View from the Labs
Chromebooks and Windows laptops are undoubtedly different, but both deser ve serious consideration
Even I wasn’t convinced at first. “Chromebooks are completely different things to Windows laptops,” I protested. “They’re barely comparable. They do a different job. The entire philosophy is different.”
It is indeed, Tim agreed. All the same, he pointed out, anyone looking for a low-cost laptop should at least consider the Chromebook option.
I didn’t argue further – not least because, in truth, I’m quite a fan of Chromebooks. Podcast listeners will often have heard me defend the platform in the face of Barry Collins’ aspersions. And as it happens I hadn’t properly tried one out since the original Samsung Series 5 back in 2011, so I was keen to see for myself how the platform had come along.
Interestingly, Chrome OS itself hasn’t changed much since then. Yes, Google Play has arrived, and various offline features have been added. But the basics remain remarkably similar.
What has changed is the world in which we’re using it. I well remember the first time I took the Series 5 to the pub to show my friends – only to discover I was outside of wireless range and hence unable to log on. Today, in my neck of the woods at least, that’s no longer an imaginable scenario. I can’t walk down the high street without being invited to connect to half a dozen superfast networks. I realise that’s not true in every town across the land, but it’s the way we’re going.
And it’s not just about physical infrastructure. During my first week with the original Chromebook, I felt myself frustratingly separated from my personal files. Somehow, subtly, in the intervening years, that’s changed: now, I returned to Chrome OS to find my music and photos already online waiting for me. The professional projects I’d been working on were all sitting happily in Google Drive. It was, to be honest, slightly creepy to realise how much of my life had quietly osmosed into the cloud without my really noticing it.
Of course, there are still many jobs that eat up local computing resources; for me, those include photo editing and music production. But it’s dawning on me that I don’t need that sort of power on every computer I own. Come to that, I don’t need to be carrying it around with me at all; I can centralise it in my home office, and – thanks to that ubiquitous, high-speed internet I mentioned earlier – connect to it via a lightweight mobile client from wherever I happen to be.
Not only does this vision have considerable geek appeal, there’s a practical logic to it. Although I love my MacBook, it’s an expensive liability to carry around. It’s also an expensive liability to keep around the house: I’ve already had to fork out for one horribly costly repair job, after carelessly leaving it unattended in the same room as an inquisitive toddler. Moving my everyday computing onto a cheap and cheerful Chromebook makes a lot of sense.
No doubt, the Chromebook philosophy is different, and it won’t be right for everyone. This month’s Windows machines are powerful, desirable systems, with all sorts of capabilities that Chrome OS simply can’t match. Even so, the lightweight approach is starting to feel very much in tune with the times. If, like me, you’ve not been keeping up with what Chrome OS has to offer, maybe it’s time to take a fresh look before deciding on your next laptop.
“There are still many jobs that eat up local computing resources. But I don’t need that sort of power on every computer I own”