GOOGLE TEAMS UP WITH SAMSUNG ON CHROMEBOOKS
Integrated with Play Store, devices are open to millions of Android apps
The blurry line between Android and Chromebooks is about to get blurrier. Exhibit A arrives with the Samsung Chromebook Pro that I’ve been checking out for a couple of weeks. Google calls this upcoming US$549 (19,200 baht) convertible laptop/tablet, and a sibling model, the $440 Chromebook Plus, the first Chromebooks to be “designed for Android apps”.
Google worked closely with Samsung on the machines, which were initially showcased during last month’s CES trade show.
These Samsung models come with an embedded pen that you can use, among other purposes, to write or draw directly on the screen, a first for the Chromebook ecosystem.
Through “optical character recognition” technology or OCR, your handwritten text becomes searchable, at least if your jottings are reasonably legible.
The biggest thing: the machines are integrated with the Google Play Store, which opens up Chromebooks to millions of Android apps. Indeed, Google has announced that the Play Store is coming to all 2017 Chromebooks, and it has been made available on models that have already been released, notably the Asus Chromebook Flip, Acer Chromebook R11 and Google’s own Chromebook Pixel dating back to 2015.
The addition of Android is another way Google is trying to broaden the appeal of Chromebooks. The machines are popular in education and have made some inroads in business. Google cites an IDC report from last year showing that the Chromebooks overtook Macs as the second most popular PC operating system behind Windows.
These cloud-based computers are kept secure through regular software updates from Google.
In the past, Chromebooks have been severely hamstrung when you lack internet connectivity. But there’s now a lot more you can do when you’re offline, whether watching movies, playing games or getting some work done. Android only adds to the offline opportunities.
What’s more, as a hybrid machine, Samsung and Google are invading territory occupied by Microsoft’s Surface machines, among other computers.
Unfortunately, my experience on the Samsung Chromebook Pro was far from smooth-at least for now. Sometimes the computer froze. Apps were occasionally fickle.
With that observation, some key caveats: My test Samsung Pro is a pre-production unit running beta Chrome OS software.
The Google Play Store on the Chromebook is still in beta too, a designation that is not expected to be lifted until the Chromebook Pro becomes available in late April. The less expensive Plus model goes on sale this Sunday, so keep your expectations in check on the Play Store experience.
Curiously enough, the aluminium Pro I was issued is silver coloured even though the Pros that go on sale will be black; the Plus models on the other hand are silver.
The chief difference between the Plus and the Pro machines, other than price and colour, is that the former is outfitted with an ARM mobile processor typically found in tablets and phones, while the Pro works off a laptopclass chipset from Intel.
Otherwise they’re pretty much the same: very nice 12.3-inch Quad HD touch displays, 4 gigabytes of memory and 32GB of internal storage, microSD slot, two USB-C type ports, a 720p HD camera and a 360-degree hinge that lets you transform these 2.38 pound machines from laptop to tablet or back, or prop it up like a tent if, say, you’re watching a movie.
There’s a USB-C charger, and Google is citing nine hours of battery life for the Pro model but without final hardware and software I couldn’t evaluate that claim. The builtin stereo speakers are ho-hum.
The stylus reminds you of the S Pen on Samsung’s ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 and is similarly tucked away until you need it. The moment you pull it out of its slot, a menu appears on the screen with the various options for using the pen. You can use it as a laser pointer, for example, or in a mode that lets you magnify the screen. You can use it to take a picture of the screen or a portion of the screen.
I suspect most of you though will use it to draw, write or take notes. I’m no artist but did my best Van Gogh impression inside the ArtCanvas app I fetched from the Play Store. My handwritten notes were stored inside the cloud-based Google Keep app, and yes I had modest success searching for those notes after the fact. Given my lousy penmanship that was quite an accomplishment.
I was certainly aware that I was writing on glass not paper, but I didn’t detect any latency and the experience seemed natural enough. Google applies machine learning and cloud services to analyse handwriting samples and predict where the pen is likely to go next. The pen itself is pressure sensitive and doesn’t require a battery.
Through the Play Store I also had a go at apps ranging from games such as Gameloft’s Asphalt 8 Airborne and Deep Silver’s Sacred Legends — the graphics were impressive — to YouTube Kids, Duolingo and Evernote.
USA Today