Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Kind of a long review sorry... The Acer Chromebook is a great computer for someone looking for a computer to do internet browsing, light gaming, and light productivity. You can not download any programs to it, but there are a ton of apps available to fit almost every need (word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, games,etc.. check google chrome store to see what's available if you have any questions). Think of it like a tablet with an app store in that regard. Way too many bad reviews on Chromebooks from people who do not understand what they are buying and don't understand why windows programs won't work on it. A lot of bad reviews are from people who have never even tried one. Unless you are a hardcore MS office user, or serious gamer who needs a lot of computing power this computer can do almost everything you need. At first I wasn't sure if this would work for me, because it looked like a low end limited use netbook. But it kept getting great reviews and for $200 something bucks, and the option to return it if I didn't like it, I'd give it a shot. There are tons of reviews from people who have moved away from using their much more expensive computers because the Chromebook is just a better online experience for most of their needs. I now know why. Honestly if I need something, I know my Chromebook can be up and have me searching Google quickly in seconds. Long before my other computers can get to my homepage (even from standby). I also know all my plug-ins are always up to date and ready to go. Why even turn the other ones on unless I absolutely have too then? Having to sit through windows load/resume screens gets old really quick once you realize you don't have to. Chromebook quickly became my go to computer for anything online. Due to the fact it doesn't run a bulky OS like windows, it doesn't need that much processor power to breeze through websites very quickly. You would be amazed how fast this little Celeron chip (its actually a stripped down dual core i3 sandy-bridge processor) runs when its not having to support a lot of OS background processes. It is just as fast browsing online as my much more expensive i5 computers. Power off to my internet homepage is under 10 seconds, standby to my homepage is 1 second or less, and total shutdown is under 5 seconds. However I tried it out at best buy (they have it for $199), and due to the fact they have so many machines running on the WiFi at the same time it seemed slow in the store. Trust me it is very fast on a good WiFi. Remember it is cloud based, so it is only as fast as your Wifi is. If you are using a slow connection your whole computer will seem slow. Faster the connection, faster the computer will be. It is cloud based, everything is saved, auto updated and configured on the cloud. Since nothing is saved locally on the computer (unless you want it to be) your files (pics music documents movies etc) are available on any computer with an internet connection if you are away from your Chromebook. If you have to replace or upgrade your Chromebook simply log in and everything is instantly restored from the cloud, including every setting, preference, app, and all your saved data and files. Plus since nothing is actually on the Chromebook, no one can steal any info or files from it. Try that with a windows machine. No reason to ever do any maintenance on anything ever. No worry about viruses/malware because there is no real operating system to infect, no old files to clean out, no registry to maintain, no updates to manually install, no defrag, no virus scans, no maintenance at all since nothing is actually stored on your computer (except the OS and offline apps). Also, since it is cloud based, no matter how much you download or use it, it does not affect the computers speed. Nothing is stored on the computer to bog it down. It actually just keeps getting faster with every auto update. It is the only computer I have ever used that gets faster as you use it. HD 1080p video streams smooth with no frame rate issues, even in full screen. Aquarium WebGL renders 40 fps on a high setting with 500 objects on screen, and 35 fps with 1,000. The HD webcam is great, and video chat works with no issues. The speakers are a little quiet for my taste, but you can hear everything just fine, just don't expect it to fill a noisy room with sound. HDMI out works perfect with my HDTV. You can download music, pics, files, pretty much anything, you just can not run any exe. files if you download them. The Chromebook only runs internet based apps, and apps from the chrome store. The chrome store has a great selection of apps to meet almost every need and is growing quickly. While it only has a 16gb SSD hard drive, you pretty much only need it to temporarily hold files while you transfer them to the cloud, that is where all your data is stored. The 320GB hard drive is larger but much slower. I opted for the smaller faster 16gb SSD one as I store everything online and it allows the machine to run much faster. Only downsides are 1. You can't pin favorite websites to the desktop, you have to start the browser then pull them off favorites. I'm sure that will be addressed soon as it seems to be a common complaint. 2. Also you need to have a wireless cloud based printer to print directly from chrome book. Otherwise you need to access your cloud files from a different PC to print. While it has USB ports, it has limited plug and play, they won't work with printers...yet. USB mice, cameras, cell phones, hard drives all seem to work fine though. 3. It is limited with Java plugins but then again not much is in Java anymore so it probably doesn't matter. 4. Volume a little low for my taste, but still very audible. 5. Not the best looking construction, but it is durable. 6. Trackpad might take a little getting used to if you're used to separate left and right mouse buttons, but works great once you get it down (Alt key plus left click, or 2 finger click both work for right click). The biggest question is why buy this over a similar priced windows laptop that can do everything? One answer... speed. While a cheap windows unit can do more overall...there is no comparison between this and a cheap laptop. Side by side, its much quicker, smoother, and is just overall more convenient to use. Think of windows like a pickup tuck, and Chromebook like a sports car. You can do more with a pickup, but it's not as fast or fun as a sports car. That combined with the super quick boot up times, zero maintenance, and cloud computing, makes it so quick and easy, that I actually don't use my more expensive computers unless I have too. Acer vs Samsung Chromebook... Acer is somewhat faster and smoother, and is upgradable. While Acer says 4GB ram max...the chrome OS will actually accept and use any amount of RAM you jam into the 2 slots with a few easy tweaks (I've seen these with up to 32GB of ram running). You can also swap out the SSD and battery for better ones if you want. It has a delete key and caps lock key (the Samsung doesn't for some reason). Battery life on Acer isn't great though. The Samsung has much better battery life, looks a little nicer, and has a nicer feeling keyboard and track pad but is not upgradable. It is sealed shut and everything is soldered in. Pick what features are more important to you. There are some other minor details but those are the biggest. While it is not for everyone, if you're looking for a computer to just browse the internet, watch videos, app and internet based gaming, do word and spreadsheets, photo editing, video chat, etc... basically what 90% of people do with a computer anyway...this is the one to get. If you want to play games that you need to install to the hard drive, run a serious business, or have a slow or spotty internet connection this is not the one to get.