Samsung Chromebook 2 [13.3", 1080p]

Mondozei

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2013
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So the specs are pretty decent, 1080p, 13.3", 4 gigabyte of RAM.
The processor is the new Exynos 5 octa(cortex A-15).

The price is just 399, too. Slim weight, slim profile.

I've been using windows laptops since my first one and my current one is around 3 years old. It still works, but looking ahead I could pick up a Chromebook.

What is the experience of people who have used ChromeOS? Can I use Ubuntu, for example? And will the processor be fast enough considering it's an A-15?
 

Zxian

Senior member
May 26, 2011
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If you can deal with living purely on web apps, ChromeOS does just fine. Things to note: no Office, no Skype, etc.

I have the C720 and it handles everything on the web without any issues.

You can usually find an Ubuntu install using Crouton, but I haven't had much need to yet. YMMV.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
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Chromebooks do well for that they offer, no question there. At 399 though, I'm not so sure. Seems like a more capable 13.3in notebook could be had for 399, though maybe not with a 1080p screen.
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
24
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This doesn't make much sense to me. The Chromebook 2 11 is cheaper and has lower end specs, but has the cool looking leather texture and comes in both black or white. The Chromebook 2 13 has better specs, higher price, and has a plain looking plastic grey design with no texture.

Ugh?

Correction: Sorry, first video I looked at made the grey Chromebook 2 13 look like a plain plastic. I just checked out a second video and clearly see now it has the same stitched leather look. However it still appears to only come in grey (at least the two hands on videos only shows one model for the 13 inch), while the smaller model comes in two colors.
 
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CuriousMike

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2001
3,044
543
136
If you can deal with living purely on web apps, ChromeOS does just fine. Things to note: no Office, no Skype, etc.

I have the C720 and it handles everything on the web without any issues.

You can usually find an Ubuntu install using Crouton, but I haven't had much need to yet. YMMV.

I picked up the C720 last week and have been using it extensively as my home PC.

I must be odd, but I don't need Office at home.
And I don't use Photoshop.

Those are the most oft cited misses on Chromebooks that I see; I confess I do miss Lightroom and my collection of Steam Games - but I use them rarely.

I just have the C720 docked to my PC's keyboard+mouse+monitor, so I treat it more like a "Chromebox".

It's fast enough for everything I've thrown at it... I really can't tell that I'm not on my i5-2500k when doing my normal stuff on it.

My main desktop rig uses ~ 70-75w at idle (browsing web) and about 95w when watching .mKV's.

The Chromebook uses ~8w during normal use, and 10w while watching the same .MKV.
(Undocked, it's more like 12-13W.)

It's also damn near silent - I thought my PC was quiet in my R4, but this Chromebook barely whispers the fan every once in awhile.

It isn't replacing my desktop ( I do use Lightroom weekly, and will want to play Steam collection a couple times a week ) - but for browsing the same forums over and over as I do, watching downloaded .AVI's/MKV's and streaming Netflix, it's great.

Edit: The Samsung Chromebooks use the ARM processors which have a diminished Linux experience. Read up on the differences between the ARM and Haswell based chromebooks/boxes if you are seriously consider it for Linux. There are some recent articles discussing the merits of the cheap Chromebook hardware for Linux, and there are many who say "If you want a laptop for Linux, just get a PC". (Which the ChromebookLinux fans say, "But ChromeOS is built on Linux and is inherently more compatible. Except for ARM.") But I'm happy at the moment just running the ChromeOS.
 
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Mondozei

Golden Member
Jul 7, 2013
1,043
41
86
I picked up the C720 last week and have been using it extensively as my home PC.

I must be odd, but I don't need Office at home.
And I don't use Photoshop.

Those are the most oft cited misses on Chromebooks that I see; I confess I do miss Lightroom and my collection of Steam Games - but I use them rarely.

I just have the C720 docked to my PC's keyboard+mouse+monitor, so I treat it more like a "Chromebox".

It's fast enough for everything I've thrown at it... I really can't tell that I'm not on my i5-2500k when doing my normal stuff on it.

My main desktop rig uses ~ 70-75w at idle (browsing web) and about 95w when watching .mKV's.

The Chromebook uses ~8w during normal use, and 10w while watching the same .MKV.
(Undocked, it's more like 12-13W.)

It's also damn near silent - I thought my PC was quiet in my R4, but this Chromebook barely whispers the fan every once in awhile.

It isn't replacing my desktop ( I do use Lightroom weekly, and will want to play Steam collection a couple times a week ) - but for browsing the same forums over and over as I do, watching downloaded .AVI's/MKV's and streaming Netflix, it's great.

Edit: The Samsung Chromebooks use the ARM processors which have a diminished Linux experience. Read up on the differences between the ARM and Haswell based chromebooks/boxes if you are seriously consider it for Linux. There are some recent articles discussing the merits of the cheap Chromebook hardware for Linux, and there are many who say "If you want a laptop for Linux, just get a PC". (Which the ChromebookLinux fans say, "But ChromeOS is built on Linux and is inherently more compatible. Except for ARM.") But I'm happy at the moment just running the ChromeOS.

Thanks for a very good and extended comment. I'm not that knowledgable about Chromebooks(hence the thread), but if I am not mistaken the processor in your chromebook is an intel celeron processor. Do you think it's faster than the E5O from Samsung?
 

you2

Diamond Member
Apr 2, 2002
6,022
1,160
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It is - i believe it is approx 30% faster. Not sure about the GPU. The 720 has low vieiwing angle and lower resolution than the samsung (not sure if the samsung has good or poor viewing angles). The 720 has decent battery life (not sure about the samsung).
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I might check out the samsung when it is available (well check reviews); the 720 is not a bad unit but wasn't really what I wanted (for viewing hd video); but it is a great unit for the price and web browsing.
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Thanks for a very good and extended comment. I'm not that knowledgable about Chromebooks(hence the thread), but if I am not mistaken the processor in your chromebook is an intel celeron processor. Do you think it's faster than the E5O from Samsung?
 

CuriousMike

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2001
3,044
543
136
Thanks for a very good and extended comment. I'm not that knowledgable about Chromebooks(hence the thread), but if I am not mistaken the processor in your chromebook is an intel celeron processor. Do you think it's faster than the E5O from Samsung?

Chromebooks appear to be divided between Samsung ARMS ( Samsung and HP 11 ) or the Haswell ( Acer C720, Toshiba 13.3. )

For the current generation, the Intel based solutions are supposedly faster than ARM - when I played with them at the store, I didn't notice a huge difference, but I wasn't running 10 tabs worth of stuff.

As for how the newer Samsung CPU's will fair, I don't know - we'll all await the benchmarks.

My guess is they still won't be as fast as the Haswell processors, but they will be fast enough that it won't really matter.

If you are looking to use this mainly as a laptop ( not docked, as I do ) then you will care more about the keyboard/trackpad/display. I can say, the Acer's display is just passable, where the Toshiba's was a step up.
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
24
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Most of the ARM chips have only supported 2GB of RAM. I think the new Exynos with 4GB of RAM, that extra RAM will help a lot with running more tabs.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
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Most of the ARM chips have only supported 2GB of RAM. I think the new Exynos with 4GB of RAM, that extra RAM will help a lot with running more tabs.

Eh? There's a couple older ARM based phones with 3GBs of RAM. AFAIK, any 32bit ARM Cortex part will support 3.25GBs of RAM . . . it'd just be mostly pointless when paired to a CPU that slow.