I have about a week's worth of use out of this and overall I'm very pleased. I've only briefly used ChromeOS until now so I'm still getting used to some of the quirks though it's essentially just a Chrome browser in a clam shell form factor. The main complaint I have in the OS is the inability to place shortcuts on the desktop. The search works well but I don't necessarily want to pin shelf and clutter that up more than necessary so I just use the search.
To give an idea of my usage, I first started looking for a replacement for my Nexus 9 tablet which became more of a Netflix, YoutubeTV, Hulu and Prime Video viewer with at times playing some KOTOR with the thought of putting some emulators on it. With that in mind and the realization I would be losing some of the portability and not all Google Play games would necessarily work well, knowing most of what I do can be done in a browser and android tablets kind of falling behind, I decided to take a closer look at Chromebooks which eventually led me to this one.
For my eyes the screen looks pretty good and the touch is very responsive. The keyboard is serviceable enough for short emails and IM's. I wouldn't want to write anything of substance on it. I've mostly been having issues with the space bar not being recognized. If I was going to be doing that, hooking up a keyboard would almost be a must. I'm not an audiophile but the speakers are plenty loud for my needs. The trackpad is a little stiff for my tastes and takes quite a bit of force for it to register. The gestures I've used work pretty well and seems intuitive being able to two finger scroll and go forward and back by swiping left and right with two fingers.
Pretty happy with battery life. It's being advertised as up to 12 hours. While at work, I've been using it primarily to connect to my workstation VM using TeamViewer (make sure you use the Chrome app rather than the android app) looking up information on the web. I have yet to need to charge it while at work and though 9 hours of moderate usage I have about 60-70% battery. Shoot I had a short day today (6 hours) and have been home for about 3 hours browsing and just now getting to 50%. Seems to charge pretty quickly. It does get pretty warm but it's fairly small and compact and feels pretty solid.
Can't really speak to the camera and mic other than they're there and seem to be working. I opened the app just to make sure it was working but haven't had to do anything beyond that.
The metal body feels solid. I've done some repair work and the bottom looks like it's held in by 9 Phillips screws thought unless you screw up the keyboard and do need to replace the battery, I can't imagine what would be worth replacing in the base since most everything is going to be built into the main board. If the screen or digitizer needs to be replace that could possibly prove problematic. I haven't looked for any tear downs or replacement guides but it looks like the digiziter and screen are clipped into the LCD back panel pretty snugly. I don't think it's glued to the LCD back but a pry tool would be needed to get in and hope you don't break any plastic snaps. I wouldn't be surprised if the LCD and digitizer are glued together. I'm pretty confident in replacing most laptop screens but this one feels like it would be easy to screw up.
Bottom line if you know what the limitations of ChromeOS are this seems like a solid choice for light to moderate computer work and web browsing.
| Standing screen display size | 13.3 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Processor | 1.8 intel_core_2_quad |
| RAM | 6 GB DDR3L |
| Memory Speed | 1600 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 64 GB Emmc |
| Graphics Coprocessor | chromebook |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 2 MB |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth, 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 12 Hours |
