Critical Review of the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook

If you consider buying a Samsung Series 5 Chrome OS laptop you should think about the peculiarities that go along with using an operating system that mainly consists of a Web browser and a device tailored to work with it.

Do you want to use it mainly for consuming Web content or do you also plan to produce and/or publish content? In the latter case imagine the following scenario: You want to publish a blog post that contains several images using a Content Management System like Drupal or WordPress.

Images taken with modern digital cameras are not well suited for the Web because of their dimensions and file sizes, so you need to edit them beforehand. As there is no native image editing application you have to upload the images to a Web based image editor, edit and then download them to your computer, before you can upload them to your CMS. Sounds tedious and doesn't seem like a viable option if you plan to do something similar with video.

Besides getting used to a different operating system you will need to adapt to different hardware as well. For example, several keys are missing or are replaced with other keys on the Samsung Series 5 compared to conventional keyboards, moreover the device comes with a buttonless touchpad. If you want to use it as a secondary computer switching back and forth will likely come along with some frustrations.

For this and other aspects of using a Chrome OS laptop not only watch Brad's video above but also read his extensive and critical review of the Samsung Chromebook.

While Brad being a publisher doesn't seem to become a hardcore Chromebook user, people who mainly consume content, which is probably the vast majority of Web users, may be pretty happy with such kind of laptop. What's your point of view and do you think $430 is overpriced or justified?