The Series 5 from Samsung is the first of the so-called Chromebooks, and I’m not sure it’s exactly what we all had in mind when Google announced Chrome OS two years ago. The Google Chrome operating system has shown promising improvements since its debut—streaming HD video that actually works, better file management, a new media player—it’s still a netbook and an overpriced one to boot.
Everything is meant to reside in the Cloud, hence the measly 16GB solid-state drive that acts as local storage. There are benefits to doing it this way, including never having to worry about losing files due to a stolen laptop or hard drive crash, and having an operating system that turns on within seconds.
Unfortunately, the limitations far outweigh the benefits. Syncing an Apple iPod or iPhone is out of the question, printing requires another computer, and simply finding your way around the OS can be frustrating at times—and the Series 5 is expensive.
The plastic lid is done in solid Arctic White (it’s also available in Titan Silver), with a chrome Samsung logo and the colorful Google Chrome insignia. The rest of the system is a matte black. It’s elegant, but we wish it had the soft-touch rubber of the Cr-48.
Measuring 8.6 x 11.6 x 0.8 inches, the Series 5 easily slid into our shoulder bag. We really appreciated its light 3.2-pound weight after having to stand on a subway train for an hour and a half.
The display on the Series 5 is brighter than any screen found in its competitors and boasts a 1,280-by-800 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio.
The screens on the HP dm1z and Asus 1215N, on the other hand, are wider and come with a resolution of 1,366-by-768 and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen on the Series 5 is large enough to accommodate serious spreadsheet and word processing related tasks.
Like the Cr-48, the Series 5 has a chiclet keyboard, not unlike one you’d find on a MacBook, but with a few key differences. Instead of function keys, the top row has a set of keys specifically designed for web browsing.
To the right of the Esc key are Forward, Back, Refresh, Full screen, and Window swap buttons, as well as display brightness and volume controls. To further enhance the web surfing experience, Samsung has eliminated Caps Lock and replaced it with a web search key. The 3.8 x 2.6-inch smudge-proof clickpad on the Series 5 offers a lot of real estate, perfect for multitouch gestures.
The Samsung Series 5 is a 12.1in netbook with a pretty sleek, very rounded design. In fact, one could say it’s the first true netbook, as it is perhaps the first mass-market laptop designed solely to get you on the ‘net. It’s powered by an Intel Atom N570 dual-core CPU, has 2GB of RAM, and a 16GB solid state drive.
The left side houses a small power plug, air vent, and headset/mic jack, with a USB port and a proprietary port for a VGA dongle hidden behind a plastic door. Another USB port and a SIM card slot, behind another plastic door, lie along the right edge.
An SD card reader graces the front. It’s all fairly basic, as laptop hardware goes. There’s no Ethernet port, no Bluetooth, no digital video output, and the keyboard isn’t backlit.
The Chrome OS interface takes some getting used to. The first thing we noticed was the total lack of a desktop. The browser window takes up the entire screen, and we had to fight the urge to try and minimize it.
When we first logged in, Chrome OS presented us with a blank white browser with a list of pre-installed web apps and two menus for the most visited and recently closed links. The system clock, battery indicator, and wireless bars live in the top right corner atop the gray wrench representing the Settings menu.
According to Samsung, the Series 5 has a battery life of 8.5 hours. We weren’t able to run the usual laptop battery test because we were unable to disable sleep mode on the notebook. Instead, we streamed a movie at full screen for an hour on a fully charged Series 5. At the end of the hour, the Series 5′s battery was at 82-percent capacity.
Ultimately, the whole Chromebook experiment feels like it’s just a couple years ahead of its time. There may come a day, sometime in the not-too-distant future, when web applications have the power and sophistication necessary to really replace most of what you do on a computer.
Together with even more powerful, affordable, and energy-efficient processors, cheaper flash memory, and a handful of major revisions to the Chrome OS, a computer built to run a web browser and little else might make sense.
