Clarity from sales

One nice thing about having a part time job at Staples is that when you are asked a lot of questions you do get pretty clear on what works and what does.  I was talking to a customer last night that asked me about the new IPad Air.  He was buying for his wife.  All she does is email, surf the internet, and watch Netflix.  As I was talking to him I realized that the IPad ($519) would do this.  So would the Samsung Tablet we have ($399), and the Asus Transformer ($399).  Together we realized why is he paying $519?  I didn't have a good answer for that.  I know that the IPad is probably nicer than the others.  However, for what he was doing and for what most people do why spend the extra money for no reason.

And Yes I do have an Iphone and Ipad Mini.  Not sure if I would get either now however.

Samsung Chromebook

So I took home the Samsung Chromebook this last weekend.  The main reason is I wanted to know what it did because I get people asking me what they are.  Frankly I didn't know.  I have read reviews online but that is not the same as using it.

What I found was a very nice very small computer.  I was impressed with how light and small it was.  The screen was clear and it had lots of ports!  USB 3 and HDMI.  The one I looked at also had a SIM card port so I could add cellular data to it if I wanted.  

What I liked

I liked the fact that it is cheap! $299 CDN.  If I get it I don't have to worry about it breaking or losing it for the money at least. That is a big bonus for me since I have kids.  I worry about them breaking it or it getting stolen.

I like the fact that most of the stuff is stored online.  If I am working away from home I can then go to my regular computer and finish it off. This brings me to the point that I would use this as a laptop replace but it would work better as an add on to my desktop.

The battery life was awesome I got 6 hours out of it.  That for me is great!  I don't need 15 hours it is over kill.  Besides it is $299 for 6 hours instead of $999 for 15 hours (mac book air I am talking about you)

I also found that I can just plug in a usb drive or an SD card and use that as well.  I have a lot of pdf files being a teacher and I need access to them.  Fortunately I keep them all on a USB drive.  You can also download your files as word docs etc and save them on a usb drive.

What I didn't like

It was difficult to print.  Ok it wasn't for me but I can see it being a problem.  If you have a printer that does eprint or cloud printing then it works.  I have an HP 8500a so I just had to email my printer and it would print off the attachment.  I had to set it up.  Lets face it I would have a problem with my mother for this.  After I set it up she would be fine but I can't see her doing it.

You can use it offline for google docs but it really shines when it has an internet connection.  I think I would need one.  The offline part of google docs worked fine.  

Summary

I liked it.  I really did and I am an apple guy.  If you know what it does it works great.  If you are invested into a lot of google stuff (google docs, gmail, google calendar etc) It is great.  If you are not then it isn't the best solution for you.

For me it would work fine for work.  The only difficulty would be printing.