Using a Samsung Chromebook Pro after years of MacBook Pro

I’ve been a satisfied Mac user for 14 years, and aside from the occasional hiccup, I’ve never been tempted to switch back to Windows. But the idea of having a little Chromebook around as a secondary computer is something I’ve considered, but never acted on. Luckily I came into possession of a Samsung XE510C24-K01US Chromebook Pro through my day job. Now I’ll share what it’s like being a Mac person in Chromebook town.

First impressions

When I think of Chromebooks, I picture extremely inexpensive laptops, but the model I was given is a bit fancier. It has a nice 2400 x 1600, 12.3″ (32.2 cm) touchscreen display. A stylus pops out of the side of the thing. It can fold all the way around to become a tablet. It’s remarkably thin, compact, and lightweight. It costs $500 USD, roughly the price of two non-fancy Chromebooks.

Wait a second… What’s a Chromebook?

If you’re not familiar, a Chromebook is a computer that doesn’t run a traditional operating system. It doesn’t have Microsoft Windows or Apple’s MacOS software. It runs a modified version of Google’s Chrome web browser that acts as its operating system.

A downside is that Chromebooks cannot run traditional software programs. You can’t load Photoshop, Excel, or Quicken onto it. A big plus is that there is no OS software license fee, so Chromebooks are dramatically cheaper.

Back to my first impressions…

Even though my Chromebook is fancy, it’s nowhere near as nice as an Apple laptop. Not even close. For example, it’s impossible to open its lid with one hand. This is something that separates finely designed computers from the chaff. The lid of this Chromebook is almost equally as thick as its base, which gives the appearance a pleasant uniformity, but the effect is ruined when you have to manhandle the thing just to open it.

It’s also weird for me is that it’s a Samsung. I’m not a fan of this company. I didn’t like them in the past, and I was extremely unimpressed with how they handled their exploding Note 7 controversy. But even though I don’t like them, I don’t want them to fail. This company plays a major role in the economy of South Korea, and I want to see them prosper and succeed.

Samsung, I don’t like you. But, you go girl.

Firing it up

Setting up a Chromebook is a pretty easy thing to do. You essentially only need to turn it on, log into your Google account, and you’re done. It comes with a Quick Start Guide, but there isn’t much to learn. It’s a laptop running the Chrome browser. There are a few touchscreen gestures, and that’s it.

The battery needed to charge before I could use it. I mean, you can use it right away without charging it, but the manual said not to. So I didn’t. Who reads laptop manuals before they use the laptop? Me.

Overall, the battery life seems pretty decent. I went a few days with light usage before it needed to be charged again. Not bad.

I’ve joined the USB-C revolution!

This is the first gadget I’ve owned that has USB-C ports. While it’s exciting to finally have the latest connectivity, it also means I can’t plug anything into this device, except the included charger. It seems wrong not to include a basic USB dongle in the box.

The stylus thing

As a Mac and iPhone user, having a built-in stylus on a device is a true novelty. It pops out of the side when you push it. Then, you have a stylus in your hand. It’s totally crazy.

What do you do with it? You can use it as a surrogate finger on the touchscreen. It’s an odd sensation. It’s more exact than a finger, but, there isn’t much of a need for this. It feels oddly satisfying, but at the same time, it makes me feel somewhat detached from the task I’m doing.

There is a little stylus icon at the bottom of the screen. With Apple products, this part of the screen is called “The Dock.” In the Chrome OS, it’s referred to as “The Shelf.” But, if a shelf is at the lowest point it can be, can it actually be a shelf? A more fitting name would be “The Floorboard.”

In the stylus menu you can set it to take screenshots, put it into “laser pointer” mode, or “magnifying glass” mode. The screenshot modes are odd. Coming from Mac, my brain is so conditioned to using keyboard shortcuts to do this that anything else feels bizarre and wrong (even though, admittedly, having to memorize keyboard shortcuts is even wonkier).

