It's back-to-school season and I've been hearing a lot of chatter in the educational community about schools switching to Chromebooks. A
Chromebook is a different breed of computer in that it is designed to be used primarily while connected to the internet. Unlike a more traditional laptop or desktop computer, its documents and other applications live in the cloud rather than on the unit's own hard drive. My initial reaction to this movement was somewhat incredulous, since many schools have fairly restrictive web usage policies. Teachers wage a constant battle with students sneaking off to chat rooms and online gaming sessions when given access to the internet. But I decided to check it out for myself.
I quickly discovered there are a daunting number of variables to consider when buying a Chromebook - price, size, speed, durability, battery, etc. But after doing a little research and checking out the back-to-school sales, I zeroed in on the CB3-111-C670 Acer (only $178 on Amazon). It's small and lightweight (11.6" at 2.43 lb) with a built-in webcam, Intel Celeron processor, Bluetooth, and a chiclet-style keyboard. I considered the Samsung Chromebook, since it's got a metal body over Acer's white plastic case, but I didn't think it was worth the extra cost or weight. Asus had a really nice Chromebook with a rotating touchscreen that can turn the Chromebook into a tablet, but I was a little turned off by the slower Rockchip processor. I also looked at HP's Chromebook, because they were highly rated, but the HP's do not have USB ports. Since I'm not totally convinced about the reliability of the "cloud," I felt I really needed a method of backup storage, and the Acer Chromebook comes with 2 USB ports, plus an SD card reader.
I haven't really done much with my Chromebook yet, except take it out of the box and turn it on, but I was really impressed with the wealth of educational apps that are already available from the Chromebook store. Once I try a few of them out, I'll come back with an updated review.
