Anyone else got the Chromebook Pro

Habious

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Took me a couple of tries to find someone who had it in stock (pre-ordered one from Amazon but they've yet to get them in stock - at least last time I checked)...was able to get one from NewEgg (but now they're showing them backordered).

I don't know if they're like super-uber-ridiculously popular...so they're sold out. Or if Samsung has decided to only make 9 of them.

None the less, I got one!

So far, I'm loving it. I had/have an older Chromebook and absolutely loved the streamlined simplicity of it. And loved having a machine that didn't have one single line of Microsoft-written code on it.

My old Chromebook was a little sluggish at times but, it got the job done. The Pro, however. Man, this sucker flies.

Loving being able to use it as a tablet. Also, I've learned that I can fold it 3/4 the way around, lay it keyboard-side down, and it's a great little media player (speakers don't sound half bad, and they're pretty loud.)

Have dabbled with the stylus but, the software doesn't quite seem fully-baked yet. Haven't looked too far into options but, it seems to take everything you do with the stylus and dump it into Google Keep...which I've never used, and seems to be compatible with exactly nothing else. I did a screen cap, then wrote on it, and wanted to send that to a friend. It took me like 30 minutes to figure out that the only way I could do this was to take the "document" I created in Keep, import it into Google Docs, save it locally, then send/share it with my friend. Not exactly intuitive or simple. I've had several Galaxy Note phones (a Note 2 and a Note 4), and the stylus implementation on those was second-to-none.

I've only installed a couple of Android apps from the Play store but, the ones I've installed worked well (having VLC is nice - it'll play any media file you throw at it - a complaint I had with my old Chromebook; it only played some media files).

Others have one? Love it? Hate it? Disappointed in it?
 

travaz

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I have one on order on Amazon but they have provided no ship date. Best Buy says sold out etc. I think you got one of the 9 :) . I have 2 Chromebooks now and use them on the road a lot. They have always worked well for me. Anyone want to buy a used Chromebook? lol. I cant wait for the pro to ship but I guess I have no choice. I have never had a Samsung phone but look forward to the Stylus use as well as the Play store. Does it interact at all with your phone?
 

anon(9268751)

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I ordered one directly from the Samsung site within minutes of the order page going live on May 31st. When I ordered it said it would ship in 5-7 days so nothing yet. Funny though now when I check on my order status it says I preordered. As far as I can tell Samsung has not shipped these in any quantity yet.

There is some talk about these being delayed because of an update not being ready but I don't know if that is true or not.
 

Habious

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The software is a little less than perfect, for sure.

I found the option to change the default stylus app but, it only lists "Google Keep" as the option. There's a link to get/install other stylus apps...so I installed Evernote and got it set up. But, when I go back to the stylus setup, I STILL have "Google Keep" as the only option. Oops.

I've also had it "run out of memory" (and it crashed every browser tab except the active one)...without all that much running.

The other thing I've found is with running some Play Store apps. It's easy enough to change the app from windowed (the size of a smartphone screen) to full-screen. However, once it's full-screen, it really, really, really doesn't want to go back to windowed (even closing the app and relaunching it brings it back up to the full-screen state it was in when you closed it.) Not sure if there's something wrong with it, or I just don't know what I'm doing (a very real possibility).

But it's still uber-quick compared to my old Samsung Chromebook. I'm not disappointed, and I know that software updates will only make the experience better.

Oh, and battery life seems pretty reasonable.
 

travaz

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From what I have read it is the performance of the Android apps that is causing the problem. Google says it is working on it and I think Samsung is at Googles mercy.
 

anon(9268751)

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I'm still trying to find out if we can use the micro sdcard for more than parking files. I've been told that for instance if you had a video file on the sdcard in order to play it you would have to move it to internal storage. Supposedly they are going to make the sdcard available for adoptive storage at some point.
 

Michael Forsythe

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I've had my Chromebook Pro for a couple of weeks now, and absolutely loving it. Use it at work as well as home, and the combination of small size, great screen, lower power usage and great keyboard (I know!) make this thing awesome. Stylus as well, which I've used a few times for notes, or sketching.
I have one question that I'll put out to anybody else who has one...: The sound coming through the headphone jack - not the speakers, they are more than adequate for what I need them for - is very, very quiet. Plugging in external speakers through the 3.5mm jack, and with the player (tried multiple) and system volumes turned up to full, it's only just audible.
Bluetooth to a bluetooth speaker works fine.
I am running the Canary channel OS, though, and didn't actually test the volume before switching channels. Currently on Version 63.0.3229.0.
Is anybody else able to test headphones or an external speaker through the headphone jack, and report back?
My next thing to try is to revert back to the stable channel and try it with that, in case it's a Canary channel issue...
Also welcome any questions on using the Chromebook itself as well...
Thanks!
Michael.
 

Michael Forsythe

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Update: Reverting to Stable build fixed the issue. Not sure if it was the Canary build itself, or any extensions that might have been installed. Working perfectly now.

I'll step up to the Beta, Dev then Canary builds again to try and work out at which point it changed...
 

keilflex

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had had mine about an hour or so already I love the keyboard the apps and the web seem to work really well. I noticed when I switch from tablet mode or vice versa from laptop to tablet mode or tablet to laptop mode and I'm in an app it will reset the app back to the beginning. The other little cork is before I did the update OK Google worked just fine. Then 30 minutes after opening it I realized I had an update and I did it and they took away the option to use OK Google. OK Google is grayed out in the settings menu. Other than that the build quality on this thing is awesome. The speed is amazing. Haven't had any crashes besides flipping it in from tablet to laptop within a Play Store app. Build qualities and Nice metal screens beautiful seems to work really well loving it so far.
 

Michael Forsythe

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Update: Reverting to Stable build fixed the issue. Not sure if it was the Canary build itself, or any extensions that might have been installed. Working perfectly now.

I'll step up to the Beta, Dev then Canary builds again to try and work out at which point it changed...

In case anybody else comes across it, I worked out that it was the Advanced Font Settings extension that was causing it. Volume was playing up after installing it, uninstalled it and it work working fine again.