The laser pointer mode seems like it would only be useful if your computer was hooked up to a projector and you were giving a presentation to an audience. This doesn’t seem like a situation I will find myself in. The utility of this mode is almost laughable. All it does is leave a red trail behind where you point on the screen. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

The magnifying glass mode simply enlarges a circular area of the screen closest to the stylus. This might be useful for someone who can’t see well. For me, it isn’t useful. The only thing I would likely use is the screenshot stuff, because I tend to do this often. But wait… Where do the screenshots go?

My Google Drive is about to get messy

When you take a screenshot with a Chromebook, it automatically spits the image file out to Google Drive. There is no desktop to send it to. No Downloads folder. It shoots out of the Chromebook and straight into the cloud.

This is not good, because I am messy with my screenshots, which means my Google Drive account is about to become a very messy place. I am not excited about this prospect. I like to keep that kind of thing neat and tidy.

The wife test

My wife isn’t technically savvy. She is simply not interested. When she cuts and pastes, she does so with physical scissors and tubes of glue. For this reason, I’m always curious what she thinks of new tech stuff. Her perspective is something I cannot predict.

I intentionally left the Chromebook out on the kitchen counter for days, with her Google account logged in, and her Gmail inbox front and center. One thing that I appreciate about the functionality of this Chromebook is that when you lift the lid, even after a long period of time, it just lights up and shows you the browser. There is no password/unlock process by default. It’s a lot less secure, but it’s nice to not have to tap a password out every time you use it.

The other morning my wife couldn’t find her iPhone, and she needed to send some emails. She naturally just found the Chromebook, opened it up, and quickly did what she needed to do. I asked her how it went, and she said it was fine. She even noted that she liked how it was small and lightweight. The compact form factor of the adorably named XE510C24-K01US is one of its nicest qualities.

Final thoughts…

All in all, having a Chromebook is a nice thing, but I’m such a dyed-in-the-wool Mac person that it’s difficult to switch gears. I’m used to having apps. This could never be my only computer. I’m a video maker. I do lots of photo editing. I record audio. This Chromebook can’t do any of those things as well as a traditional computer.

For $500 it’s a decent little thing, but the areas where it isn’t as good as a Mac laptop are painful. First and foremost, it doesn’t have illuminated keys. This is a feature I would never willingly give up.

Secondly, the keyboard is just okay. It’s not great like my 2013 MacBook Pro. The trackpad, on the other hand, is terrible. It’s a little too small, it’s not responsive enough, and it often clicks on things unintentionally — which is incredibly frustrating. Taking several steps backward with something as integral as the trackpad just stings.

But there are some things on this Chromebook that I like better than my trusty old MacBook Pro. I like that the screen can bend down and lay flat. The hinge just has a lot more range than a MacBook does. It’s nice to have. Apple really should have this on their laptops.

While I haven’t used the touchscreen much, I’m glad it’s there. Why not, right? This is another thing that Apple should do. They have resisted for a long time, but it can be useful. It should just be there on premium computers.

My last comment is difficult to admit, but, I’m just used to being around Apple hardware. The ugliness of this computer is painful. It sits there on my kitchen counter, with its silver SAMSUNG logo shining away, and it just looks gross. I always want to put it away and hide it. Compared to Apple the design is vulgar.

Should you get a Samsung XE510C24-K01US Chromebook Pro? Well, it’s the only Chromebook I’ve used in any meaningful way, so I can’t say with certainty. The cheapest Mac laptop I would buy right now is a whopping $1300, $800 more than this Chromebook costs, and it has the same Intel Core m3 processor. That’s a lot extra to pay for a backlit keyboard, an excellent trackpad, and, oh, a real operating system.

For $500 the XE510C24-K01US is an okay machine, but overall I do not recommend buying one. The trackpad is just too frustrating to use. However, if you can get one for free like I did, I think it’s worth it. 😀