CR-48

So, I've got a Google Chrome notebook, called the CR-48. It came in the mail yesterday, and I was quite thrilled. You see, this is a prototype notebook that Google is giving to developers and early adopters to try out, test, and give feedback on. Last week they made an announcement about it, and then opened up the Pilot Program (found here). I was travelling for work at the time and wanted to apply but got sidetracked and didn't remember to do it until Monday this week. At that point I thought my chances were probably somewhere between slim and none, as they only have 60,000 devices to give away. Imagine my surprise when I got home yesterday to an unexpected package! I was pretty excited, to say the least.

I really probably have nothing new to say that all the tech blogs have already hit upon, but I'll spew my initial impressions here anyways. First, the packaging: it arrived in a relatively bare box. There are only 3 pieces of paper included; a little business card sized one that says it has an Intel processor (a 1.66 Ghz Atom actually), a one page 'Getting Started' style guide, and a Safety Notice.



The Safety Notice is Hilarious! I loved it. You probably think I'm nuts, "the paper that's full of legal jargon, like don't blow this up or use it in unintended ways? really?", yes, it was funny. They filled it will little quips and funnies, such as the line below:

‎"This product contains small parts, which may present a choking hazard to small children, as well as men who have not emotionally matured. Keep the device and accessories away from small children, regardless of how much they want to bang on the keyboard."

The hardware itself is really quite nice. I like the minimalist look a lot. There isn't a single brand on the notebook at all, but overall it resembles a black Macbook. The finish is a matte black that has a slight rubberized texture. The screen is also matte, which is a rarity in notebook screens these days, although many still prefer it. It is a 12" screen, with a webcam and mic in the top center. There is a big, buttonless trackpad as well (the whole pad acts as a button and depresses if you click it). It has a whopping 5 ports: power, VGA out, USB, audio, and an SD card reader. The keyboard is very nice, but different, because they assigned functions (forward, back, refresh, ect) to the F-keys and replaced the Caps Lock button with a Search button instead. I waited about 2 hours for the partially charged battery to finish, holding my curiosity in until it was done.

Since Google already knows way too much about me, the setup process was simple. The laptop powers on just by simply opening the lid, it looked for and found my wireless connection, then proceeded to download an update (which only took a few minutes). Once that was done, I simply logged in with my existing Google account, took a webcam picture for my account and WHAM! I was done. All of my bookmarks were organized and laid out exactly as my desktop Chrome browser, as well as all of my plugins and extensions, pretty cool. The first page is a little guided tour of the OS (which is just a browser) which I went through to pick up any little nuggets of useful info. Lets get this straight, Chrome OS is really just a browser, lower your expectations... now.

This thing is literally completely built for the Internet. Without it, you can't accomplish much. You can 'install' applications in Chrome, but they are really mostly just glorified bookmarks. Chrome can use HTML5, which does allow for offline data storage, and when more developers utilize this I'm sure there will be more that you can do when not connected. I'm not trying to complain here, because when I compare this laptop to my primary laptop, there is only 1 application that I use on a regular basis that won't work on Chrome: Adobe Lightroom. That's not much of a big deal if I don't need to edit photos or whatnot. Even on Chrome, I could go to Picnik.com or SumoPaint to edit photos online if I wanted. I haven't really had any issues getting around since I am already acquainted with the Chrome browser, and any settings for the OS are found in an expanded version of the browser settings. The one weak area for Chrome OS is Adobe Flash. Adobe hasn't made the hardware acceleration tweaks to Flash for Linux (which is really what Chrome OS is on a basic level) that it has for Windows, which leads to really sluggish/instable performance. One of the first things I did since discovering this is to install a Flash-blocking extension that kills any Flash banners or other elements in websites and allows me to selectively choose what Flash elements to enable. Pandora.com, for instance, requires Flash, so I easily made an exception for it.

The only real complaint I have with the notebook hardware at the moment is the touchpad. I really want to like it, but it just doesn't cut it. I've read a few reviews before this thing came and they mentioned how horrible the touchpad was. Ok, so maybe I've always had crappy touchpads, its not THAT bad, but it is definitely the weakest link when comparing the hardware. General pointing is fine, but clicking is kind of difficult. Left clicks are sometimes intermittent, and right clicks are just downright frustrating. A right click on a buttonless pad involves clicking with 2 fingers, and on this notebook its more of a 'wishful' gesture than a reliable operation. The thing is, it's not a huge deal because you can almost completely navigate this notebook by keyboard, and the keyboard is really nice. Also, I can plug in an external mouse if it really bugs me - I just haven't yet.

Ok, I'll touch on two more impressions and then close this ridiculously long post. When you close the lid of this notebook, it goes to sleep, duh. The amazing thing happens when you open it: blink and it's on. There is NO wakeup time. None. Supposedly from a cold boot it finishes in 10-15 seconds, but I haven't really experience that yet. But really, opening the lid to browse is instant, it's that simple. The last thing I'd like to mention is about battery life. I've used this thing constantly since I finished charging it last night and it is currently at 47% and there is still 3.5 hours left. I didn't lower the screen brightness, the only battery-optimizing thing that I've done is turn off the 3G cellular modem, since there is no cell service at my house. This thing will easily get 8 hours on a charge if you are even moderately careful by adjusting screen brightness.

Alright, I'll shut up now. My first impression of Chrome OS is good, and I' trying not to be blinded by the excitement that I just got a free laptop. I'm going to try to use this thing as much as possible over the coming weeks and I'll be posting further impressions here. Leave a comment with any questions if you have any!