games and programs.

[Dubesta11]

Our school also has them, and I completely agree with you. Take a look at this chromebook, its something that is actually decent. A good CPU/decent GPU, a large 1080p screen, AND an 11 hour battery, all for under 300 dollars. 

[Prokart2000]

the acer one is good

[mr.skyrim_pc]

My school has those chrome books, they are pieces of junk.

[flibberdipper]

I feel ya man. Although I just installed Ubuntu along side with Chrome OS and I'm having fun lol

 

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-run-both-chrome-os-and-ubuntu-on-a-chromebook/

Meh.

 

I should post some pics of my school laptop. Than you know what crap is

 

Nice review, Make a Video about it.

Thanks. Probably won't do a review since I don't own a camera.

 

Have you thought about setting up dual boot with Chrome OS and Ubuntu? Linux will be much better than Chrome OS and you will have more access to games and programs.

I have, but I never feel like it.

 

My school has those chrome books, they are pieces of junk.

Agreed.

[ShadowCaptain]

I really like chromebooks but I agree this one is utterly pants

 

thats why my netbook is a W110er

[terrytek]

Oh god, now I know never to come near a Chromebook again.

[Guest]

Chromebooks suck, but if you want one...

 

The HP Chromebook is adorable, colorful, nearly-officially Google, and doesn't have terrible performance. Plus, the keybaord is solid and the trackpad, while small, works fine.

[terrytek]

Chromebooks suck, but if you want one...

 

The HP Chromebook is adorable, colorful, nearly-officially Google, and doesn't have terrible performance. Plus, the keybaord is solid and the trackpad, while small, works fine.

Yeah, those chromebooks look cute. Like 5 year old toddler cute.

[Guest]

Yeah, those chromebooks look cute. Like 5 year old toddler cute.

My brother had a blue one for a week before he returned it

 

The black one is slick though.

[terrytek]

My brother had a blue one for a week before he returned it

 

The black one is slick though.

I chucked mine at a wall for being too slow.

[Guest]

I chucked mine at a wall for being too slow.

[tvolk131]

I still don't understand the appeal for a chromebook. Honestly, can someone explain to me why people buy these?

[flibberdipper]

I still don't understand the appeal for a chromebook. Honestly, can someone explain to me why people buy these?

For people that spend all of their time on the web and don't want to spend very much on anything, I guess they seem pretty appealing.

[KingKeith55]

My school has these. And the school has horrible internet, so whenever there is more than one person trying to log on it takes like 5-10 minutes to actually get on to them.

 

And yes, this review is a PERFECT explanation. I feel the exact same way when I use these. My school wasted their money.

[flibberdipper]

My school has these. And the school has horrible internet, so whenever there is more than one person trying to log on it takes like 5-10 minutes to actually get on to them.

 

And yes, this review is a PERFECT explanation. I feel the exact same way when I use these. My school wasted their money.

I forgot a few things, so I'll probably do a V2 of this review. At least some of the things are good.