Google’s CR-48 Chromebook gets first preview

Only yesterday we were talking about the Amazon page that Google set up for its upcoming Chrome OS running, Intel Atom powered 12.1 laptop and the people over at engadget.com got their hands on the CR-48 prototype.

So many questions come to mind about this laptop (the most stringent being that of the Chrome OS), but fortunately we’ve got answers for all of them. First of all, don’t let the “just another plastic black laptop “ look trick you; it may look common, but only at a first glance.

It’s made from a soft, rubbery plastic and apparently it resembles the old black Macbook. Although a prototype, the CR-48 is very neatly built and scores points on the minimal, but chic design terrain. It remains to be seen if Google will keep it simple (and almost perfect) with this look or will go for a more glossy finish when the laptop will be available to regular buyers.

Chromebook

The battery fits the design and doesn’t stand out like some sort of a lump, but still the laptop is a little heavier than it looks, ticking at 3.6 pounds. The keyboard keeps in line with the overall style and has soft keys, which are extremely comfy to press. But this doesn’t mean you won’t need a little time to get used with the layout; as the laptop doesn’t run Windows, you don’t have any Windows keys and the caps button is missing (you have a search key instead, but you can remap it as caps if you really want).

Also, you have ultra large CTRL and ALT keys, as you’ll use them a lot switching between tabs in the OS/browser. The ClickPad on the Chromebook is not all fun and games, considering that there are times when the cursor goes all crazy or doesn’t work at all, but most of the time the ClickPad was responsive. The screen has a 1280×800 resolution, which will give a lot of screen space to keep lots of tabs open.

Chromebook keyboard and ClickPad

On to the Chrome OS. It took on this laptop 15 seconds to boot, not the 10 promised by Google, but it’s still good enough. Once in the start screen, log in with your Google account and you can take a quick pic with the web cam to use it as a profile picture. When everything is loaded, you stand face to face with the familiar Chrome browser.

If you want to launch an app, hit the new tab button and you get a list of apps, with standard “recently closed” and “most used” line ups. Above the browser page you can’t minimize there are some icons that allow you to turn WiFi on and off or connect via Verizon 3G.

You can sync your bookmarks and apps from a version of Chrome you have on another computer, but there also some pre-installed ones, like a game from EA called Poppit!. There’s also Gtalk, that pops up from the bottom of the screen, as well as some sort of download/upload manager.

Although it’s a web based OS or something, this beta version of Chrome OS doesn’t deal with Flash. Wait, it plays Flash, but everything freezes and gets cramped up when you do. Playing something from Youtube works so and so, but Hulu is out of the question for now and that’s also the case for Gtalk video chat. On the bright side, Adobe is allegedly working on this for 10.1 and everything will run smooth when Chromebook hits the shelves.

Chrome OS

Anyway, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions straight away, but Google needs to sort this one up and truly deliver the speed and lack of bugs that would determine people to switch to this still strange OS. Also, it will be interesting to see what other manufacturers will do when hooking up Chrome OS on their laptops and netbooks.

Video preview

Tags: 12.1" netbooks, Chrome netbook, Chrome OS

Last updated: March 27, 2012 | Published: December 7th, 2010 | Add the first comment!