On its left-hand side you get the unit’s 3.5mm headphone jack (which can also take a microphone line in), alongside its 3-in-1 multi-card slot (it takes SD, SDHC and SDXC options). In terms of Samsung’s other design choices with the Chromebook, what you’ll mainly notice is that this is quite a minimalistic device. The MacBook Air is a much nicer machine design-wise than the Chromebook, but the difference between the pair in terms of their build quality online doesn’t really justify the Air’s increased $750 price tag. Yet there’s only a moderate difference in physical build quality between the two models, and we’d say that most people who picked up the two laptops side by side wouldn’t see a huge difference in quality between the pair, physical design-wise. The MacBook Air starts at three times that price - $1,099. The Chromebook retails in Australia for a recommended retail price of $349. Its hinge, its keys, the little coverings over some of its ports and even its screen contributes to a feeling that this isn’t a premium laptop, but rather something from lower down in the market. For starters, the Chromebook’s casing is composed of a silver plastic material rather than the MacBook’s aluminium. Of course, once you get a bit closer to the Chromebook, you start to notice differences that tell you that the Chromebook is a significantly cheaper laptop than the Air.
The two are so similar, in fact, that once or twice during the several weeks of the review period, we actually mistook the Chromebook lying around our office for the MacBook Air we use as our primary laptop. The Chromebook is also quite thin, at 17.5mm at its thickest, and it is quite light at 1.1kg (the 11″ Air weighs 1.08kg). The model we tested had a similar 11″-ish screen, a very similar light gunmetal grey/silver casing, and the keyboard has the same black chiclet feel about it.
When you first pick up Samsung’s new Chromebook, you could easily be excused for thinking it’s a MacBook Air. But does this limited laptop do enough to wean users away from the traditional PC experience and into a browser for all of their tasks? Read on to find out. Review The newest version of Samsung’s light and cheap laptop running Google’s browser-focused Chrome OS operating system has landed in Australia.
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