The whole notion of laptops running on Google’s Chrome operating system isn’t new, since the tech giant announced it two years ago. But the whole thing has become a reality with the Samsung Series 5, an ultra-portable Chromebook that has just launched this week.
The Chromebook isn’t an entirely new OS, but rather a Linux build running in the background with a variation of the Chrome web browser running in the foreground. This is cool in that the Series 5 can start up very quickly and hold good battery life. The problem is that it’s an always-online experience. Sure, you can use web-based apps, especially Gmail, Docs and Maps, with ease, but once you lose your connection to the Internet, everything stops on the Chromebook.
This is temporary, Google says, because offline versions of its apps should be coming this summer. But what about everything else? Download a file that you need to open, and you might end up having to take extra steps just to view it in a browser.
Google has touted the Chromebooks experience as a cross between a laptop and a tablet. The specs, however, put it more in tune with a netbook. The Series 5 has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom dual-core N570 processor, 2GB of RAM, a 16GB solid state drive and a 12-inch screen. Not exactly a powerhouse in the grand scheme. Oh, and the RAM can’t be upgraded, either.
But if you consider that this Chromebook could be a window into the future of computing, then there is more here than meets the eye. Pretty much every major tech player acknowledges that the cloud is going to be huge for consumers in the coming years. Google has been in the midst of that shift already, so this is just a step in that direction.
Some have suggested this might be good for the non-techie crowd, but that may be overstepping a bit. The sheer fact that it’s an always-online experience is a hurdle in itself. Then comes the intricacies of connecting to printers and peripherals, as well as how the file structure works in a largely browser-based OS, and you will raise eyebrows and get heads scratching, too.
Even so, those who want to test themselves in an environment like this to be on the cusp of change may find the Series 5 an ideal thing to adopt. Google will be updating the OS constantly, so what we see now may be very different in just three months time.
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