Sign in / up

back to article Samsung's Chromebook Pro: Overpriced vanilla PC with a stylus. 'Wow'

It's been nearly six years since Google announced the launch of its own operating system, Chrome OS, and the CR‑48 Chromebook running it. Since then, Chromebooks have carved out a solid chunk of market share for the operating system. Around 50 per cent of US schoolchildren use Chromebooks in the classroom and Chrome OS is now …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *

Page:

  1. Dabooka
    Meh

    That hinge

    Does that mean in tablet mode the keyboard is just exposed at the back rather than the base of the unit?

    Seems an obvious flaw to me, although I'll openly admit to never using anything that does that.

    Besides I think I'll wait until the apps are fully functional, and by then of course the next big thing will be upon us anyway.

    1 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: in tablet mode the keyboard is just exposed at the back

      My Lenovo is like that. Once it goes past 180 degrees the keyboard stops working. It's ugly and open to getting crap on it but it's no problem to use. Windows 8 is pretty crap in tablet mode though so I seldom use it open like that. I imagine an Androidy OS would handle this much better.

      3 1 Reply
      1. Danny 14
        Reply Icon

        Re: in tablet mode the keyboard is just exposed at the back

        I had an acer switch as a test sample. That had 8gb ram and 64gb storage with a further 500 in the keyboard. It docked and undocked from the keyboard just fine. I think the asking price was about 450. They ran ok but we ended up going with dell venue pros (mainly for the docking stations ).

        The venue pros are going strong after 18onths, no failures out of 250 units.

        0 0 Reply
  2. James 51

    If you could stick ubuntu or even windows it might be worth a look.

    14 4 Reply
    1. theOtherJT Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Absolutely. If I can get debian on this thing I will almost certainly buy one. Looks like an excellent alternative to my aging zenbook.

      3 1 Reply
      1. AMBxx Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Down

        There's no shortage of mid-range laptops capable of Windows or Linux. Why bother with one that's got a crappy keyboard?

        8 1 Reply
        1. James 51
          Reply Icon

          The pen and the screen.

          3 0 Reply
        2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          how many have screens

          that are better resolution than the 1366x768 that you usually find on budget laptops then?

          This seems to have a decent screen for once.

          Shame about it running an OS that slurps data to the Chocolate Factory. At least that is better then slurping data ro Redmond but not by much though.

          As has been remarked on already, if a non Ubuntu Linux was available for this then there would be a market for quite a few amongst those who comment here. Debian or Mint, I don't mind really.

          9 3 Reply
        3. Mage Silver badge
          Reply Icon
          WTF?

          Also

          What's the point of a Chromebook compare to same HW with Linux?

          You can add whatever cloudyness you want to Linux. ChromeOS seems just like crippleware in comparison.

          Looking at a Lenovo X201 Tablet. Decent touch screen which doubles as a Wacom tablet. It's six years old. It had Win7, but works better with Linux Mint + mate.

          I can accept Android on my phone, because it's just a phone, I don't create more than notes with it and the realistic alternative is iOS with an iPhone at a higher price.

          Similarly unless you MUST have windows on a laptop or possibly convertible laptop/tablet, the better options than Chrome OS are MacOS, Linux or maybe iOS on the Apple equivalent to a Surface.

          I just can't see the point of this or Chromebooks in general.

          My own workhorse is a Lenovo E460, i5 + GPU + HD display running Linux., My previous nearly 15 year old Inspiron 8200 still goes (XP so no longer on Web and not used since Nov 2016), with a slightly more useful 1600 x 1200 display. The Lenovo display is a little small at 14"+, but then a 17" laptop (the traditional 1920 x 1080 replacement for 15" 1600 x1200) is too big

          3 4 Reply
          1. Martin
            Reply Icon
            WTF?

            Re: Also

            "I just can't see the point of this or Chromebooks in general."

            Then Chromebooks are not aimed at you. Chromebooks are for people like my wife, my daughter and (most of the time) me who want to pick up a computer and do basic browsing, office work and email - which is what 99.9% of users do every time they pick up a laptop. They don't want to have to wait for Windows to install yet another set of updates; they don't even know what Linux is, and they don't care either.

