Chromebook

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OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
6,574
3
0
Considering that 100MB is nothing, and that tethering is the easiest thing in the world from any modern smartphone, I think it's a huge waste to spend on the 3G version.

I'll take the wifi model and tether to my LTE when I want/need mobile wireless. To me the 3G version only makes sense if you either don't have a smartphone or can't tether for some reason.

on the otha hand, if you gots a smartphone and dis laptop have da same chip as you smartphone, why not gist use ya smartphone?
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
234
106
on the otha hand, if you gots a smartphone and dis laptop have da same chip as you smartphone, why not gist use ya smartphone?

Why use a laptop at all when you could be browsing the web on a 3-5 inch screen with virtual keyboard...?

/sarcasm
 

ponyo

Lifer
Feb 14, 2002
19,688
2,811
126
Considering that 100MB is nothing, and that tethering is the easiest thing in the world from any modern smartphone, I think it's a huge waste to spend on the 3G version.

I'll take the wifi model and tether to my LTE when I want/need mobile wireless. To me the 3G version only makes sense if you either don't have a smartphone or can't tether for some reason.

I thought the same at first and that's why I first ordered the WiFi version. But after thinking about it couple of days, I think the $79 premium is justified. First, as long as you don't stream videos and music, 100MB can go pretty far for basic web browsing and emails. The laptop will be used on WiFi most of the time. 100MB for occasional use is ok. The $79 includes the 3G chip and 2 years of 100MB/month service. Not unreasonable. Like I said, that's little over $3 a month for 24 months. Considering how much we pay for monthly data on cell phones, I think it's a bargain.

I plan to give this laptop to my 9 year old daughter. She doesn't have a cellphone so she can't tether. Even if I kept it, I rather just use it rather than turn on the hotspot on my phone. I could also tether to my phone. It's nice to have options.

Finally, you can call and receive phone calls with Chromebook. Remember, Gmail and Google Voice gives you free calling to any phone in the US and Canada. With Google Voice, you can also receive phone calls on Chromebook. So you could sort of use this as a phone and 3G would be handy if you wanted to make phone calls from it. I know people can just use their smartphone but my daughter doesn't have a phone. She could call me with the 3G Chromebook.
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
6,574
3
0
I thought the same at first and that's why I first ordered the WiFi version. But after thinking about it couple of days, I think the $79 premium is justified. First, as long as you don't stream videos and music, 100MB can go pretty far for basic web browsing and emails. The laptop will be used on WiFi most of the time. 100MB for occasional use is ok. The $79 includes the 3G chip and 2 years of 100MB/month service. Not unreasonable. Like I said, that's little over $3 a month for 24 months. Considering how much we pay for monthly data on cell phones, I think it's a bargain.

I plan to give this laptop to my 9 year old daughter. She doesn't have a cellphone so she can't tether. Even if I kept it, I rather just use it rather than turn on the hotspot on my phone. I could also tether to my phone. It's nice to have options.

Finally, you can call and receive phone calls with Chromebook. Remember, Gmail and Google Voice gives you free calling to any phone in the US and Canada. With Google Voice, you can also receive phone calls on Chromebook. So you could sort of use this as a phone and 3G would be handy if you wanted to make phone calls from it. I know people can just use their smartphone but my daughter doesn't have a phone. She could call me with the 3G Chromebook.

100mb be nuffin' if you downloadin' real web pages with lotta graffica ads 'steada moba wuns. lol at da babydaddy who gonna be gittin' a 3g bill enda munf, hopes yous gots bank!!
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
24
81
I mentioned earlier that I planned to rely on on the Chrome Remote Desktop web app to remote into my desktop to run some apps I can't on my Chromebook. I just noticed Engadget posting a story about the app coming out of beta. So I decided to try it out between my 12 inch laptop and my desktop to see how well it works.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/29/chrome-remote-desktop-out-of-beta/

Oh my god, I had never imagined a remote desktop app could be so bad. And I'm running this on a laptop with a Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM and an SSD drive over local wifi.

The first problem I had is I have two desktop monitors. The web app has zero customizations. I can't tell it what resolution I want to use, how many monitors I want to see or anything most remote desktop apps include. It just connects and uses the resolution of the remote computer. On my 12 inch laptop screen I saw both of my desktop monitors side by side. It squished my 2560x1440 and 1920x1200 resolution desktops onto my 12 inch 1366x768 screen. Absolutely nothing is readable.

I disabled my second monitor and at least now the single desktop fills my laptop screen now, but the 2560x1440 resolution is still squished so badly I can't read much.

And the other problem is the screen just stops updating and turns to garbage. And the lag gets really bad.

I use remote desktop daily between my work on home PCs over the Internet, and that performance is much faster than Chrome Remote Desktop between these two PCs inches from each other on the same home wifi.

It's very obvious that I won't use Chrome Remote Desktop on my Chromebook to get to my desktop.

Going to need to rethink if I want this Chromebook afterall. I might just need to buy a more expensive tablet with keyboard dock instead. I primarily want something light, fanless, for browsing, YouTube, videos, music, and remote desktop. Remote desktop apps on Android are much better than this.
 

Balt

Lifer
Mar 12, 2000
12,673
482
126
Just got an email from Amazon:

Estimated arrival date: November 02, 2012 - November 03, 2012


I guess whoever said they would be back in stock around Oct 31st was right.
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
6,574
3
0
i tried this at bestbuy yesterday and it was ok, but definitely too slow to do anything other that really basic browsing. also the wifi seemed to be a little pokey. it would probably have to be two or three times as fast to be really useful. also the build quality wasnt quite as nice as on the celeron version. it was a little rickety. the trackpad wasnt as big either. people with gangnam style should definitely get the celeron chromebook