Fast, functional and really affordable – 9 reasons we love Google Chromebook laptops
Built for online, portable for on the go, easy to set up and really cheap - why we love the Google Chromebook...
Google's super affordable, ultra-portable and
ready-to-rock-straight-from-the-box Chromebooks straddle the no-man's land between
laptop and tablet.
Self-updating and easy to set up, they're great as a regular
laptop, but light and portable enough for when you'd normally
prefer a tablet.
With sales of the devices soaring 112% by the end of last year,
Chromebooks are the punky young upstart of the computing
world.
Among their ranks are the HP Chromebook 11, the Acer C720 and the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook.
Here are nine reasons we love them.
1) It's optimised for online life, to get the best from everything Google
These days we pretty much live in our web browsers - streaming
music and video online, saving files in the cloud, reading the
news, checking email, updating social media, sorting our weekly
calendars, buying new clothes and even doing the weekly shop.
Much of this can be done via searching Google, downloading music
and books from Google Play, writing work reports in Google Docs,
saving them to Google Drive cloud storage, laughing in hysterics at
YouTube vids and chatting to friends in Google Hangouts.
So Google decided to make the web browser the operating system,
with a laptop optimised for all its online services. It's called
the Chromebook.
Writing for tech site ZDNet, Matthew Miller said: "There are
millions of people who spend the majority of their time in a web
browser and for them Chromebooks are an excellent choice."
2) It's a laptop that thinks it's a tablet
When the work goes away for the night, and you leave the kitchen
table for the sofa, it's goodbye laptop and hello tablet - so much
friendlier for sofa-based slouching. Now we have the
Chromebook, which offers the best of both worlds. As well as being
a laptop with a proper keyboard, it boasts many tablet-like
features.
It's lightweight (the HP, Samsung and Acer models we mentioned
weigh around 1kg - less than the Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet).
It's small enough to perch on the sofa arm without toppling over
(just like your tablet). It can boot up in seconds (again, like a
tablet).
3) It's really, really cheap
Chromebooks are cheap - really cheap. They cost around £200 on average (a bit more for a 3G option). This is far cheaper than even the most basic Windows laptop, and considerably less than a high-end tablet such as the iPad Air.
4) It is set up in minutes
We live in we-want-it-and-we-want-it-now times: fast food,
minute-by-minute live blogs of football matches and Facebook
pictures of nights out as they happen.
Clearly we don't like waiting around these days. But with a Google
Chromebook you'll be up and running in seconds.
Writing for ZDNet David Gewirtz said: "Getting set up and running
on my new Chromebook took five minutes."
5) It's great for getting some real work done
With built-in apps for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, you can
crack on with writing reports, finishing spreadsheets and planning
presentations just as you always have done. And because these live
online rather than on your machine you can invite colleagues to
work on them with you in real time.
If you can't get an internet connection you can still view and
edit Google documents, spreadsheets and presentations offline - all
it takes is a few simple set-up steps in your Chrome web
browser.
6) It boots up in a few seconds
Your Chromebook will boot up in seconds whenever you switch it
on.
Regular laptops take a little longer, and sometimes it doesn't
seem worth it if you only wanted to check the football scores or
reserve an item. But because each of our featured Chromebooks
is raring to go in less than 10 seconds, it's perfect for those
one-minute jobs.
7) You get free cloud storage with it
Chromebooks aren't designed to store vast amounts of documents
or music and video files. Instead - everything is stored
online, in the cloud.
To make this easier, Google bundles 100GB worth of free storage
with Google Drive - its cloud storage service.
Although you won't have all your files actually saved on your
machine, you can access them easily whenever you have an internet
connection - and in some cases when offline too.
8) It's great for life on the go
Wanting a laptop that can slip inside your bag and follow
wherever you go? A Chromebook is perfect. The HP, Acer and Samsung
we mentioned earlier each weighs around 1kg and is less than 20m
thick. As Google says, perfect to "put in your purse, backpack or
briefcase".
The three Chromebooks we highlighted also have 11.6inch screens
and at least seven hours' battery life - no more cringing when you
plonk down your massive laptop and power pack on the train
table.
You can also get online wherever you are thanks to a number of
Chromebooks being available in 3G options - among these is the
Samsung Series
3.
9) It updates itself, for free
How annoying are security and software update notifications on
your laptop? And how often have you forgotten to act on the
prompts?
With a Chromebook you can kiss all that jazz goodbye. It updates
itself automatically with the latest operating system and security
software so you don't have to.
Matthew Miller added: "There is no worry about security updates,
outdated software, sluggishness as systems clog up, and other
issues I spent many hours troubleshooting for family and
friends."
Interested in getting a Chromebook? Then check out the latest range here