            We have three in our house - one each. Mine also has Crouton installed, so I can play with Linux.

            10 1 Reply
          2. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Also

            - the point of the Chromebook being that Google get to spy on you all the more easily?

            4 1 Reply
            1. Mellipop
              Reply Icon

              Re: Also

              How childish. Nearly every web site is collecting data on you and it goes to aggregators which you know as advertisers.

              They probably know more about your habits than you do.

              It's not just Google that collects data about your interests. Although society has put them in a good position by ignoring other search engines.

              The point of the Chromebook has been explained to you in this discussion. It'll overtake PC usage anywhere where there are concerns about sensitive data being stored locally.

              4 4 Reply
              1. SundogUK Silver badge
                Reply Icon

                Re: Also

                "They probably know more about your habits than you do."

                No they don't.

                https://noscript.net/

                0 0 Reply
          3. jacksmith21006
            Reply Icon

            Re: Also

            'ChromeOS seems just like crippleware in comparison."

            ChromeOS is the same. They both use the same kernel! The plus with ChromeOS you get to also use Android apps in addition to full Linux if you want to.

            Linux is different in the kernel and OS are completely separate. So Linux kernel can have SteamOS or Android or ChromeOS or a combination!

            I get it is kind of confusing because how Google markets the Chromebooks but fundementally the computers are NOT crippled. The Linux kernel on them is the exact same that is used to run Google cloud for example.

            It is a full featured and sophisticated cluster running. The difference is the other software that makes use of the kernel. With ChromeOS you have to bring it to the box which is what Crouton does for you.

            But now Google has containers working and we need them to give us access and offer persistance away from ChromeOS system disk. So Crouton would no longer require developer and would run in a container nice and safe.

            1 2 Reply
            1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
              Reply Icon

              Re: Also

              My experience is that ChromeOS (and Crouton, if you put that on top) *is* still crippled. Yes, it is a Linux kernel underneath, but it is the kernel that the OEM chose to put there, with whatever options they chose when building it and whatever modules they chose to ship it with. A couple of years down the line, you'd still be running kernel version "old.past-it" and relying on Samsung or Google for security updates. (I don't know which, but if it is like phones then it will be Samsung and you are shit out of luck.)

              At least this model isn't ARM-based and so it will probably conform to all those nice de-facto platform standards imposed by Microsoft for everything around the CPU. That means you have a reasonable chance of putting a recent Linux build on and keeping it "recent" for the lifetime of the hardware, which (contrary to the hardware vendor's fondest wishes) is *not* "six months and then you toss it away and buy the latest model".

              0 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      This seems to be aimed at a totally different use case, a large use case, than Linux PCs.

      Sales pitch - Do you like your mobile device? Most people - Love it. Do you like using your PC? Most people - Not really, use it if I need to.... Here is a PC that works like your mobile device. Best of both worlds.

      4 8 Reply
    3. DNTP
      Reply Icon

      An important part of a Reg review of any laptop should be the experience of trying to install Ubuntu/Mint/Debian on it, because it seems that's what a significant minority of the readers here are going to want to do to anything as soon as they buy it. And Best Buy salespeople get all flustered and stern when you try to do that to their demo machines.

      24 3 Reply
      1. Lee D Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Installing Linux on any Chromebook needs you to put it into an "insecure" mode that warns you about that on every boot-up, I think.

        That's how it's worked on anything I've had.

        They don't have a traditional BIOS that you can add in secure keys, and if it's not signed by Google, it warns on bootup and you have to press a key to boot.

        4 0 Reply
        1. Voland's right hand Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Installing Linux on any Chromebook needs you to put it into an "insecure" mode

          After that it is usually reasonably plain sailing on an Intel one like this. In fact, if memory serves me right the Intel ones are supported by the standard Ubuntu installer.

