Chromebook “Pro” Review

Blake Seufert
Jul 22, 2017 · 8 min read

I’m writing to you from the Samsung Chromebook Pro. These are my thoughts.

Having my Macbook Pro in for repair for the week gave me a perfect opportunity to jump in the deep end with the Samsung Chromebook Pro.

Working as the IT Director in a big Chromebook School, I’m always looking for new exciting developments in Chrome OS and Chromebooks. The Chromebook Plus and Pro certainly launched to great fanfare, but can a Chromebook suffice for an IT professional or pro user? With this latest Chromebook from Samsung donning the “Pro” moniker, these seem to be the first vendor of Chromebooks seriously targeting “Prosumers” like me.

Expectations

I wondered how well the Chromebook Pro could integrate it into my everyday use. From heavy browsing, the stylus to get rid of my paper planner, presenting with it in meetings, logging into a my personal and work accounts, basic entertainment and even some IT admin work.

This review is of the Chromebook Pro in front of me, not the possible updates and fixes Google may roll-out in the future (of which I’m sure there will be many).

1. Performance

Let me say that overall this Chromebook performs really well. Comparing it to the Lenovo N23 or the Acer R13 it’s way ahead. Everything feels smoother, the UI transitions are mostly smooth and it’ll plays all sorts of media (even 4k) without a hitch. Where I did see the performance stutter was related to software bugs and when browsing heavy webpages. I expected this machine to handle any tabs I threw at it, but, it does stutter on heavy sites, and if I load up 20+ tabs. For lighter more realistic usage it does run smooth, currently i have 16 tabs open and the Google Keep app with no complaints or stutters.

If you’re into benchmarks:

Chromebook Pro running Chrome 58
Octane 2.0 score: 21506
3/7/17

2. Hardware

This hardware is divisive. On one hand it has best-in-class hardware and on the other it feels cheap and underwhelming. The overall body is really strong with it’s all-metal feel and I think it would stand up to more abuse than it may first appear. The hinges are tough and the body and lid have barely any flex. It’s a really solid build for a Samsung laptop that looks just as good as it feels.

The Screen is as good as any screen I've seen on a device (except maybe the new iPads). It’s bright, has tremendous viewing angles and is super high resolution. 2400x1600. Its unique 4:3 aspect ratio is great in some places but I feel like Chrome OS doesn’t handle multiple windows super well, it doesn’t snap very well and likes to cover up your existing windows when you create a new window instead of offsetting it to allow you click between them. On the other hand it makes taking notes and using the pen really spacious. Right now the 4:3 screen real-estate is best used in full screen mode with an alt-tab to get around.

The form factor and body feels fantastic in the hand, but the finish seems a little prone to scratching. The keyboard feels a tad cramped and I notice myself needing to mentally compensate when I go to type on it, but it’s not a deal breaker.

The track pad however is terrible. It stops the mouse from moving when you click making it feel slow and unresponsive, it’s weirdly accelerated. sometimes it whips across the screen, other times it’s super slow. Also the 2-finger click doesn’t always register. As if that’s not enough I also notice when the device is under sudden load the mouse will freeze (Windows and MacOS keep the cursor independent of system slowdowns) and I found it contributed to the Chromebook feeling slower than it is. Unfortunately, this means I find myself gravitating to the smoother touchscreen input, gorilla-arm style, as I find the mouse too unpredictable at times. From what I can gather these mouse failings are part Chrome OS and part Samsung hardware. The touchscreen is fairly good, only sometimes it appears to not click where exactly where my finger is. It also has no edge rejection, when you’re folding it into tablet mode it’s hard not to change your tab or click something by accident leaving yourself wondering if this was a good idea.

As for the speakers, they’re rubbish. The sound is thin, they’re easily blocked and quite honestly make watching most videos a bad experience.

The IO on this laptop is 2x USB Type C ports, a micro SD expansion slot (nice one) and a headphones jack. To be honest, for a portable machine, this worked just fine for me, having come from a Macbook with dongles for displays. USB-C charging is great, and meant my phone charger could double in a pinch.

