Gadgetory

the cr-48 is the first computer built specifically for Chrome OS and as such is a great first look at what you can expect to see when the first Chrome OS notebooks start shipping later this year the first thing you'll notice about the cr-48 is the very basic yet solid design there isn't a single bit of branding on the entire laptop which is a refreshing change compared to the majority of netbooks and laptops you'll find today the overall package is just under an inch thin and the entire body is coated in a soft touch plastic which while feels great in use is nearly impossible to keep clean it's a bit on the heavy side though but certainly well within reason it is like me imports compared to a Windows laptop with only VGA out a power connector a single USB 2.0 port which is only useful for a mouse right now a headphone jack and an SD card slot the cr-48 sports a matte 12.1 inch display with a resolution of 1280 by 800 which has solid viewing angles and the matte coating keeps the screen nicely legible even in sunlight above the screen you'll find a webcam and microphone the webcam is only of okay quality but the microphone is are presently solid the keyboard is where you'll find the biggest change from a standard netbook or laptop the layout has been changed with the removal of the function and Windows key instead you'll find an extended control + Alt key to my great satisfaction the caps lock key has been removed with a search key that opens a new tab along the top row you'll find that the function keys have been replaced with a row of helpful browser buttons including back forward refresh full screen as well as controls for brightness volume and a power button the key is very nicely spaced out in the increasingly popular chiclet style and after using it for two weeks I've got to say it is one of the better laptop keyboards I've ever used the trackpad however leaves a lot to be desired it's a nice size but likes any physical buttons which makes it difficult to use often times make me rely on a two finger tap for right clicking which more often than not does not register personally I just used a mouse as often as I could with a cr-48 you also find some very nice battery life of around 7 hours in my testing along with of course Wi-Fi and support for 3G which helps make sure you always be to connect to the internet now let's move on to the most important part of the review Chrome OS put simply Chrome OS is a stripped-down Linux distribution and boots straight into the Chrome browser you can't download applications or anything else's the sword everything you do is inside the browser this is a major issue for a lot of people however the most important thing to realize is that this is not a replacement for a laptop or desktop rather it's competing to be your secondary browsing machine alongside a netbook or perhaps a tablet however I've got to say I was a bit surprised how this wasn't a big issue as I thought it would be in the Chrome Web Store there are a lot of web apps such as brute shark and tweak day they do a solid job of taking the places of standalone applications on that front I've got to say there are some definite advantages to Chrome OS the first of which is the quick boot up and loading times because all you need to do is load the Chrome browser the computer boots in around 10 seconds even better is the time to wake up from sleep mode which is nearly instant close the lid and the computer immediately goes to sleep open it up and by the time you finish raising the screen you're back in business when you get into the browsing itself it's good overall while browsing the web and a tablet is certainly usable having a trackpad or Mouse along with the keyboard is still what the web is designed for and the cr-48 handles it no problem the biggest thing that holds it back is a single core Intel Atom in 455 processor which can be into check a bit when doing anything more than loading a single web page however accompanied by 2 gigabytes of RAM and a 16 gigabyte solid state drive it certainly gets the job done the biggest issue is with flash which crashes fairly often and has a lot of trouble with 480p video this isn't a big deal however as flash should be updated by the time Chrome OS is released overall I've come away impressed with the cr-48 in chroma OS in general while I doubt the future of two of Wes's at Google that are as similar as Chrome OS and Android I certainly do see where Chrome OS could do quite well as it's based on Linux and has some outstanding security it should be great for keeping virus free and due to the quick boot up and loading times it's great for pulling out and spending 30 seconds or three hours surfing the internet if they can keep the price in the 2 to 4 hundred dollar range and undercut the majority of tablets I think the Chrome OS could work out quite well for a lot of people just not everyone