          Now Arm... that is not for the fainthearted. I have an Arm Samsung Chromebook hacked to Run Debian. The experience of installing it was like fighting a pig in the mud. The end result works quite well (though it needs a small protrusion on the back in the form of a micro USB-thumbdrive to be even remotely useful), but is definitely not worth the amount of effort you need to put into it.

          0 1 Reply
        2. Mage Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          EFI

          Though the Lenovo EFI didn't mind at all. I had to disable "legacy/both" and EFI only in setup so that the Linux live / USB stick would do the EFI based Grub.

          0 0 Reply
    4. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      It should work fine - take a look at Crouton, which gives you hotkey-swapping between ChromeOS and Ubuntu.

      That even worked on my 5 year old Samsung Series 5 with it's 486 DX2/66 or something (edit: I checked, it's an Atom N570 so not much better - but it runs both OSs reasonably well.)

      0 0 Reply
      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Or check out Seabios which allows most (all?) Intel chromebooks to run from a USB or SD device and install native Linux on the internal 'disc'.

        I favour Mint Cinnamon on a Toshiba CB II - sadly no longer available - for the brilliant IPS screen.

        0 0 Reply
  3. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    Reading the review my main complaint is the lack of built-in connectors for HDMI and older USB. Who really wants to have to carry a bag of dongles where ever you go that you might need to plug in to anything?

    I have a el-chepo Chromebook and it was good for certain things, provided Google's whoring of your information is acceptable. For a "technically challenged" friend it was almost perfect (until they stood on it - not really and OS fault).

    However my main gripe with that Chromebook was the keyboard. Yes, I like getting rid of caps lock, but they also got rid of the cursor keys and home/end and for many, many tasks that just royally pissed me off.

    7 1 Reply
    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      "but they also got rid of the cursor keys and home/end"

      Odd. *My* Chromebook has the arrow keys but doesn't have Insert or Delete. There are really quite a few programs where the latter omission means I have to pick up the mouse and navigate through a menu or two, just to perform an action that for the past few decades has been a simple keypress.

      Is there some sort of standard for ChromeOS keyboards or is it just "you can provide whatever subset of a full keyboard that you like, as long as it is a subset"?

      1 0 Reply
      1. Boothy
        Reply Icon

        Oldish Lenovo N20P here, and that also has cursor keys.

        0 0 Reply
  4. Your alien overlord - fear me

    "making it easy to mishit." - is that just a bad Nintendo Mii figure?

    6 0 Reply
    1. JeffyPoooh
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Mishit

      I've arrived here with "The often-used backspace button has been chopped down, making it easy to mishit." in my copy and paste buffer.

      WTF is "mishit"? He's used it at least twice.

      0 1 Reply
      1. Hero Protagonist
        Reply Icon

        Re: Mishit

        Mis-hit

        6 0 Reply
        1. JeffyPoooh
          Reply Icon
          Pint

          Re: Mishit

          My Hero clarified, "mis-hit".

          Thank you. My parsing got hung up on 'mi-shit'.

          0 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    A TPM os good on Chrome, and bad in Windows?

    Please explain...

    8 1 Reply
    1. Paul Crawford Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: A TPM os good on Chrome, and bad in Windows?

      Is a very good point.

      The real answer, of course, is secure/TPM boot is good when you have the ultimate control over its use, and not what the OEM has decided you should get. However, I don't know what this Samsung laptop is like to actually answer that. My old Acer Chromebook allowed you to disable it so I could boot Ubuntu, etc, if I wanted.

      6 1 Reply
    2. Philip Storry
      Reply Icon

      Re: A TPM os good on Chrome, and bad in Windows?

      On a general purpose machine in a class where you can traditionally run whatever OS you like, a TPM is bad.

      On a machine sold as custom built for one specific OS, it's good.

      There are other factors too. If you're spending a lot of money on a machine you hope to be general purpose, a TPM is bad. If you're spending little money on a machine you will treat as a commodity, it's a lot more acceptable.

      It's all very situational.

      4 3 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A TPM os good on Chrome, and bad in Windows?

        So the same as Windows then?

