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Hands On With the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook

Posted by timothy on from the don't-exit-the-covered-zone dept.

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."

9 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What? by RazzleFrog · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  2. Instant on? by frinkster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Instant on? by RazzleFrog · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

    2. Re:Instant on? by Desler · · Score: 2

      It's really nice to have it wake up and regain its wireless connexion in five seconds or less, if you're just wanting to quickly look something up. There's no lag from having to run crap like anti-virus either.

      And my real laptop will do all that in like 15 seconds. And mine will still log in to the OS even without an internet connection. Have fun when yours won't.

  3. Re:Chrome OS by Desler · · Score: 2

    If you want something with a real OS why are you bothering with some overpriced yet gimpy $400 netbook?

  4. Re:Chrome OS by Hazel+Bergeron · · Score: 2

    You ought to work for Apple.

  5. Re:and why would i buy it? by Lumpy · · Score: 3

    So that real laptop comes with free cellular internet for 2 years? SCHWEET! give links....

    Or are you ignoring that?

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    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  6. Re:Meh by Tarlus · · Score: 2

    100 MB * 60 sec * 60 min * 24 hrs * 31 days (rounding up) = 267840000 MB

    A nearly 268 TB cap each month sounds extremely reasonable to me. =)

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  7. Good luck to Google by caywen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not paying $400 for a browser.