Its going to be a while before the true return of network computing. Its been predicted for decades. Back in the days of mainframes, the computer operators claimed that people were just to stupid to run "computers" and at the time, they were right. Once computers were unleashed on the consumer markets, the operating systems had to improve so that the average consumer could operate there own "personal" computer. Well, everything old is new again and having a remote device that accesses the cloud (or mainframe as it was once called) is all the rage again. And why? Well one of the reasons is that those white coat wearing computer lab guys were partly right. People are too stupid to manage there own computer. But if you look at it in a more positive light, people are also too smart to manage there own computer. Why bother when you can just turn it on and go. No complex setup, no software installations, no defragging the hard drive etc.
The old idea, that is being re-made is now called cloud computing. In this model, you let the web and web application servers do all the heavy lifting and moving data around. And you just help out a bit by pointing out what you want to do. And for this, the HTTP based netbook makes a lot of sense. But you have to know what you are getting here. You are not getting a traditional "computer" you are getting an internet terminal. What good is that... Well here are the things you can do:
Email
Shopping
Banking
Full Office Suites
Image Management
News and Entertainment
Music
Movies
Games
Maps
Search
etc
Pretty much every web based service out there can run on this thing because it only does HTTP/Web. And hopefully Google will continue to upgrade it and support the next generation of HTML/XML 5 which opens up even more interactive web applications etc.
What can you NOT do? Well if you rely on installed, windows, Linux, or Mac software you can't do any of that stuff. And sure, that's a bummer. But this is not a device for making movies or creating content. Its for consuming content. So, if you want a device for web stuff and you want to do that stuff on the go, this device can be very useful.
*What I liked*
The ease of setup is like no other computer device you will find. You pretty much turn it own and if you are already familiar with google and have an account, thats it. You're ready to go. For others, you may need to set up a google account but that's about it. If you have been using chrome and you sync your data with goolge, all your bookmarks are right there as soon as you turn it on. That is just great.
The keyboard has a nice feel. Raised chicklets with good action. Feels similar in quality to the Mac books and has a similar large touch pad with multi-touch function. Not sure if its as good as the one on the Mac but if not, its very close. The hinge has a good amount of resistance and it feels sturdy when you open it.
The Weight and feel is also perfect for just carrying it out to the porch or around the office. Though, it I could not get it connected to my company secure WiFi (but they did not try very hard). Perhaps Google will implement Cisco VPN to and add additional VPN access methods soon.
*What Should/Could be improved*
Screen: Good brightness but the viewing angle is ridiculously small for the vertical plane. In other words, you have to open it to just the right angle for you sitting position or you loose a lot of detail and brightness. The build quality on the edge of the screen is pretty cheap as well. The corner of the bezel actually started to peel away when I removed the sticker that comes over the screen. Overall, samsung should be a bit embarrassed with the quality of the screen. Sure its only $500 but the thing is a very stripped down netbook. I would have preferred to pay more and get a better screen.
*Performance*
Still a bit slugish. Not too bad if you have a good connection but even with a very good wifi connection pages take a bit longer to load than I would have hoped.
*Conclusion*
Overall, I really like this device. That fact that paid the extra 50$ and I get 2 years of 3G access is also a nice touch. By then, we will know more about if these things take off or not. I really think they will because they provide very easy to use computing for the people who don't want to bother with computer administration anymore. I truely think that using a common GUI (like HTML/XML) is the way forward for 90% of computing. The other 10% are the content makers who could use cloud computing but it will take longer to get there.
| Standing screen display size | 12.1 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1280 x 800 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1280 x 800 Pixels |
| Processor | 1.66 GHz Atom_N570 |
| RAM | 2 GB DDR3 |
| Hard Drive | SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel NM10 |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | NM10 |
| Wireless Type | 802.11n, 802.11b, 802.11g |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 2 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 8.5 Hours |
