Fortune Magazine asked five of its writers for things like best device, best acquisition, best news blog, etc. One of those writers picked the Chromebook. The others picked the iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy S3, MacBook Pro Retina 15", and Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite.
In the absence of a print version, increment the 2.html by 5 (2, 7, 12, 17, 22.html) to reach each review independently.
I honestly think the Chromebook is one of the best products out there, even though I'd never buy one for myself. It's the first web-only device that isn't "ahead of its time" - it just works for everything you need.
Its major downfall is performance on Flash-heavy sites (or even JS-heavy sites, such as The Verge), but honestly I don't think that's the device's fault as much as it's the desktop web's. It took developers a while to learn to optimize their sites for less-powerful tablets and phones, and hopefully they'll bring some of those lessons to the desktop for lower-powered devices like this.
Plus, I think a lot of people just don't understand that the device has more than just web access. Chrome apps give it potential for powerful offline capabilities. This article has a good overview: http://www.zdnet.com/yes-you-can-use-the-new-chromebook-offl...
(the only thing I don't like is that all of the Chromebooks have been a bit ugly. I know that you're dealing with cheap plastic, but I actually thought my slate CR-48 looked nicer than the fat Samsung & Acer Chromebooks!)
And even if you do like tablets, typing even relatively short messages on a tablet is seriously non-fun.
The keyboard on the new Samsung Chromebook is fantastic; basically a clone of a MacBook Air keyboard. The touchpad also works really well. (Though I do miss three finger or tap-and-a-half dragging. On the Chromebook you have to click-and-hold the touchpad to drag.)
Sure you can get a netbook and run Chrome, but I have one of those and never use it. The screen flickers, the keyboard is mediocre, and the touchpad sucks. And it's from a good company too.
One interesting factoid about the Chromebook is that it's actually FREE if you take into account the extras. Gogo inflight internet + 1tb Google Drive is $300 dollars of freebies, not bad for a $250 device.
I'll take it even furthe: Not only would I never pay for google drive storage, I wouldn't use it even if it were free. Now if they want to offer me a discount since I'm not going to use those add-ons, that's a different story. Until then, it's still $250.
Chrome updates are non-disruptive (e.g., doesn't bug you to restart your machine every 15 minutes) and automatic.
It's a far cry from "you have 7 critical updates that require your attention", or "your computer will automatically shut down in 3 minutes to update unless you click this button that extends this by another hour".
Or if we're talking about Adobe: "looks like there's another 0-day massive security hole, Flash player needs you to drop everything, shut off everything with a web frame so we can fix this".
Or to balance it out a bit Apple-style: "your browser, Safari, needs an update. We will inexplicably need you to stop whatever you're doing and reboot to update your browser"
So yeah, "never needs upgrades" isn't technically correct, but it's pretty close to it.
I love my Samsung ARM Chromebook. I've already used it while creating materials for a talk on Javascript. I am able to use the browser to test Javascript code, and I already use Google docs for the slides so it was a natural fit. It doesn't replace my MacBook Air - I carry both. So no I don't need it but I enjoy the idea of it.
You've touched on the problem with the Chromebook. It doesn't replace a notebook or any other device So it becomes one more device that duplicates functionality of other devices without doing anything unique. I like mine, but if I hadn't gotten it as part of Google I/O this year, I'm not sure I'd feel the dollars for buying one would be well spent.
My new Chromebook is so cheap that I just bring it everywhere. If I lose it, no biggie.
I love my 11-inch MacBook Air a lot more, which means, ironically, I leave it at home because I couldn't bear to have it damaged or lost. Also, I have the Air hooked up to speakers in my bedroom so it's more of a pain to just grab it and go.
Additionally my MacBook Air is typically upstairs and I keep the Chromebook downstairs, so if I just want to check my email or HN, I don't have to run up and down the stairs to find where I left the computer.
In the absence of a print version, increment the 2.html by 5 (2, 7, 12, 17, 22.html) to reach each review independently.