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Chromebooks - new Samsung Series 3

Chromebooks - new Samsung Series 3

Samsung have just released a new Chromebook and my resolve was weak so I bought one.
For those of you who don't know these run Chrome OS, not windows. This is a browser based OS - so its essentially Google Chrome with a few addons. You sign into the device with your Google account. If you are a Google Apps user, the device can be configured in your Google Apps Admin Centre.

A couple of picts:

This model is the Samsung Series 3 WiFi. Costs £229 inc vat.
There are reviews online - but some brief observations:

  • Startup in seconds and login is about 2 seconds. 
  • Power down in a second or two.
  • Silent and next to no heat.
  • Battery seems to last forever - I'm sure it does not - but I've yet to see it go down.
  • You get HDMI out so with the right cable can connect to most things. I've had it doing HD iplayer on a 37" 1080p TV - no issues.
  • There is on SD card slot. You can download stuff to this as well as downloading stuff locally. You can also use Google Docs and Mail offline if you lose connection.
  • The screen is OK - but I've seen better - but at this price its hard to complain.
  • You get a 100Gb Google Drive account with the machine.
There are no updates or antivirus to worry about. Just turn it on and go. As long as you don't want to use office (well you can if you use Nexus) or play Windows games, it the perfect little productivity tool.

I've also got an android tablet with a keyboard (Asus Transformer). While this is a great device, I use it for games and consuming media. This is a far better device for making stuff.

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