Google Cr-48 Chrome Laptop: Review
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Is it a bird? A plane? Animal, vegetable or mineral?
It looks like a laptop, and
Google's
(GOOG) - Get Report
calling it a laptop, but there is no hard drive of any kind to store files. The other components inside resemble a netbook.
Google's first laptop computer, in Beta mode and built to run the soon-to-be-unleashed Chrome operating system, is called the Cr-48. And it's actually a full-sized netbook equipped with a full-sized "chiclet" keyboard running a full-blown version of Google's Chrome OS.
Not yet available to the public, the laptop measures 11.8 by 8.6 by 0.9 inches, weighs 3.8 pounds and is covered in a semi-fuzzy black matte finish which shows every fingerprint and smudge. Luckily, a damp paper towel brings the finish back to looking like new.
The active back-lit LCD screen measures 12.1 inches and is capable of presenting 1280 by 800 pixel resolutions. The screen has a matte finish, too.
The processor is a 166-GHz, single-core
Intel
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Atom N455 that gets some help from Intel's 200-MHz Pineview graphics chip and 2GB of RAM. Expansion memory is handled by a SD card slot.
There is also one USB port, one VGA out and a headphone jack. Add to that an integrated Webcam, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-fi, Bluetooth 2.1, a
Verizon
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3G wireless modem and a very thin rechargeable battery on the bottom, and you know everything you need to know about the Cr-48.
Unless you're curious as to why Google built it.
The search giant wants you to drink the Google Kool-Aid and buy into the fact that Google can handle nearly everything you need to accomplish with a laptop by accessing the Web through its Chrome browser. Google believes that the future of "personal" will be based on working and storing all of your photos, videos, music, documents and anything else you can think of in its "cloud" -- a nebulous term that essentially means Google servers all around the globe.
Google wants you to use the laptop to access all of its online services like Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Documents, Reader, Maps, Earth, News, Voice, etc. You get the idea.
For the many people already using Google Android smartphones and surfing the Web using the Chrome browser on their Windows PC and Apple Macs, this idea isn't so far-fetched. Come to think of it,
Microsoft
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wants you to do the same thing with its Windows Live service, which lets you access your Hotmail account and all of your Office Online documents on its cloud. (Please cue-up the Rolling Stones' "Hey, You, Get Off Of My Cloud.")
Using the Cr-48
This version of the Chrome OS -- and the laptop/netbook -- is Beta. When you first boot the device, it tells you that it's running OS version 0.9128-12101210, and comes with a somewhat implicit warning. Beta devices are not meant to be sold or to be used by people who are not willing to deal with early product teething pains.
I've been living with the Cr-48 for a few days now, using it as my primary laptop. I have a lot of nice things to say about the device -- and, of course, the Chrome OS. I've also found one or two annoyances.
Initial set-up is very easy. Enter your Wi-fi information, choose a log-in name and password (you can use your current Gmail info), choose a time zone and you're on your way.
The Cr-48 had downloaded all of my information, e-mail, contacts, and calendar, along with all of my Chrome Web shortcuts from the Chrome Web Store. I was up and running within 60 seconds.
The Cr-48 boots-up fairly quickly. It takes about 12 seconds to give you a log-on screen for your password and then another 5-10 seconds to load the Chrome browser. As for loading Web sites, it's actually a little slower loading a page than on the same version of the Chrome browser on my ThinkPad running Windows 7 (64-bit).
The keyboard is expansive and very easy to get used to. There is no CAPS LOCK key. Google doesn't think you need it. Instead, there's a "search" key that opens a new tab in your browser/OS. The pointing device, though, takes a bit to get used to. First of all, there are left- or right-click keys. You actually tap or press on the trackpad -- one finger for the left key and two fingers spread apart for right clicking. It sounds weird, but you get used to it in a short period of time.
Chrome handles Flash sites pretty well. For instance,
YouTube
videos look fine when you view them as part of a Web page, but they look slightly choppy when viewed full-screen.
Music streamed to the Cr-48 via Pandora (with its own Chrome applet) sounds pretty good through the built-in stereo speakers. But using the headphone jack through a real sound system, the Cr-48 sounds a bit bass heavy.
The only real problem I had is with the Cr-48 was printing. To print, you need to involve a Windows OS computer. The idea is that you send the print job from your Cr-48 -- through the cloud -- to your Windows computer running the Chrome browser and Windows does the actual printing. It's a clunky idea at best. In my set-up, the Windows computer received the job but wouldn't print the document. Google's experts were stumped, too.
I also tried using the Windows Live apps on the Cr-48 and was very disappointed. Live files and programs took forever to open, as did refreshing the page or saving the files in the Chrome OS. (That's a big win for Google's beta software!)
That said, ultimately I really liked the Cr-48 and think Google may be onto something. This review was written on the device using Google Docs, stored in the cloud and then sent on to my editor as a Microsoft Word file. It couldn't be easier.
I also surfed all over the Web, listened to music and done nearly everything I needed to do on this Beta device. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I also appreciate the 6-8 hours of battery life per charge and the near-instantaneous wake-up from sleep mode when you leave the laptop on and lower the screen.
I can't wait to see how the OS development progresses and how the upcoming Chrome devices -- said to be coming later this year to the public from
Samsung
and
Acer
-- will be perceived by the computer-buying public.
Price, which we don't yet know about, will be a major factor.
--Written by Gary Krakow in New York.
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Gary Krakow is TheStreet.com's senior technology correspondent.