Samsung Series 5 Chromebook Review
The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is a bit of an experiment in the netbook genre. Despite some interesting features, Samsung Series 5 Chromebook reviews are far from enthusiastic. According to a Samsung Series 5 Chromebook review on Laptop Mag, and PCWorld.com, this model's strengths include its fast startup time, comfortable keyboard and touchpad, and long battery life. But neither this expert Samsung Series 5 Chromebook review nor one on Slashgear are keen on the Chromebook's Google Chrome operating system, which is little more than a fancy version of Google's Chrome Web browser. The system boots fast, Samsung Series 5 Chromebook reviews say, but performance is sluggish. Even running a simple game like Angry Birds taxed this system, Slashgear notes, despite the fact that this same game runs well on a smartphone. And because the program has no true OS, it can only run web-based apps so there's no support for programs such as Netflix, another drawback for expert reviewers at Engadget.
The stand-out feature of the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is its unusual operating system, Google's Chrome OS, but here, that's not a plus. Specs-wise, the Chromebook has better hardware than the typical netbook. The Chromebook incorporates an Intel Atom N570 CPU and 2GB of RAM. It has a 12.1-inch display running at 1280 x 800, two USB 2.0 ports, a card reader that reads SD/SDHC/SDXC/MMC cards, and a six-cell battery. The Chromebook not only supports 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connections, it can use a 3G connection via Verizon Wireless. This netbook's most interesting hardware feature is its 16GB SSD (solid state disk) drive, which is more like a flash drive than a conventional hard drive. The advantage of this feature is that the Chromebook can boot up nearly instantly, rather than in the 60 seconds or so it takes a typical netbook to start up using a standard hard drive.
The Chromebook is still something of a test case in the netbook industry, and it's clear that Samsung has some improvements to make before this netbook can justify its $400-plus price tag. While its 16GB SSD drive is a fantastic feature, its Chrome OS isn't -- it's just too awkward to use for anything other than basic web-based activities. If that's all the Chromebook aspires to, then the price needs to come down and the performance needs to go up.
