Hands On With the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook

adeelarshad82 writes "Among some of the coolest things revealed at Google I/O, Samsung unveiled one of the first Chrome OS notebooks called the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook. Priced at $429 for the 3G version and $499 for the Wi-Fi/3G option, the 1280 x 800 display notebook is said to carry a dual-core Atom N570 and a battery that supports 8.5 hours of active use. Unlike the Cr-48, the 480p and even 720p video plays back decently on the 1280 x 800 display, thanks in part to improvements in Flash and the faster chip. Also unlike the Cr-48, the touchpad doesn't require jamming it down to make it work. While no official confirmations were made about what's inside the Series 5; there's clearly a GPU and a solid-state drive. The notebook also includes 802.11b/g/n, which is complemented by a two-year 3G subscription to Verizon with 100 MB/s per month for free."

Re:What?

[RazzleFrog]

The article has it right - $429 for WiFi and $499 for both 3G and WiFi. Still seems really steep for an incredibly stripped down barebones laptop with a beta OS on it.

Instant on?

[frinkster]

Chrome OS's coolest features are the quick boot—under ten seconds—and instant resume. There's no need not to simply close the notebook while walking from place to place. The only drawback is that the OS occasionally resumes faster than the Wi-Fi can connect.

My wife has a new Thinkpad with Windows 7 and an SSD. It boots in about 20 seconds and shuts down in about 10. It also resumes from sleep faster than the Wi-Fi can connect.

My 4-year old Macbook with an SSD boots to OS X in about 15 seconds and shuts down in 5-10. It has always resumed from sleep faster than the Wi-Fi can connect, even when it had a spinning-platter drive.

Re:Instant on?

[RazzleFrog]

And the bigger question is how many are really stressing about an extra 10-20 seconds at startup?

Re:Chrome OS

[Anonymous Coward]

My question is, does it come with the Windows Tax whether you want it or not, i.e., MS' despicable tactic of charging OEM's for Windows on every single pc no matter how it shipped. Of course, you don't have to pay it. Just kiss your ass goodbye as your volume discount goes out of the Window. I don't care if people buy this and wipe ChromeOS to the very last man as long as MS isn't getting an oem dime out of it. That's the only way to bring the Tyrant from Redmond down. Cut off the air supply.

BTW, in before MS sends the patent and ip fudsters to shill up another thread.

Good luck to Google

[caywen]

I'm not paying $400 for a browser.