[rwp-review id=”0″]
For those unfamiliar with the term, Chromebooks are laptops that run the Chrome OS as their operating system, an OS based on the Linux kernel and designed by Google to work with web applications and installed applications. It’s an OS that nearly entirely works of the Cloud as opposed to having applications and programs on the laptop itself.
With that out of the way, I introduce the Chromebook 2 (CB35 B3330) by Toshiba.
Using the Chrome OS was a bit surreal to me; where was the start menu, how do I look at my audio devices, does this have minesweeper on it? My quest into exploring the Chromebook 2 was punctuated with a mixture of oohs and aahs as I figured out to how navigate around the (rather small) OS.
Design and Hardware
The Toshiba Chromebook 2 has a silver finish to its mostly textured resin surface, something I wasn’t entirely fond of since it didn’t look pleasing to the eye and to be quite frank, it chaffed my thighs when placed on my lap. It weighs about 3 pounds, meaning it’s one of those laptops that makes your laptop bag swing in the wind, and comes in the following dimensions: 12.6 inches wide by 8.4 inches deep by 0.8 inches thick. The display measures 13.3” across and is encased in a very flimsy laptop lid. So flimsy in fact, that you can see discoloration whenever you apply a bit of pressure to adjust the lids angle. However, Toshiba offers optional snap-on covers for this model that should toughen it up a bit as well as smooth out the finish.
The keyboard has nothing special to it, no backlit LED lights or any such feature, it is infact quite bland and for someone new to Chromebooks, is quite disconcerting: there are no function keys or menu keys or even a capslock key. Moving on, the Chromebook 2 has an audio jack on the right side of the laptop along with a USB 3.0 port and an HDMI port. On the left side sits a USB 2.0 port, a SD card reader and the charging port. Just below the keyboard sits the large touchpad which was responsive and supported multitouch. Being so large, I feared that the cursor would tend to jump all over the place due to me accidentally dragging my palms on it whilst typing, however I’m pleased to say that I experienced none of that.
Toshiba also partnered with Skullcandy, having them tune the stereo speakers that fire up through the keyboard, making that early morning listening session of Bonnie Tyler truly surreal. Last but not least, above the display, embedded in the lid of the laptop is a HD Webcam with a dual mic-array, to be used in those Google Hangouts sessions.
Display
HD TFT LED backlit display that measures 13.3 inches across and has a max resolution of 1366×768 pixels. Yes it isn’t the 1080p resolution most of us have become familiar with and on the Toshiba website itself it states that this version of the Chromebook 2 only supports up to 720p content. I say this version because for slightly more expensive price, you can get the 1080p version of the Chromebook 2. The scaled down display is still vibrant however, and while the viewing angles aren’t as great as the IPS display on the 1080p version, it isn’t altogether terrible either.
Performance
The Chrome OS isn’t a thirsty beast (compared to the dreadful Windows Vista) and as a result the specs don’t need to be top notch to run it. The Chromebook 2 (CB35-B3330) is run by a dual-core 2.58 GHz Intel Celeron N2480 processor along with 2 GB worth of DDR3l 1600MHz RAM that is not replaceable by the user. And here’s where the let down is. 2 GB isn’t a lot and the toll can be seen when streaming videos on YouTube; the video stutters frequently as the Chromebook tries to allocate more RAM (that it doesn’t have) to the process. This video stuttering was incredibly prevalent when watching 1080p videos in fullscreen mode or when watching videos that were in 60 frames per second. Minimising a fullscreen video would often make the Chromebook 2 hang for a few seconds. However the 1080p version of the Chromebook 2 features 4 GB worth of ram so it should not suffer as badly.
On the upside you do have a solid state drive that has a 16GB capacity and furthermore you also get 100GB worth of Google Drive space. The Chromebook wasn’t’ built with gaming in mind so don’t expect to run Fallout 4 on its Intel HD Graphics.
Battery wise the Chromebook 2 is heaven sent, claiming to squeeze out 11 hours worth of battery time for you. By continuously video streaming with sound and brightness set to 50% (not something I recommend if you don’t want a single song stuck in your head for hours on end) I managed to get about 8 hours worth of battery life, which while off from the 11 hour mark, is still pretty decent. Using the Chromebook 2 normally I found I didn’t feel the need to plug it in till after about 10 hours.
Conclusion
The Chromebook 2 is a great budget laptop for a niche group of people. Since it doesn’t have that much performance behind it and the inability to install local applications, it can be overlooked by nearly everyone, from gamers to university students. However, it’s an almost perfect delve into the Chrome OS experience and is great for people who need it to do some casual browsing. Since I use Google Drive a lot (in addition to other Google laptops) I found that I nearly instantaneously migrated my workspace from my desktop to the Chromebook 2 in a matter of minutes.
The Chromebook 2 (CB35-B3330) I was using retails for around AED 850, with the 1080p Chromebook 2 (CB35-B3340) going for AED 1000.
