Google's 'Net-centric Chrome OS belvedere challenges accepted notions about what constitutes an operating system. It puts the billow foreground and center, abandonment the accustomed desktop archetype and congenital applications in favor of a browser-only environment. It's an adventurous and arresting experiment, but it's not bright yet if it will bell with a boilerplate audience.
To get a feel for how Google's new belvedere works in the field, we spent a few canicule testing the Cr-48, an beginning laptop ancestor that runs an aboriginal adaptation of Chrome OS. Although the software is still beneath development and not yet complete abundant to abutment an accurate cessation about the platform's potential, we accept accumulated some observations based on our experiences.
Our testing of the ancestor so far has larboard us impressed, but absent added functionality. The Cr-48 performs almost able-bodied and meets basal requirements for Web surfing, gaming, and claimed productivity, but avalanche abbreviate for added accelerated tasks. Google is actively alive to actual some of the limitations and appears to be authoritative acceptable advance on acclamation accepted needs in added areas like multimedia, but there are still some gaps that constrain the ambit of the platform's ability compared to the accepted netbook experience.
Hardware
The Cr-48 is an unbranded ancestor that is not accessible to approved consumers. Google commissioned Taiwanese aboriginal architecture architect (ODM) Inventec to aftermath about 60,000 units accurately for participants of the Chrome OS pilot program. Google hopes that the recipients of the Cr-48 prototypes will accumulation acknowledgment to advice adviser added clarification arch up to the official Chrome OS barrage next year.
It's not absolutely bright yet if the Cr-48 is advised to be the base for a Chrome OS accouterments advertence architecture or if it's just a agreement that happened to be acceptable for the prototypes. Google says that alone OEMs will accept their own designs and accouterments configurations. I doubtable that the aboriginal commercially accessible Chrome OS accessories will be a few inches abate than the 12-inch Cr-48 and will attending added like accepted netbooks. As we altercate the Cr-48 hardware, it's important to bethink that it's a ancestor and that accouterments that eventually alcove consumers ability not resemble it at all.
The laptop's akin atramentous exoteric and absolute abridgement of branding and added adornments accord to a alluringly chaste design. Most of the apparent has a bland matte accomplishment with a hardly rubberized texture. One of my accompany appropriately commented that it looks like the affected laptops that you see as backdrop in appliance showrooms. I anticipate that it's absolutely attractive compared to boilerplate laptop designs, but opinions assume to alter a part of associates of the Ars staff.
The Cr-48 comes with a congenital 3G modem that is angry to Verizon's network. We aswell begin what looked like a SIM agenda aperture in the array compartment, but we aren't abiding if it's operational. We had no agitation accepting the Verizon connectivity to plan during our tests. To set it up, we had to go through an antecedent allotment action at the Verizon website and ascribe a acclaim agenda number. The user gets 100MB per ages for free, and can accept to pay for added account as needed.
You can bang the arrangement cachet figure in the cachet breadth to toggle 3G and added accordant connectivity options. Switching to 3G connectivity is simple and accepted to be a acceptable advantage at the coffee shop.
The matte 12-inch awning renders at 1280x800. We aren't decidedly afflicted with the superior of the display, which seems a bit bargain by our standards, but it is almost commensurable with what you about get in account netbooks. Array activity is almost decent, abiding a acceptable six hours of connected use with the arrangement enabled during our tests.
The full-sized keyboard has chiclet-style keys with a fair bit of agreement amid them. It's as bland as adulate and actual adequate for typing—much bigger than the boilerplate netbook keyboard. It uses a accepted blueprint for the alphanumeric keys, but there are some accessory differences for the meta keys and the action keys. The caps lock key has been replaced with a "search" button that opens a new browser tab. Google has aswell bare the "Windows" key that about resides amid ctrl and alt. The top row of the keyboard has keys for switching amid browser windows, toggling abounding awning mode, adjusting the awning brightness, and added agnate functions.
The Cr-48 keyboard—with no caps lock key
The touchpad is a individual apparent that activates a bang if it is pushed down. It supports basal two-finger multitouch gestures, such as annexation two fingers to annal and acute down with two fingers to right-click. It is abundantly sized and feels sturdy, but the multitouch abutment is terrible. You accept to accept your fingers spaced afar just appropriate for any of the two-finger gestures to work. Scrolling is choosy and unpredictable. Performing a right-click is an exercise in frustration. It's just not a acceptable experience.
I doubtable that the touchpad woes are at atomic partly a software issue. The touchpad accouterments is fabricated by Synaptic, and abutment for the contempo Synaptic multitouch pads on Linux is about shoddy. I've encountered agnate issues with Ubuntu on my HP portable.
On the abandon of the device, you will acquisition a individual USB port, a headphone jack, a VGA output, an SD agenda slot, and the ability adapter slot. The array alcove on the basal is anchored with a individual latch. The array fits absolutely aural the case's contour and doesn't beetle from the back.
