Google’s Chrome OS hit the ground running well over a year ago with the introduction of the CR-48. That little black laptop shipped out to a handful of early adopters who put the very first Chrome OS builds through their paces. It was new. It was refreshing. It was different. But was it cut out for mainstream use? In Google's mind, the answer was always "yes." They then took the next year to respond to criticisms from the CR-48 launch, and at this year's Google I/O conference, out popped two more Chrome OS-based laptops, dubbed Chromebooks.
Acer's AC700 and Samsung's Series 5 were first out of the gate, eager to take on the public and give them a taste of what it's like to live in the cloud. Samsung beat Acer to the punch in terms of shipments; the first Series 5 machines started shipping in the U.S. in June of 2011, and that's the unit that we're reviewing here...
Samsung Series 5 Chromebook Review
Marco Chiappetta
Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com
