I've been wanting a new tech toy to play around with. I've got plenty of Apple and Android stuff, so I thought let's look at small Windows boxes. But as I got to doing the research, I ended up also looking at Chromebooks. In the end, I got a Chromebook yesterday and here's why :
First, let me say I didn't NEED it or anything else for that matter!!
The Surface is one slick looking piece of kit and that's for sure. Slim and with either one of the keyboards MS offers, they are very attractive. I played around with the store one a bit yesterday and found the keyboard to be useful if not perfect, though the trackpads on both type weren't very good imo.
Then I considered that the Surface comes with 32Gb of SSD and you get about 1/2 that for useful data storage and programs. Not bad. But with WindowsRT, the OS running on the Surface 2, any app you get is going to take up space on that SSD, keep that in mind. The Surface 2 comes with 200Gb of SkyDrive cloud space for 2 years and you're expected to use it for data storage. So for data, the local drive space is really not considered an issue, nor should it be.
The big deal that MS makes of the Surface 2 is it comes with a somewhat scaled down version of Office, and that is a very good thing to consider. Otherwise the software all has to come from the MS Store as there is no other way to get it. And the Surface 2 does not run 'normal' Windows apps at all, only those made for RT.
Entry price : $449 plus a keyboard unless the keyboard is in a freebie deal. The current freebie deal seems to be only at the Microsoft Store.
The Chromebook from a few different mfgs looks very similar to the netbooks of old though they have improved the overall look and feel of them. Think small laptop and you're right on the money. Not nearly as slick looking as the surface.
I looked at HP, Samsung and Acer yesterday. One thing that was very nice on all was that the keyboards were very nice. Not quite up to Apple MacBook ones, but pretty close though a little tighter. The trackpads on the Samsung and Acer were very good though without many gestures. The HP trackpad was horrid!
Most Chromebooks come with 2Gb RAM and 16Gb SSD, though there are some exceptions with more RAM and more SSD. But they don't really need it. You get 100Gb of GoogleDrive space for 2 years with the Chromebooks and that is where they are designed to save your data, just as in the Surface 2.
There is a small number (about 50) desktop apps available for the Chromebook that are new to them, but most everything is done in the browser. The Chrome browser on the Chromebook is a very highly tweaked version. Loading and using the browser apps and interfacing with them is a real pleasure.
Entry price : $249 retail.
From the standpoint of apps available, both the Surface 2 and Chromebooks have about the same number.
Both want you to get used to cloud services, giving away significant space to do so, and defaulting to saving and retrieving there. While the Surface 2 can do more things locally than the Chromebook, overall performance is on par.
With both you can add local storage space via USB or SD card.
In the end I could find exactly zero reason to pick the Surface 2 over the Chromebook. For $200 more than a Chromebook, plus the cost of a keyboard, it just didn't make sense.
As a tablet, the Surface 2 just doesn't compare well with either Android or iOS tablets. Other than needing or wanting to have a local copy of Office, there isn't anything compelling about it. And with the online versions of Office that come with SkyDrive and GoogleDocs that comes from Google, the only reason to need it is if you do things away from 'net access more often than not.
I bought the Samsung 303C12 Chromebook. The performance is great, the keyboard and trackpad are very good and there is plenty of apps. I even loaded Linux on it and can hot-swap between the two with no reboot required. Overall I'm very well pleased with this little jewel. And getting it as an open-box for $216 didn't hurt either. Frankly web performance is better overall than it is on my MacBook Pro and Acer Win8.1 box for everything I've tried, including both the MS online Office apps and GoogleDocs.
First, let me say I didn't NEED it or anything else for that matter!!
The Surface is one slick looking piece of kit and that's for sure. Slim and with either one of the keyboards MS offers, they are very attractive. I played around with the store one a bit yesterday and found the keyboard to be useful if not perfect, though the trackpads on both type weren't very good imo.
Then I considered that the Surface comes with 32Gb of SSD and you get about 1/2 that for useful data storage and programs. Not bad. But with WindowsRT, the OS running on the Surface 2, any app you get is going to take up space on that SSD, keep that in mind. The Surface 2 comes with 200Gb of SkyDrive cloud space for 2 years and you're expected to use it for data storage. So for data, the local drive space is really not considered an issue, nor should it be.
The big deal that MS makes of the Surface 2 is it comes with a somewhat scaled down version of Office, and that is a very good thing to consider. Otherwise the software all has to come from the MS Store as there is no other way to get it. And the Surface 2 does not run 'normal' Windows apps at all, only those made for RT.
Entry price : $449 plus a keyboard unless the keyboard is in a freebie deal. The current freebie deal seems to be only at the Microsoft Store.
The Chromebook from a few different mfgs looks very similar to the netbooks of old though they have improved the overall look and feel of them. Think small laptop and you're right on the money. Not nearly as slick looking as the surface.
I looked at HP, Samsung and Acer yesterday. One thing that was very nice on all was that the keyboards were very nice. Not quite up to Apple MacBook ones, but pretty close though a little tighter. The trackpads on the Samsung and Acer were very good though without many gestures. The HP trackpad was horrid!
Most Chromebooks come with 2Gb RAM and 16Gb SSD, though there are some exceptions with more RAM and more SSD. But they don't really need it. You get 100Gb of GoogleDrive space for 2 years with the Chromebooks and that is where they are designed to save your data, just as in the Surface 2.
There is a small number (about 50) desktop apps available for the Chromebook that are new to them, but most everything is done in the browser. The Chrome browser on the Chromebook is a very highly tweaked version. Loading and using the browser apps and interfacing with them is a real pleasure.
Entry price : $249 retail.
From the standpoint of apps available, both the Surface 2 and Chromebooks have about the same number.
Both want you to get used to cloud services, giving away significant space to do so, and defaulting to saving and retrieving there. While the Surface 2 can do more things locally than the Chromebook, overall performance is on par.
With both you can add local storage space via USB or SD card.
In the end I could find exactly zero reason to pick the Surface 2 over the Chromebook. For $200 more than a Chromebook, plus the cost of a keyboard, it just didn't make sense.
As a tablet, the Surface 2 just doesn't compare well with either Android or iOS tablets. Other than needing or wanting to have a local copy of Office, there isn't anything compelling about it. And with the online versions of Office that come with SkyDrive and GoogleDocs that comes from Google, the only reason to need it is if you do things away from 'net access more often than not.
I bought the Samsung 303C12 Chromebook. The performance is great, the keyboard and trackpad are very good and there is plenty of apps. I even loaded Linux on it and can hot-swap between the two with no reboot required. Overall I'm very well pleased with this little jewel. And getting it as an open-box for $216 didn't hurt either. Frankly web performance is better overall than it is on my MacBook Pro and Acer Win8.1 box for everything I've tried, including both the MS online Office apps and GoogleDocs.
