Google's Chrome Operating System and Samsung's Chromebook

The left side of the Samsung Chromebook has a 3.5mm headphone jack along with a USB port and a mini-VGA port. One low point: The plastic cover protecting the USB and VGA ports feels a bit flimsy, like it might snap off afterwards a few months of regular use.

A four-in-one memory card reader sits along the front of the unit, and on the right you'll find a second USB port then and there to a covered SIM card slot. There's as well a "user-mode" switch that lets you switch from the default setup to hack-ready, giving you access to tinker with the system, if you're the adventurous type. There is no Ethernet port; this is a wireless-only machine.

Above the Samsung Chromebook's display is a 1-megapixel HD webcam and a microphone; a preinstalled Google Talk app makes both video and voice calls easy to manage, although Skype is not available as a Web app as late as this and in this way cannot run on Chrome OS. The notebook has two small speakers along its lower edges. Sound quality is decent enough -- more than fine for phone calls, nevertheless a bit on the tinny side when listening to music. If you want a full, bass-filled sound, you'll want to bring along headphones when using this system.

The Samsung Chromebook has a customized keyboard similar to what I saw in the Cr-48, even though with darker printing and a glossier material surrounding the keys. In place of the standard PC function keys, the top row of the keyboard sports keys dedicated to Web-centric functions like navigating backward and forward, refreshing a page and switching among windows. In broad terms, I found the keyboard to be outstanding; its chiclet-style keys are nicely spaced and conducive to speedy typing.

Under its hood, the Samsung Chromebook packs a 1.66GHz dual-core Intel Atom N570 chip along with 2GB of RAM and a 16GB internal solid-state drive, used primarily for storing downloads and local caches. I found the Chromebook's performance to be impressive in casual use: New tabs opened instantly, and navigating among tabs and windows was smooth and fast, even with several tabs or windows open. It wasn't until I started as a matter of fact pushing the multitasking boundaries that things started to get a little laggy.

With four windows and a total of 20 tabs open -- including one running TweetDeck, another actively playing songs from my Google Music collection, and an active Google Talk chat in progress -- the system struggled to keep up. New tabs took a few seconds to open and active windows became sporadically less responsive.

The lag came

The lag came and went, although, and switching among windows remained fluid and fast. Even with the heaviest of workloads, I never experienced any kind of crash, and closing a few processes always seemed to restore the system to a more manageable state.

On your first boot, you have to put in your Wi-Fi network credentials and wait around 30 seconds during the software updates itself to the latest version. At that time you simply type in your Google username and password, select an avatar and you're good to go.

As you may have read in previous Chrome OS coverage, what's unequalled on a Chromebook is that the browser is your desktop. You can open new tabs and windows, using either on-screen icons or the same keyboard-based commands available in the standard Chrome browser, nevertheless that's pretty much it. Nearly everything you do is tied to the Web and runs right there.

The answer is both yes

The answer is both yes and no. You are certainly more limited in what you can do on a Chromebook when there is no active Internet connection, however that limitation is becoming less problematic as more and more developers update their Chrome OS apps with offline capabilities. Numerous Chrome OS apps are already able to function offline, including news apps from The New York Times and NPR, a wide selection of games and quite a few productivity tools, including notepads, dictionaries, calculators, painting and animation programs. There's even an app for offline Wikipedia browsing.

As of today, both Chromebook models are scheduled to be available via Amazon.com and Best Buy. The Samsung Chromebook costs $429.99 for a Wi-Fi-only edition or $499.99 for a 3G-connected model. Acer says its Chromebook will be priced at $349.99 for the Wi-Fi version and $429.99 for the 3G model. Google is as well offering Chromebooks at special monthly rates for businesses and schools; those plans include technical support and ongoing hardware replacements.

As Google has repeatedly stressed, Chromebooks get faster and better over time. Updates to the OS and to individual apps roll in regularly and are applied automatically in the background. Thanks to the lack of a locally focused operating system, the computer doesn't get increasingly bloated and bogged down -- something Windows users in particular may appreciate.

Based on the six months I've spent with Chrome OS via the Cr-48 test unit, I can tell you that I've found the operating system to be a useful addition to my computing arsenal. I couldn't see myself transitioning to a Chromebook as my primary PC right now -- it's just too challenging to get through my day-to-day work in that strictly browser-based environment, and the Web apps don't do everything I need the way I want it done. I could anyway see myself enjoying a Chromebook as a supplementary PC, particularly for quick tasks and on-the-road use.

Potential cloud dweller

If you consider yourself a potential cloud dweller, the question ultimately becomes whether the experience is worth $350 to $500 when that same cash can get you a decent Windows 7 laptop with all the bells and whistles. Eventually, it all comes down to what you want your notebook to do -- and that's a question only you can answer.