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Microsoft declares war on the Chromebook

Bateluer

Bateluer

Lifer
http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/14/5897641/microsoft-launches-a-price-assault-on-chromebooks

Microsoft is aiming straight for Google’s Chromebooks this holiday season. At the company’s partner conference today, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner revealed that HP is planning to release a $199 laptop running Windows for the holidays. Turner didn’t provide specifications for HP’s "Stream" device, but he did detail $249 laptop options from Acer and Toshiba. Acer’s low-cost laptop will ship with a 15.6-inch screen and a 2.16GHz Intel Celeron processor, and Toshiba’s includes a 11.6-inch display. It appears that Intel’s Celeron chips will help Microsoft’s PC partners push out cheaper devices in the race to the bottom.
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I dunno, I've seen many uber cheap 15.6in laptops that were complete and utter junk. Cheap build quality, lousy screens, slow mechanical drives, etc.
 
The problem for Microsoft is this: My mom and sister got Chromebooks because they are affordable and they don't run Windows. It's not complicated and just works, it's (more) secure, and has great battery life. It's the perfect computer for those who have a smartphone and have no need for traditional desktops/notebooks.
 
After downsizing by 18,000, Microsoft may alter some priorities.
 
A $200 Celeron laptop with 4GB of RAM and a minimum install of Windows 8 is a viable competitor to the chromebook. It gets the basic tasks done and can play youtube videos just as well as a chromebook can.

A $200 Celeron with 2GB of RAM, Pre-installed Norton/Macafee, and pre-installed OEM bloatware is going to be a disaster of an experience. Might as well just make the HDD light the power indicator.

I'd like to believe the products sold will be the former, but will most likely be the latter.
 
hoorah said:
A $200 Celeron laptop with 4GB of RAM and a minimum install of Windows 8 is a viable competitor to the chromebook. It gets the basic tasks done and can play youtube videos just as well as a chromebook can.

A $200 Celeron with 2GB of RAM, Pre-installed Norton/Macafee, and pre-installed OEM bloatware is going to be a disaster of an experience. Might as well just make the HDD light the power indicator.

I'd like to believe the products sold will be the former, but will most likely be the latter.
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If I'm not mistaken, the Win8 notebooks sold on the Microsoft Store are bloatware free. Not exactly where most people will be buying them though; I'd wager Walmart and Best Buy will sell the majority of these cheap W8 notebooks.
 
There are already some dirt cheap Windows laptops that almost compete with Chromebooks on price. But they all seem to have terrible battery life. That is one of the things Microsoft and it's partners will need to address if they want to kill Chromebooks this holiday season.

Also need to improve standby time a bit more on Windows as well. What I like about my Chromebook is I can let it sleep unplugged for a couple days, pick it up and open the lid and almost instantly be able to login and get to the Chrome browser. Windows, after a set amount of time will hibernate and when you open a Windows laptop from hibernation there is a 20 or 30 second delay as it loads the OS from the SSD to memory and then lets you login.

I'd really like to see either a Chromebook or Windows laptop that had a decent IPS display, long battery life, at least Baytrail processor, and relatively cheap. There are some Windows 2-in-1s similar to this (T100, Switch), but I'd rather this be in laptop form without the 2-in-1 issues (like top heavy screens, lack of ports).
 
Ravynmagi said:
Also need to improve standby time a bit more on Windows as well. What I like about my Chromebook is I can let it sleep unplugged for a couple days, pick it up and open the lid and almost instantly be able to login and get to the Chrome browser. Windows, after a set amount of time will hibernate and when you open a Windows laptop from hibernation there is a 20 or 30 second delay as it loads the OS from the SSD to memory and then lets you login.
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I haven't seen this on my Yoga 11S or V5 122P. They aren't fast machines either, i5 4210Y and A6 1450, and both come out of hibernate to usable OS in about 5 seconds. These both have SSDs in them though.
 
My Acer V5-131 Celeron 1007U laptop with 4GB of RAM, and Windows 7 64-bit, with an 80GB Intel X25-M G2 SSD I added, takes approx 10-12s to come out of hibernation.
 
20 or 30 seconds out of hibernation is not normal especially with a SSD. I always use sleep mode anyways. I have let my 2 year old Toshiba L775 sleep for 24 hours once and it still had 80% battery when I woke it up. It usually only takes about 3 or 4 seconds to fully wake up, double that if I wake it up on a different network than it went to sleep on.
 
Ravynmagi said:
There are already some dirt cheap Windows laptops that almost compete with Chromebooks on price. But they all seem to have terrible battery life. That is one of the things Microsoft and it's partners will need to address if they want to kill Chromebooks this holiday season.

Also need to improve standby time a bit more on Windows as well. What I like about my Chromebook is I can let it sleep unplugged for a couple days, pick it up and open the lid and almost instantly be able to login and get to the Chrome browser. Windows, after a set amount of time will hibernate and when you open a Windows laptop from hibernation there is a 20 or 30 second delay as it loads the OS from the SSD to memory and then lets you login.

I'd really like to see either a Chromebook or Windows laptop that had a decent IPS display, long battery life, at least Baytrail processor, and relatively cheap. There are some Windows 2-in-1s similar to this (T100, Switch), but I'd rather this be in laptop form without the 2-in-1 issues (like top heavy screens, lack of ports).
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My old Dell with windows 7 sleeps for more than a week and still "starts up" in less than 2-3 seconds. If you are going to compare, don't compare hibernation (the 20-30 second thing you are talking about) to sleep. They are 2 different things.
 
Just bought a $250 Bay trail Celeron N2830, 4GB Ram, 500gb, 15.6 inch laptop from dell. Lots of bloatware but once removed it is perfectly usable and works just fine with MS Office and web browsing. No issues with anything so far. It's replacing on ancient HP Vista laptop for a client and will be perfectly adequate for a few years. And when it isn't, an SSD upgrade and 8gb of RAM should bring it back up to speed.
 
"Microsoft says that Chromebooks are not “real laptops” because they cannot run Office or Windows... This is like saying electric cars are not cars at all because they don't run on gasoline!"

Haha...
 
VirtualLarry said:
Why wait on the SSD upgrade? Seriously. If you can afford it, why deny yourself?
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Because it's use is primarily website design and MS Office oriented. An SSD would make it fly but I don't really want to bother right now as it doesn't really need it. Plus I won't be the one that has to use it :biggrin:
 
master_shake_ said:
isn't chrome os free??

your move microsoft.
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They did move. They filed patent lawsuits, and now several Chromebook manufacturers have to pay Microsoft licensing fees to make Chromebook devices.

Google needs to take a stronger hand in combating such lawsuits in the future as well as design their operating systems around such that they aren't going to be sued by every litigation happy business looking for a quick buck.


Blain said:
Is Chrome OS simply a browser on steroids?
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Pretty much, yes. Which is why its such a light OS compared to Windows and works far better on low end hardware.
 
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