3. Software

Chrome OS is really turning into a fantastic OS. With good support for External monitors, Chromecasting your desktop, multiple account support, VPNs, and with the new inking and Android App support, it’s truly exciting. I was hoping for a more polished release in this “Pro” Chromebook.

I tried just leaving Google Keep open in full-screen during the work day and over 5 days it crashed, froze or became unresponsive at least once every day. Sometimes when I wake it up from sleep and login my tabs are gone. Yes, I can press Ctrl+Shift+T and reopen all my tabs but it is not confidence inspiring.

To be clear, Chrome OS doesn’t suffer these issues on other devices (like our student Lenovo devices) and it really points to Samsung pushing the envelope on the hardware to the point where Chrome OS hasn’t caught up. Chrome OS can be a really fast, reliable operating system, but on this hardware it feels like beta software. Given the rate of innovation in Chrome OS I‘d expect to see some of these issues fixed, but some bugs and slowness feel too tied to the hardware to be overcome with software.

I should give a nod to tremendous battery life here. I use the device on battery a lot and it lasted really well using G Suite and basic web browsing. I could get about 2 days of on and off use on one charge.

4. Android Apps

The big promise of Android apps on Chromebooks seemed to culminate in all the hype around these devices. The experience at the moment (and it is early) is average. Firstly don’t expect all Android Apps to work without crashes and weird issues. Some apps scale badly and you can’t click buttons, others would appear fine then crash, others would work completely fine all the time. At the moment it feels like a beta product. It’s a bit confusing to the user as to what exactly is and isn’t an Android App and in my view, erodes some of the beautiful simplicity of Chrome OS. Android Apps still are exciting and using Slack (which worked really well) was at first weird but I did get used to it and enjoyed the notifications and app “feel”.

I think Android Apps on Chrome are the right move, but it’s going to take a lot longer than we (and Google) would like, as largely the challenge rests with motivating app developers.

5. Pen input

A lot of reviews have sidelined the pen as “for artists” or “great if you draw”. But to me, the pen represents one of the biggest untapped opportunities in technology; to improve on pen and paper. With the Apple Pencil, Surface Pen and now Google on the scene with Chromebook stylus support, pens have the opportunity to change the way we take notes, collaborate and learn with technology.

Going in, I had set the bar high. I wanted to replace my pen and paper habits. Having pen input for note taking needs to feel immediate, easy to access and reliable if it’s going to compete with the ubiquity of pen and paper.

Having the pen stow in the body of the Chromebook is a huge plus and it’s less likely to go missing (still easy to lose though), and cheap to replace as the pen has no active technology in it.

When you first pop the pen out, having a new note popup appear is a really nice touch. The experience of writing is good, but only just. It’s just fast enough to feel fluid and easy, any slower i feel it’d be too distracting. When taking notes, i was surprised at it’s accuracy. It felt good, and I had confidence that I could link up lines and draw in tight spaces. Google Keep handles the pen really well, and having it alongside all my other notes is great. Palm rejection was not always perfect, sometimes my palm will open apps or open the tray / notifications area. Having that happen was not ideal when you’re trying to concentrate on solving problems not using the pen. For drawing and doing some light graphic work, the pen is really great, but it’s still not on the level (or price-point) of the Apple Pencil or Surface Pen.


In the end, the Chromebook Pro is a good device that I wanted to be great. I believe computing should be approachable, reliable and instill you with confidence when you use it. This doesn’t hit a home run against that criteria. It does a good job of being a Chromebook and for the everyday user I’m sure they will be suitably impressed. But for someone looking for a “Pro” Chromebook that can hold up to a heavy workload, it’s not reliable enough to use for a big presentation and it’s not going to be the polished device I can rely on everyday. I still think it’s a great device that with some time and refinement is a solid competitor against the very best on the market.

Thanks to Michael Bates

Blake Seufert

Written by

Love sharing great design & technology for better education. Founder of http://iNewsletter.co

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