Samsung Chromebook

We bought a $249 Samsung Chromebook (Amazon) to see how it would work with our emerging remote apps services (answer: pretty good).   Since this is different than most tablets and laptops (runs Chrome OS), here are some notes.

Basically, this is an ultralight laptop that does almost everything online.   There are a few offline functions, but pretty much it has the Chrome browser and that’s what you use to do most tasks.

Good

  • Near zero maintenance.
  • Supports multiple users — you log in with your Google account.
  • 100GB of Google Drive space free for 2 years.
  • Works with PSU Wireless 2.0.
  • Battery life, about 6 hours.
  • Price, price, price, price.

Bad

  • Wake-up bug has been around for a while, so support is a worry.
  • No delete key (use alt-backspace).
  • No right mouse button (tap with two fingers for right button).
  • Several keyboard combinations need to be learned to be efficient with it (handy reminder via ctrl-alt-/).

 Specifications

  • 11.6 inch screen, 1366 x 768 pixels
  • 1.7Ghz Samsung Exynos 5250 Dual Core Processor (ARM-based)
  • 2 GB DDR3L RAM, 16GB eMMC drive, 2GB Flash (?)
  • 2 USB Ports: 1 USB 3.0 + 1 USB 2.0, HDMI Port, SD Card slot, headphone/mic jack
  • Webcam, 0.3MP
  • Dual band Wifi  802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0
  • 11.40 x 8.09 x 0.69 inches, 2.4 pounds.

Reviews

This CNet Review is pretty good, and I agree with most of the comments there.  I’ve not experienced performance problems very often, but I don’t open too many tabs at once.

Usability

A new account is shown the Get Started app, which is fairly good.

Sync.  If you already use Chrome on your other computers, you’ll be fairly comfortable with most of your settings and extensions synchronized.  I miss “Smooth Gestures”, which apparently doesn’t work, it’s not even listed.  LastPass and AdBlock are about the only other extensions I really want, and they work fine. My bookmarks all showed up, but they included a couple I deleted months ago and that don’t show up when running Chrome elsewhere.

I use many tablets and most of my Windows laptops have had touch screens, so my habit of tapping the screen is hard to break.  I’d be interested to try the $1300 touchscreen Chromebook Pixel just released by Google (review).

Apps. Most “apps” on the device and available from the Chome store are things that run in the browser.  Some, like Dropbox, are just a link to the Dropbox web site.  A dedicated file manager does show a local download directory and Google Drive files.  That doesn’t work well at all.  It doesn’t show many folders that I see on the Google Drive web page, but does show many 1000’s of orphaned files that don’t appear under My Drive.

Launch Bar.  There is a strip on the bottom edge of the screen that can be set to auto-hide.  Apps can be pinned to it for quick access.  Again, almost all such apps open a tab in the Chrome browser.  An area on the right end of the bar shows the time, WiFi status, battery charge and your account picture.  System setting can be accessed there.

Windows.  The few separate apps (Chrome, Files, Getting Started, Calculator, Camera, Scratchpad) can be full-screen, minimized, 3/4 width and pinned left or right and then moved, or closed.  Windows can be moved by click-holding the touch pad with the cursor on the top bar and resized by moving the cursor to an edge or corner and click-holding the touch pad.

Copy/Cut/Paste.  Text can usually be copied or cut from one tab and pasted to another (ctrl-C, ctrl-X, ctrl-V), but paste to a remote desktop connected with Chrome RDP did not work.

Problems

Right off, the very first problem was that it won’t wake up after I close the lid (or perhaps it is awake, but the screen stays black).  I think it might have woken up ok when first unboxed, but then a software upgrade brought it up to the current firmware level.   Support forum postings indicate this is an issue for everyone, and has been since last November.  Disappointing.   Posts indicate the “Beta Channel” code fixes the problem, so I installed that (takes 10-15 minutes), and it did fix it.

I had difficulty adding another user via the Settings page.  After entering a valid Google account, pressing enter or clicking Done closed the dialog box but did not add the account.  Selecting all of the account text and clicking Done worked.  I signed out, but the new user was not shown on the login screen.  When clicking “+Add User” and reconnecting to WiFi I was able to log on as this other user.

Chrome Remote Desktop

I first thought this might be an RDP client, but it is Google’s own version of remote access to another computer.  You install it via the Chrome store on your desktop computer, sent a PIN, and then you can connect to that remote desktop. I did this first on my large workstation, which has 3 22-inch screens.  Not a good idea; they all showed in the browser tab, and you just can’t scale that kind of real estate to an 11.6″ screen.  So I set up CRD on a laptop, and that was much better. Very responsive and easy to connect, even from home.  No VPN connection or any other setup was needed to log onto that laptop, which I locked before I left.  CRD has a drop-down function to send ctrl-alt-del.

The display of something like Outlook is quite fuzzy, even when selecting full-screen; the remote screen resolution is the same as the Chromebook’s so a better display is expected.

There is a Chrome RDP client available from the Chrome store that works pretty well.  The remote screen is much clearer than Chrome Remote Desktop, and I prefer this for using Outlook.  It is a third-party extension that has a free trial but has to be purchased ($10?).  Forum discussions is here.  Says you need the Dev Channel, but it work for me with the Beta Channel.  Not sure about HBO.

 

2 thoughts on “Samsung Chromebook

  1. Sacksteder Post author

    Sorry I did not see your question sooner. I think a Chromebook is a fine thing to start with at PSU. There are many students using them, but certainly a minority compared to Windows and Mac. There is not a lot of experience among support staff, but then not much support is needed.

  2. bxg5241

    My son is an incoming freshmen who will be studying primarily in the sciences. He’s bringing his gaming desktop with him to school so I was thinking of just getting him a Chromebook as his mobile computer. Between online apps and CRD and Penn State’s WebApps, he shouldn’t have any trouble when he needs to work away from his room. I’m a big Chromebook fan for their reliability, portability, disposability and speed (I.e. Instant on) but are they being used at PSU? Will he be able to get adequate support when he needs or will he get strange looks for not using a Max or Windows laptop? Thanks.

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