Imagine my surprise yesterday when I got an amazon alert on my phone--that my new samsung chromebook plus aka Google Kevin--was delivered! I didn't even get a notice it had shipped--it was suppose to ship feb 12...
At any rate
1) Build quality is good
2) screen is really good, but it scales to a super sharp 1200x800 instead of the native 2400x1600. You can switch it to native resolution and everything is super tiny. I imagine I can find a hidpi setting for font scaling but haven't looked yet
3) speakers ok but not great, easily blocked
4) You can fold device into a tablet mode--its still heavy for a tablet but better than I expected--the 3:2 ratio really helps a ton here.
5) Android apps. Sigh. Do not get your hopes up or make that the key reason to buy this thing. The implementation is still kind of buggy and there is something MASSIVE missing--right now android apps can't directly access the micro-sd card storage.
You can access files (media, pdf, jpg, movies) via the files app and have an android app OPEN the file, but it will have to copy it to the main storage location before it comes up.
As there is only 32 gig of main storage, this means there will be limitations. I did not realize this was an issue on chromebooks running android apps. They are going to fix this but no eta yet. So if there is an android app you MUST use...you may have to check or wait
Switching between landscape and potrait confuses the open android app and it takes some tweaking to get the app to take up the full window. It can be done but its not a seemless experience.
6) The S-pen. It sure seems like some kind of active stylus. My old wacom pens from my galaxy note 10.1 2014 tablet works. Not seeing pressure sensitivity though. Input lag is minimal. Might not be a lot of chrome apps to take advantage yet. Not sure if the lack of pressure is due to hardware missing support or just lack of software support.
7) I will test the usb c ports more when I get home--I have an older usb 3 port expander with hdmi, usb 3, usb c pass through charging and see if any work.
8) too early to see if battery life is as advertised
Final thoughts
I can't really make a full determination yet on this device. I have used chromebooks before but I really feel like the android vs chrome battle on this device feels like unfinished software--and it is since its all beta. But its rougher than I would have expected.
The lack of info on the pen is also kind of annoying-given this is what makes it unique from its new asus 302 competitor computer. And has tons of potential for students/notetaking, etc.
This is the ARM processor version. The m3 version is still pending. This has felt quite fast. I have not opened 20 tabs at once to test the speed. I am not sure what the extra m3 would do--as there are limitations more with the OS than processing power--unless you want to have 40 tabs open.
At any rate
1) Build quality is good
2) screen is really good, but it scales to a super sharp 1200x800 instead of the native 2400x1600. You can switch it to native resolution and everything is super tiny. I imagine I can find a hidpi setting for font scaling but haven't looked yet
3) speakers ok but not great, easily blocked
4) You can fold device into a tablet mode--its still heavy for a tablet but better than I expected--the 3:2 ratio really helps a ton here.
5) Android apps. Sigh. Do not get your hopes up or make that the key reason to buy this thing. The implementation is still kind of buggy and there is something MASSIVE missing--right now android apps can't directly access the micro-sd card storage.
You can access files (media, pdf, jpg, movies) via the files app and have an android app OPEN the file, but it will have to copy it to the main storage location before it comes up.
As there is only 32 gig of main storage, this means there will be limitations. I did not realize this was an issue on chromebooks running android apps. They are going to fix this but no eta yet. So if there is an android app you MUST use...you may have to check or wait
Switching between landscape and potrait confuses the open android app and it takes some tweaking to get the app to take up the full window. It can be done but its not a seemless experience.
6) The S-pen. It sure seems like some kind of active stylus. My old wacom pens from my galaxy note 10.1 2014 tablet works. Not seeing pressure sensitivity though. Input lag is minimal. Might not be a lot of chrome apps to take advantage yet. Not sure if the lack of pressure is due to hardware missing support or just lack of software support.
7) I will test the usb c ports more when I get home--I have an older usb 3 port expander with hdmi, usb 3, usb c pass through charging and see if any work.
8) too early to see if battery life is as advertised
Final thoughts
I can't really make a full determination yet on this device. I have used chromebooks before but I really feel like the android vs chrome battle on this device feels like unfinished software--and it is since its all beta. But its rougher than I would have expected.
The lack of info on the pen is also kind of annoying-given this is what makes it unique from its new asus 302 competitor computer. And has tons of potential for students/notetaking, etc.
This is the ARM processor version. The m3 version is still pending. This has felt quite fast. I have not opened 20 tabs at once to test the speed. I am not sure what the extra m3 would do--as there are limitations more with the OS than processing power--unless you want to have 40 tabs open.
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