Mobility Digest Review: Cr-48 Chrome Notebook

So Google is currently testing this new OS called Chromium, and they decided to hand out a few free laptops to some lucky applicants to get feedback. I was very surprised to find one sitting on my doorstep yesterday. I’m not gonna lie – I was giggling like a school girl. Here is my early review of the CR-48

The hardware itself is no-frills, but that’s to be expected since the whole idea is to test the OS. I kinda like it though – there are no markings of any kind; it’s black front and back, inside and out. There’s a single USB port, headphone jack, SD card slot and a webcam. The keyboard is pretty standard except for a search button where CAPS LOCK usually is. BUT THAT”S ALRIGHT BECAUSE I USUALLY WRITE IN ALL LOWERCASE ANYWAYS. The screen resolution is standard. Besides that it’s a pretty standard 12” notebook.

Now for the OS – first off: if you don’t have an internet connection, this computer might as well be a snow blower in Mexico – it’s totally useless. I’m talking you can’t even play a game of minesweeper on the can. Fortunately we live in a world where WiFi is available just about everywhere, and if you can’t find a hotspot they throw in 100MB of free Verizon wireless 3G usage each month. Or for us nerdy nerds there is always the cell phone tethering option :-B

So once you are connected and you turn it on, the OS fires up in 2 seconds from standby, and about 10 seconds from full shutdown. Sweet. The OS itself is basically a browser. It’s fairly smooth for a beta. There is a web store where you can get different apps, extensions and themes. I naturally chose an android theme. I’ve only had about 2 to 3 hours to mess around with it, but I definitely like it for what it is: a pure internet machine. The best part of using Chromium is that everything you do goes right to the cloud – all my bookmarks are stored in Google Docs so if I am using a different computer I still have access to everything. Oh, and of course there is Chrome to Phone for when you want to go truly mobile with your Android device.

“But what if I want to….”
Store and edit pics? Picasa, Facebook, etc.
Listen to music? Grooveshark, Pandora, etc.
Write a semi-blogish review to post on Mobility Digest? Google Docs.
Watch porn? Log in as a guest.

So that’s all I’ve really had a chance to do with it so far (kidding about the porn, but I’m sure that will come in good time; that’s what she said) but I plan to use the hell out of this thing. Hopefully provide some good feedback to Google and help them release $200 web based lappers for all to use.

……..and in doing so take over the WORLD MUHAHAHAHAHA!

(or not)