        2 0 Reply
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A TPM os good on Chrome, and bad in Windows?

        I would say is exactly the other way round - a TPM where I can run the OS of my choice, and the TPM helps to protect it from unwanted modification is good. If it is used to hinder any modification and run only the Google/MS/Apple/etc. approved OS is bad....

        And if I spend a lot of money for a machine to be general purpose, why should I get *less* security? There's a big chance it will hold more valuable data than a commodity, cheap, machine....

        But it looks that in Google Alternative Universe everything is upside down...

        6 0 Reply
    3. Christian Berger
      Reply Icon

      Well the problem with TPM is...

      ... that it claims to be able to do lots of things, like protecting your system from physical access or someone becoming root in order to modify your boot process. Obviously that's bollocks, since if your system has already been compromised that way, it makes very little sense to achieve persistence via the boot process. There are lots of other, much simper ways to do so.

      That by itself wouldn't be a problem, but then there's the obvious problem of hardware vendors not allowing you to add new keys yourself... or making that particularly difficult to do. Microsoft already dropped the requirement to turn off the TPM, on ARM they even require it to not be possible to be turned off. Essentially we are now seeing the things people warned us about 20 years ago. Most smartphones already have locked bootloaders and if we are not careful, laptops and desktop computers might follow soon.

      1 2 Reply
  6. ridley

    For use in a school environment Chromebooks/Boxes and Bases are brilliant. Easily controlled, secure, fast, cheap with an OS, Admin and utilities that are all free.

    Trying to lock down a MS environment for school use is a futile game of whack a mole.

    A school based on Chromebooks and Google GSuite (FKA Google Apps For Education) saves a fortune and has a better system to boot.

    8 7 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Save a fortune...

      ... .and sends your children data to Google. Enjoy! You pay for it anyway.

      6 12 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Save a fortune...

        ".. .and sends your children data to Google. Enjoy! You pay for it anyway."

        What is this obsession with Google collecting data? Is this just a tin foil hat thing? Google wants your data so they can serve you ads based on stuff you might want to buy as opposed to serving you ads at random. It is not like they are trying to blackmail you or track you down and send you to a CIA black site. It's harmless. Seems like a small price to pay, meaning really no price at all, for free, great software. Also, MSFT attempts to do the same thing *and* they charge you for it.

        6 12 Reply
        1. jacksmith21006
          Reply Icon

          Re: Save a fortune...

          The comment about Google and collecting data is a smoke screen to take the focus off of Windows slowing dying. It is a reaction to try to grab something to discount what is happening in from of them.

          I am old and seen it with every platform when it starts dying. Techies go through the stages of grief.

          Some can let go and others will persist for years complaining about silly things.

          Best thing our schools ever did was move to using Google. Not only the Chromebases and Chromebooks but also Google Classroom. It is pretty incredible this software and the more valuable K-12 aspect for Google, IMO.

          Our schools are now all Google from chromebooks, chromecasts on all the smart boards, how they use YouTube in the classroom and most importantly the Google software. Love how they use Sheets to break down all your kids in the school so you can break it all down.

          Was out to eat one evening a couple of years ago. My daughter was on her phone and told her to put it down. She told me she had to finish something for school and submit. She was in grade school at the time. I said BS. She shows me her iPhone and yes she was typing in Google Docs.

          I was blown away and this was a couple of years ago.

          My boys knew how to type way before writing. So having Chromebooks at young ages is ideal, IMO.

          5 3 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Save a fortune...

            "take the focus off of Windows slowing dying."

            Fact. All of this 'Google is looking at your data... ooooh' stuff was created as a Microsoft FUD campaign in the Ballmer years. They were selling 'Scroogled' apparel at the Microsoft store in Redmond. It was sad. Microsoft couldn't produce a Google quality product at any cost so they tried to scare people. Check it out if you think I'm making this up. Microsoft paid millions in PR to try to convince people that Google was doing some nefarious with their data... even though MSFT knew full well that Google was just using abstracted user data to serve relevant ads, and was busy trying to copy Google's ad tech.

