Chrome notebook review

Walking on the cloud

Thanks Google for sending me its latest fast Chrome notebook via fastest UPS next day air shipping.

First, I want to say it is a revolutionary machine. No hard drive. All data are on the cloud. That's why their ads said your data is fine even your machine is crashed by truck. It also changes the layout of the keyboard (not caps lock, fn, add keys such as ->, <-, reload, full screen)

Here is how it looks like:

The box

The size (above my 13.3" macbook)

The keyboard

When it starts

CPU

The other important point is it starts within 10 seconds. It also wakes up/sleeps as fast as my Macbook. I think it aims at customers who need notebook just for browsing the web/using Google products. (kind of similar to the idea of netbook, thought Chrome notebook is 12 inch in size.) It is probably as light as Macbook Air. It has about 8 hours battery life.

One other neat point is Google works with Verizon to provide Chrome notebook users with two years 3G connection with 100MB per day for free.

Con: the flash is not very good. It is not smooth when watching online video. Adobe vows to fix it (http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/12/09/adobe.says.flash.in.chrome.os.a.work.in.progress/)

The touchpad is not good enough compared with my macbook. You can use two fingers to move downward/upward as in macbook, but it is not smooth enough.

How to apply for Chrome notebook:
http://www.google.com/chromeos/pilot-program.html
I think I got it because I am a heavy chrome user~


Introduction to Chrome OS: