Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook Review

Review Summary:

The Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook is a brilliant concept that might one day replace traditional laptops, but it's just not the best solution for most people at this time.

Pros

• Chrome OS offers fast startup
• Cloud storage makes it effortless to replace a laptop
• Awesome matte (anti-glare) screen

Cons

• It's "a browser in a box"
• Essentially a paperweight if you lose Wi-Fi or 3G access
• Minimal local storage

Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook Full Review

 

The Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook is the first netbook alternative on the market to use the Google Chrome operating system rather than a more traditional OS like Windows. Based in no small part on the Google Cr-48 prototype notebook that we previously reviewed, this 12-inch thin and light laptop offers two years of free Verizon 3G access for the one-time purchase price of $500. Is this a good deal or is the ChromeBook just "a web browser in a box?"

Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook Technical Specs:

• Google Chrome OS
• 12.1-inch matte screen (1280 x 800) with LED backlighting
• Intel Atom N570 dual-core processor (1.66 GHz)
• Intel integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
• 2GB DDR3 RAM
• 16GB SSD (SanDisk SDSA4DH-016G NAND flash)
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Mobile Broadband: Verizon 3G
• Two USB 2.0 ports and SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card reader
• Built-in 6-cell Li-ion battery (8280 mAh)
• Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.6 x 0.8-inches 
• Weight: 3.3 pounds
• MSRP: $499

Build and Design
If you've already seen our review of the Google Cr-48 prototype then the overall design and technical specs of the Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook should look very familiar. In truth, it appears as though Samsung engineers did little more than add a few rounded corners and change a few ports on the Google Cr-48.

To that end, the design of the ChromeBook is sort of a hybrid between consumer laptop and low-cost business laptop. You get a traditional clamshell shape with lots of straight lines and rounded corners. Open the glossy lid and you'll see a more modern looking Chiclet-style keyboard and a MacBook-esque touchpad both covered in a "we mean business" matte finish.

The screen lid on our review unit features a glossy "Arctic White" paint job with both Samsung and Google Chrome logos on the left side. Samsung also offers the ChromeBook with a "Titan Silver" finish in case white doesn't look professional enough for you. The lid provides adequate protection but it flexes quite noticeably under heavy pressure. The bottom of the notebook is a basic semi-gloss black plastic chassis that is prone to showing fingerprints and smudges. A quick view of the bottom of the ChromeBook reveals no access plates and no removable battery. The chassis feels pretty durable for a low-cost 12-inch laptop, but you'll hear a few plastic squeaks and creaks if you squeeze the palm rests and twist slightly.

Although I generally like the design of the Series 5 ChromeBook, I'm not sure how potential customers will respond. The ChromeBook is a little too large to fit the mold of the typical 10-inch or 11-inch netbook, but the ChromeBook lacks the performance (more on this later) of larger "notebooks" what share similar exterior dimensions. I suppose only time will tell if consumers and businesses think a Google-enhanced netbook with Verizon 3G access is worth $500.

Ports and Features
The relatively clean exterior of the Series 5 ChromeBook to the port selection on the sides of the laptop. Samsung gives you a proprietary mini VGA port for connecting an external monitor (an adapter for a standard VGA port is included in the box), two USB 2.0 ports, a built-in SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card reader, and a single audio jack. There is also a hidden SIM card slot on the right side of the notebook if you have an existing 3G service plan. The lack of Bluetooth is frustrating, but it's something most people can live without when you're getting a $500 laptop with free Verizon 3G access. Here is a quick tour around the ChromeBook (all descriptions are left to right).

Left view: Power jack, mini VGA port and USB 2.0 port (hidden behind cover) and an audio jack

Right view: SIM card slot and USB 2.0 port

Front view: SD/SDHC/SDXC card reader

Rear view: No ports

Screen and Speakers
The Samsung Series 5 uses a VERY nice 12.1-inch anti-glare display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The 1280 x 800 resolution gives you a few extra lines of vertical resolution and a less horizontal resolution compared to most modern notebooks with 1366 x 768 screens. Regardless of whether you support modern widescreen notebooks with 16:9 ratio screens or love the old 16:10 displays, the single best thing about the screen the ChromeBook is that it's NOT a glossy screen!

The matte, anti-glare surface of the 12-inch display allows you to see what's on the screen even if you're viewing in under direct sunlight or you're in an office or home environment with bright lights directly behind you. Try that with a typical glossy screen notebook and all you'll see are reflections.

The viewing angles are quite good on the ChromeBook we used with minimal backlight bleed around the edge of the screen. Just like the Google Cr-48 prototype, the default colors on our review sample looked a little biased toward blue (although the photo of the notebook taken under our studio lighting makes this minor color shift look more intense than it is in real life). Overall, this is a very nice screen.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The Series 5 ChromeBook uses essentially the same modern-looking Chiclet style or island style keyboard used on the Cr-48. The flat individual keys have a matte texture with a little extra space between each key to help prevent typos. Each key provides the perfect feedback with excellent depth to each press and smooth action to each key mechanism. The entire keyboard surface has a firm support structure so there's no flex or bounce while typing even under extreme pressure.

The only problem I personally have with the keyboard is that several of the traditional keys have not-so-traditional functions. For example, all of the function keys control specific features like forward, back, and refresh or they control notebook features like screen brightness and volume. The bigger problem for me is that the default setting for the Caps Lock key has been turned into a "Search" key. I know most people don't care about  Caps Lock but I often use that key when typing. I also fail to understand the need for a dedicated search button when the Google Chrome browser has a built-in search functionality in the address bar.

You can adjust the keyboard settings and turn the search key into a standard Caps Lock key ... but changing the function of the buttons is not intuitive.

The multi-touch, gesture-enabled touchpad on the ChromeBook uses integrated touchpad buttons located under the left and right bottom corners of the touchpad surface. Once again, the matte texture comes to the rescue making it easy to slide your fingers across the surface and control cursor movement on the screen with minimal lag. Since the keyboard was pushed back close to the screen hinge there is plenty of room left on the notebook for a large touchpad and that is what you get here.

Performance (Real World Use)
Our traditional performance and benchmark section doesn't really apply to the ChromeBook for two reasons:

• We're dealing with a new operating system that isn't compatible with traditional synthetic benchmarks.
• The Google Chrome operating system has limited functionality in its offline mode at the time of this writing.

That second bullet point is my core criticism of the ChromeBook's performance. The ChromeBook is essentially a platform for showcasing the Google Chromeweb browser and Chrome-based apps. Sure, the Samsung ChromeBook has USB ports and a SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot on the side of the laptop for accessing files that need to be uploaded to the cloud, but  the directory and file management portion of the Chrome OS is slow and unpolished.

When we took a 16GB SDHC memory card out of a digital camera and put it into the memory card reader on the ChromeBook it took 15 seconds before the ChromeBook could recognize the files and display a list of the files. When we clicked on an image file to view it we had to wait another 6 seconds before the Chrome-powered laptop could open the file. We tried a similar test with a 16GB USB flash drive. The ChromeBook recognized that a storage device was connected to a USB port but it refused to display the directory listing ... in other words, you couldn't see the files to open them.

Whether you're an average consumer or a business professional, I'm sure it's frustrating to have a laptop that doesn't work with some USB drives. I guess if you want an important file then someone will have to email it to your Gmail account or another web-based file-delivery system.

Speaking of the web, the $499 Series 5 ChromeBook features 802.11a/b/g/n wireless plus 3G wireless through Verizon. The Wi-Fi reception was pretty good but I did notice my signal strength on the ChromeBook wasn't as good as the Wi-Fi strength on my Alienware M11x. The 3G access is pretty easy to setup using the on-screen tutorial and Verizon gives you 100 MB of free data every month for two years with no contracts, no activation fee and no overage fees.

My only complaint with the included 3G service is the 100 MB data limit. Sure, 100 MB is better than nothing and you only had to pay $499 for the ChromeBook. However, since the Chrome OS does virtually everything online and uses cloud-based storage you will literally burn through 100MB of data after you download a few apps of have to upload or download an important files for work. For example, I downloaded four PDF documents in a few minutes and that was 37.6 MB of my 100 MB limit for the entire month!

If you overlook the free 3G data limits, the ChromeBook is very convenient for general web browsing. The laptop takes about 5 seconds to reach the login screen from a completely cold start. Complete boot up takes about 15 seconds, with most of that time being used to load whatever pages you were viewing during your last browser session. The speedy response is a testament to the Google Chrome OS and the 16 GB SSD (no slow hard drives here). The dual-core Intel Atom processor continues to struggle with streaming HD video playback regardless of the speed of your internet connection. Standard definition YouTube and Hulu play with minimal stutter but 720p videos suffer from stutter, lag and occasional dropped frames. Don't even waste your time trying to watch a 1080p YouTube video on the ChromeBook ... it's simply a horrible experience.

In short, the Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook is fine for "old fashioned" web browsing such as checking email and viewing text-heavy websites, but modern web browsing that involves watching HD video is fundamentally beyond the capabilities of this modest laptop.

Battery Life
In our standard test with the notebook screen set to approximately 70 percent brightness and set to constantly refresh a webpage at 60-second intervals, the Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook managed to stay running for 8 hours and 14 minutes while using Wi-Fi and kept running for 6 hours and 49 minutes while using the 3G broadband connection. Lowering the screen brightness or letting the system enter sleep mode would have extended the battery life even further.

This amount of battery run time is likely more than enough for most consumers, particularly if you're used to a traditional budget notebook that might deliver only half as much (or even less) battery life. That said, we've seen full featured notebooks running Windows 7 that deliver more than 10 hours of battery life running on Wi-Fi.

Battery life test results (higher scores mean better battery life):

Although the battery life is good, I wasn't overly impressed by the battery life on this laptop considering that the ChromeBook is essentially just a Google Chrome web browser in a laptop shell running on a large battery. If Windows-based laptops with better features can deliver the same battery life or better, there's no reason that a ChromeBook shouldn't keep running for more than 10 hours.

My other complaint about the battery is that it is a slow-charge battery and power adapter. It takes more than 12 hours to charge a completely drained battery back to full capacity.

Heat and Noise
The ChromeBook, like most Intel Atom-based netbooks, features a cooling fan to push hot air away from the processor when it starts to work hard. That said, I only noticed the fan noise when I put my ear up against the bottom of the notebook. If you're working in a typical office environment with humming florescent lights or a noisy air conditioner then you likely won't be bothered the fan on the ChromeBook.

The exterior temperatures were mostly "lap friendly" but there were a few hot spots (such as near the power jack) that would be uncomfortably warm if you have the Samsung ChromeBook on your lap. On one hand, I can forgive the odd hot spot on a laptop with such a thin chassis because there isn't much room inside for parts (thus adding to the heat). However, there isn't a massive hard drive or other powerful components inside the ChromeBook ... so I don't understand why the exterior temperatures can't stay below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We measured the exterior temperatures with an IR thermometer in our lab where the ambient room temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

Conclusion
The Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook offers some exciting advantages for a $499 laptop. For starters, you get contract-free access to the Verizon 3G wireless network and 8+ hours of battery life. Add to that a nice 12-inch matte display that is very easy to read outside under bright sunlight. You also get the very promising Google Chrome operatingsystem that uses cloud-based storage so your important files aren't lost if you lose your laptop. This also makes it easy to replace your laptop and quickly get back to work.

Despite these advantages, we cannot in good conscience recommend the Samsung Series 5 ChromeBook for the majority to laptop users. For starters, the lack of abundant built-in storage for apps and files means that you MUST rely on cloud storage for all but the most basic tasks. That's fine if you're somewhere with WiFi or Verizon 3G access, but if you're in a 3G dead zone or if you're on an airline that doesn't offer in-flight Wi-Fi then your fancy ChromeBook is effectively nothing more than a paperweight. Yes, you can download a few apps for offline use, but most still require access to the internet for full functionality.

The biggest problem with the ChromeBook is the same problem faced by Google's Chrome operating system. When you show it to most people their immediate response is, "So ... it's just a web browser?" And that first impression is pretty accurate at the time of this writing.

I have little doubt that consumers will embrace the Google Chrome operating system as more apps become available and our wireless infrastructure improves to the point that you ALWAYS have wireless access. Unfortunately, at present there is little reason for most people to buy a ChromeBook when you can buy a better Windows-based laptop for the same price and purchase contract-free 3G or 4G access separately.

Pros:

• Chrome OS offers fast startup
• Cloud storage makes it effortless to replace a laptop
• Awesome matte (anti-glare) screen

Cons:

• It's "a browser in a box"
• Essentially a paperweight if you lose Wi-Fi or 3G access
• Minimal local storage

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 

* Ratings averaged to produce final score