            0 0 Reply
        2. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Save a fortune...

          Data of K-12 schools? You feel fine if someone collects data of from you children for "targeted ads" (but once data are out, you could do everything you like with them) - even when it should not be allowed?

          https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/18/mississippi_says_google_harvested_student_data/

          And I'm perfectly fine to pay form my children software so they aren't tracked whatever they do. Who cares about "targeted ads"? I teach them to never trust ads, all of them <G>.

          Are you really so greed you are ready to sell your life activities for a bunch of "free" software?

          Then, for the part Google doesn't allow TLAs to access its data - even those collected abroad, and without a warrant...

          0 0 Reply
    2. Lee D Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Chromebooks - Check.

      But you can't secure MS? What the hell are you doing? GPO and software restrictions and it's game-over for the kids.

      What you CAN'T secure is a damn iPad, even with the world's most expensive MDM software. Can't stop them doing all kinds of stuff, even if you think you would be able to or you appear to have options for it.

      Chromebooks are a cinch in comparison and the kids hate them because they lock them down so well.

      And MS networks - it makes me wonder what you do for a living.

      (Hint: School IT Manager for the last 15 years).

      7 3 Reply
      1. Fuzz
        Reply Icon

        ipads

        ipads are easy to lock down as long as you have them enroled in DEP. That way it doesn't matter what the kids do to them the restrictions can't be removed. Even if they hook the device up to a computer and use iTunes to wipe it. It boots back up connects to your MDM and sets itself back up again.

        1 2 Reply
      2. ridley
        Reply Icon

        Re MS systems being made secure that is easy, pull the plug. Making it secure AND usable in a school, well good luck.

        With GSUITE it is a piece of cake.

        2 4 Reply
    3. Mage Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Headmaster

      School Lock down

      The only suitable windows for total lock down and School was NT4.0.

      Linux can be locked down for school use.

      Chromebook may not even be legal for minors in many countries! Dataslurp.

      3 3 Reply
      1. ridley
        Reply Icon

        Re: School Lock down

        Google have a policy of not slurping GSUITE accounts, of course I would like that confirmed. But if they did their plan to convert schools would go off the rails PDQ

        3 2 Reply
  7. TVU Silver badge

    "Since then, Chromebooks have carved out a solid chunk of market share for the operating system. Around 50 per cent of US schoolchildren use Chromebooks in the classroom and Chrome OS is now the second most popular operating system in the country."

    In other words, (a modified Gentoo) Linux is doing rather well in the classroom and it's beaten macOS into third place in the USA.

    Regarding the Samsung Chromebook, I'd personally suggest going for something like the robust and cheaper Asus C202SA Chromebook instead (£180+).

    3 1 Reply
    1. arthoss
      Reply Icon

      Strongly doubt that chrome is the second most popular os in the US. Android or iOS or some Othe Lunux version.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        'Strongly doubt that chrome is the second most popular os in the US. Android or iOS or some Othe Lunux version.'

        Chrome is the second most popular PC OS. Android is the leader in the overall end user OS market by a wide margin... so with Google bringing Android and Chrome together, it could soon be the overall share leader by a wide margin.

        0 0 Reply
      2. jacksmith21006
        Reply Icon

        Yes earlier last year Google took #2 with PC/Laptops.

        "Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US"

        http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/19/11711714/chromebooks-outsold-macs-us-idc-figures

        Now realize Macs have been around like 30 years and Google Chromebooks just a handful of years.

        Also realize YoY Mac sales declined as did Windows and the only one growing was Chromebooks which enjoyed over 40% YoY growth!

        This was before Android came to the platform. It will only accelerate, IMO. But give us access to the containers and it will take the development community very quickly.

        Having a box that we can develop on that runs the exact same services that we use in the cloud on a laptop is idea.

        Then to consider that same software will run from iOT, wearables, mobile, tablet, desktop, TV and the cloud.

        Finally the holly grail! Lucky I lived long enough :).

        2 0 Reply

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like