ChromeOS - 6 months later (with Android support)

[limegorilla]

Note:

I have done a review on the device I have used (the Chromebook R11 from Acer) too - no idea if I am allowed to link it, but it is on here.
And, please bear in mind that I am on the "developer" channel, so some features may be missing on your device, or more buggy on my own.

 

Chrome OS caught my eye early 2017 when Google claimed "it will support Android!" and being a student, immediately saw appeal. Also being a tech fanatic, I saw that these would, and have, become very, very big - especially in the education industry. So I received my Chromebook in the June of 2017, (current version of the time was V54 I believe) and being one of the lucky ones, got Android support immediately. Now, since then we have had the new "material" interface implementation, many fixes to the Android support, new features... but the core experience for me, is much the same - and that is a good thing. The software experience, as Google claims, is sleek, and still fast - this is one of the first devices I have not needed to reset every 4 months!And

 

Now, for the people of this forum, Chrome OS will not become your main OS, it cannot replace macOS or Windows, but for those who use Google's ecosystem, or just need a computer that can web browse, stream video (mine has managed to replay 4K content quite happily, but your hardware may vary - crap! I sound like Linus ) edit documents and just WORK - whatever happens, well they are brilliant. I have come to think of mine as a second, larger phone, with a keyboard. But for your average user, It will & truly do everything, and can only get better.

 

So booting up Chrome OS - a prosess that continues to be fast (about 10s form button to login screen) - you are greeted with the user accounts, which kinda resembles macOS, but more... material design. In fact, it is a mix of features from Android, Linux, maxOS and Windows, just Googlified. Once you login you are greeted by a Chrome window, either loading up a new page, a set of pages, or continuing from where you left off - it's your prefrence - a black Navbar (which turns transparent on the desktop) with all of your "pinned" apps, websites and extentions on the left, and on the right the navigation, and control center on the right. The "app launcher" is accesed with a home-menu like button, or by pressing the "search" key on your keyboard, replacing the Caps-lock (through you can activate it, with search+alt) The app launcher is black, blurred, or your system colors (comes from wallpaper) and shows all your apps in a Android-esque app drawer, which is OK, but I hope there will be more done to it. It feels very empty. The search button, and bar contained within the launcher, search your device, drive and the play store as well as Google, and can even do basic calculations (like 52x6 but it has to be written 52*6) as does Chrome's omnibox.

Notifications come to the bottom right of your screen, and disappear to the notification drawer after a short time, unless they are persistent, like large downloads, which will stay there till you open the notification drawer, which floats up from the bottom when activated by pressing your current notifications, or the bell icon if you do not have any. Following the rest of the OS it has a Material Design theme as does the action centre, found by pressing your profile photo, brings up a small menu, with connectivity settings, sound, brightness (if you are in tablet mode) and accesebility settings, as well as links to lock and power off the device, place it in night mode, access the help menu and go to settings.

 

As far as apps goes, it depends on your laptop. Intel - based laptops, like mine, require emulators to work, whereas ARM - based Chromebooks, like Samsungs Chromebook Plus, run android apps faster for the lack of needing an emulator. This by no means makes the Android experience slow, just sometimes laggy - through this is not as much of an issue for the more expensive laptops with the i5 or i7's powering them. Not all apps are supported, and some scale incorrectly (Instagram, I'm looking at you) and some just have weird bugs (Snapchat - now I am looking at you) but the experience gets better with every update. Having full access to the store brings a lot of value to the devices and now is their main selling point.

 

Other than that, the experience is brilliant. Honestly. The hardware is brilliant too....

 

Liam

Edited January 25, 2018 by limegorilla
accidentally hit finished...

[Eduard the weeb]

Chrome OS makes sense for like a family or someone with a PC thats just needs something light for notes, class, etc

 

 

Like it cannot handle anything crazy or even moderate and alot of them are really low spec like the one I am using to type this.

but I agree with all your points 

 

I feel like that a Chromebook is best for a school laptop because the free google drive and being able to type a paper on the go etc

or for a kid how really doesn't need a pc or a gaming laptop but can still be online and have access to the internet

[Eduard the weeb]

On 1/25/2018 at 9:10 AM, limegorilla said:

have done a review on the device I have used (the Chromebook R11 from Acer) too - no idea if I am allowed to link it,

you can link it 

 

the forum is pretty liberal in what you can post long as you know the limits it should be fine to post here