I was wondering if anybody here has one/has used one of these and know if the rumors of the speed being really, really decent on them is true? And wether they are worth buying instead of a normal notebook/laptop?

Basically I'm looking for a laptop for internet browsing- DLP, ff.net, youtube, netflix, and some other streaming sites and this seemed like the best bet.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-series-5-3g-chromebook-white-10822582-pdt.html

Thanks.

 

I picked up a Series 5 back when they first came out, and I'm very satisfied with it. The battery life is amazing, and as long as you don't have a retarded amount of tabs open at once it runs smooth as butter. I've never encountered anything my Chromebook couldn't handle.

If you're thinking about buying one, I wouldn't compare it to a netbook/laptop; I'd compare it to an iPad. The iPad and Chromebook fill the same niche, and you just have to decide which features you find more desirable. For me, the physical keyboard and the focus on internet won me over.

It's a wonderful piece of hardware, and I'd definitely recommend it.

 

Thanks, it sounds good. Is it good for streaming youtube/netflix though?

 

I've had no problems doing either. just keep in mind that it isn't meant to be a powerhouse machine, and it'll work great.

 

Well it sounds awesome, so I'm gonna look into finding one in stock somewhere. It was either this or a Lenovo laptop, but this seems to be the better as Lenovo reviews were horrid.

 

I bought a Samsung Series 5 just after Thanksgiving when my computer from college gave out on me... I was upset about that, by the way, as I still think the Dell XPS M2010 was one of the most amazing computers produced in recent years.

Anyways, I'm an avid user of Google's web services and when the time came to get a new machine, wanted to try a Chromebook out. About 90% of what I typically would do on a computer at home is web-based these days... Netflix/Hulu for videos, ESPN3.com for sports, Dropbox for file storage, Rdio for music, Kindle Cloud Reader for reading books and, in addition, all 60 some odd computers I manage for work I can access remotely by LogMeIn. I was entranced by the promises of the Chromebook's battery life and instant-on, so, I bought one...

My unvarnished opinion is that I am extremely pleased with the Samsung Series 5, albeit there are some drawbacks. First of all, I'm extremely pleased with the build-quality and design... I would definitely choose this chromebook over the Acer model. It is, obviously, very Macbook inspired, with a large trackpad and multitouch, removal of unnecessary keys and very thin. The build quality is much better and sturdier than I expected. As advertised, my chromebook goes from a cold dead "off" to "I'm-browsing-a-website" in under ten seconds. Hell, if I didn't have such a ridiculously long password to enter for my Google account, it would be five seconds. That is, in a word, spectacular. Battery life is, indeed, ten hours in my experience and when in standby mode, some few hundreds of hours. I went on a four day weekend trip over New Year's weekend - I didn't even bother packing my charger. That is freedom that is truly worth the device's limitations, in my mind.

The few gripes I have with the device are that the speakers are atrocious. I mean noticeably worse than any other laptop I have used. It is tinny and not loud enough to boot, in my opinion. I bought a new set of speakers for mine, so, more or less a moot point, but don't count on this thing serving as your DJ while you travel... you'll definitely need to bring some headphones. That leads me to my second complaint... no bluetooth. I don't so much care about a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but being able to pair my Motorola S10-HD's would definitely be nice, given the speaker limitations... My last real noticeable issue is that there is no support for Java... I cannot feed my Minecraft addiction, even through the web version!

tl;dr - it is the absolute perfect device for travel, casual browsing while on a couch or a non-tech intensive person in general. I wouldn't give mine up, now that I have it. It's incredibly slim, amazing battery life and standby battery life (just as important, in my opinion) make it easily better than an iPad for casual usage. However, you do certainly have to get used to the environment.

For what you said you want it for, I believe you'll be immensely satisfied.