I have now had Google’s Cr-48 netbook for a month, and I feel like I have a broader knowledge to share. So this will be my final installment of my review of the Cr-48. My apologies if I touch back on subjects I’ve already covered.
Well, what can I say about the Cr-48 netbook? I love it and I hate it. I love it because of its simplicity. If all you need is the internet, then it would be the perfect tool for you. It is fairly lightweight, rugged, and you can have many different users on the same machine while still keeping each user’s data secure. There are so many extensions and web apps you can use within Chrome that it will make you consider cloud computing before spending $500 on software when you can do just about the same thing in the cloud for free!
I hate it because of its simplicity. It’s just the internet! That’s it. There’s no place to store your music. There’s no My Documents to store that funny picture of a cat. There’s no place to install that program that you rarely use but would still like to have whenever you’re away from your main PC. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is some storage space on the Cr-48, but finding what you save is a royal pain. This is something Google should have programmed better. You can save that picture of the cat, but when you go to Picasa, Flickr, etc. to upload that picture... the dialog box starting point is the Cr-48 operating system main folder. To put that into perspective, go find a picture of a cat. I’ll wait. Back? Great. OK, let’s start by...... putting the framed picture of Fluffy back on your mantle, and using the internet to find a picture. There ya go. Alright, now save that picture in your My Pictures folder. Then go into your system settings and change your default language to one you don’t understand. Still with me? Now start in the folder for your C: drive and go find your picture. That’s what it felt like to me. I had to go back and resave the picture to find out where it was saved on the system.
Another thing I don’t like is Flash. It crashes. A lot. And when it does, you have to refresh all the tabs you had open. HTML5 works just fine, but for some reason, Chrome and Flash don’t always get along. Another irritant is when you open a page in another tab, everything slows down while that tab loads. It is impossible to watch a video while a page is loading and even scrolling is sporadic.
The touchpad is a bear to use. You are supposed to use 2 fingers to vertically scroll as well as to ‘right-click’ The problem is... sometimes it wants yous fingers to be TOO far apart. It’s easier to use both index fingers to scroll with. And ‘right-clicking’? You will be clicking on the pad 5 or 6 times before you get the right-click dialog box to pop up. Your best option is to plug in a USB mouse. Spending a little money for an extra mouse will save you much aggravation down the road.
Like I said before, I have had the Cr-48 for about a month now, and with the exception of Doctor Who on iTunes, playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, and a few other things that I needed specific software for, I have used the netbook as my primary computer. I am really thankful that Google sent me one, as I can see my self using it for many years to come. Would I recommend the Cr-48 to other people? No. Web technology isn’t advanced enough just yet to allow users to do everything they need to do... but it is slowly getting there. This netbook will never replace your current PC, but as a supplement... it’s great. You can put it in the kitchen to look up recipes, or in the garage to look up home improvement projects, or for a small fee, you can use it to surf the web via Verizon’s 3G on long car trips. As much as I am enjoying the Cr-48, it won’t replace my laptop. I play PC games, I download music and movies, I have programs that I need to have and I can’t get them on the netbook.
One day, we will be able to thrive by working only in the cloud... but that day hasn’t arrived yet. I appreciate what you are trying to do, Google, I really do... but keep trying.
I hate it because of its simplicity. It’s just the internet! That’s it. There’s no place to store your music. There’s no My Documents to store that funny picture of a cat. There’s no place to install that program that you rarely use but would still like to have whenever you’re away from your main PC. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is some storage space on the Cr-48, but finding what you save is a royal pain. This is something Google should have programmed better. You can save that picture of the cat, but when you go to Picasa, Flickr, etc. to upload that picture... the dialog box starting point is the Cr-48 operating system main folder. To put that into perspective, go find a picture of a cat. I’ll wait. Back? Great. OK, let’s start by...... putting the framed picture of Fluffy back on your mantle, and using the internet to find a picture. There ya go. Alright, now save that picture in your My Pictures folder. Then go into your system settings and change your default language to one you don’t understand. Still with me? Now start in the folder for your C: drive and go find your picture. That’s what it felt like to me. I had to go back and resave the picture to find out where it was saved on the system.
Another thing I don’t like is Flash. It crashes. A lot. And when it does, you have to refresh all the tabs you had open. HTML5 works just fine, but for some reason, Chrome and Flash don’t always get along. Another irritant is when you open a page in another tab, everything slows down while that tab loads. It is impossible to watch a video while a page is loading and even scrolling is sporadic.
The touchpad is a bear to use. You are supposed to use 2 fingers to vertically scroll as well as to ‘right-click’ The problem is... sometimes it wants yous fingers to be TOO far apart. It’s easier to use both index fingers to scroll with. And ‘right-clicking’? You will be clicking on the pad 5 or 6 times before you get the right-click dialog box to pop up. Your best option is to plug in a USB mouse. Spending a little money for an extra mouse will save you much aggravation down the road.
Like I said before, I have had the Cr-48 for about a month now, and with the exception of Doctor Who on iTunes, playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, and a few other things that I needed specific software for, I have used the netbook as my primary computer. I am really thankful that Google sent me one, as I can see my self using it for many years to come. Would I recommend the Cr-48 to other people? No. Web technology isn’t advanced enough just yet to allow users to do everything they need to do... but it is slowly getting there. This netbook will never replace your current PC, but as a supplement... it’s great. You can put it in the kitchen to look up recipes, or in the garage to look up home improvement projects, or for a small fee, you can use it to surf the web via Verizon’s 3G on long car trips. As much as I am enjoying the Cr-48, it won’t replace my laptop. I play PC games, I download music and movies, I have programs that I need to have and I can’t get them on the netbook.
One day, we will be able to thrive by working only in the cloud... but that day hasn’t arrived yet. I appreciate what you are trying to do, Google, I really do... but keep trying.
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