Rating: 5/5

Three-Word Summary: Only the essentials

Before I went off to college, I purchased a new MacBook laptop with all of the bells and whistles.

By the time I graduated four years later, the Apple computer had slowed significantly. Everything worked okay, but it had become outdated and essentially obsolete. That’s just how technology works.

Rather that wanting to buy a new traditional laptop, I was interested in finding something cheaper, faster, simpler. At that point, there were a few web book options, which were basically stripped down PCs.

Then Google released the Chromebook.

It was exactly what I was looking for: instant boot-up, Internet only, inexpensive and lightweight. I pre-ordered the Samsung model and was one of the first people to receive the next-generation computer.

Four years later, my Chromebook has slowed slightly, but not nearly as much as a typical computer would have over that time. Best of all, Google pushes OS updated directly to the machine, so it stays updated.

As I had originally predicted then, the popularity and usage of the Chromebook has spread steadily. This is the ideal machine for our instant gratification culture. While more mobile devices are certainly a popular item, Chromebooks have, and will continue to, redefine how we use computers.

Since I purchased my Chromebook, the selection has increased (from only two models to now dozens) and the price has dropped (from $450 to as low as $150). Compare this to the $1,000+ Apple models and it’s no wonder why more people are turning to the Google computer.

I’ve been a loud and proud proponent of the machine and have converted several of my family and friends to Team Chromebook.

Perhaps the greatest success behind the Chromebook (as with most mobile devices) is a reliance more on cloud-based information rather than the machine itself. I can log into my Google account on someone else’s computer and have very much the same experience as being on my own.

Certainly the specs and features on each Chromebook varies. Certainly you can’t do as much powerful computing as you can on Macs or PCs. But when 99% of personal computer usage is on the Internet, why would you design a computer that focuses on the remaining 1%?

The landscape of technology is ever changing and evolving. The Google Chromebook is the next generation of the personal computer and will only continue to get better.