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Here is my full review of the Samsung Chromebook 2!
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hey folks Robbie pinion with chrome
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unboxed again coming at you today with
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the full review of the Samsung
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Chromebook to the 13.3 inch variety
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there's a lot of you may very well know
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and if you watch the unboxing of this
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device it comes in two thirteen point
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three inches 1080p display it is LED
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backlit it is not an IPS display comes
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with the Exynos octa-core chip four gigs
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of ram 16 gigs of built-in memory and
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all the various ports that you would
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expect from a modern-day chromebook so
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let's take a view real quick around the
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hardware and close it down you will see
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the device is very very slim hardware
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was very impressive on this device
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around the side here you've got a USB
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2.0 port excuse me you've got a
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Kensington lock combo headphone
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microphone jack
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nothing across the back save the hinge
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you got the battery slot which I've got
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this plugged in and I've been using it
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and ran it down on battery USB 3.0 port
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full size HDMI and we do have a micro SD
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card slot hidden behind this little
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plastic wall here which is phenomenally
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to get open sometimes there we go
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you see standard micro SD card slot so
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for those of you who are hoping to get
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that full sized one in there I know
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that's not gonna happen that easily
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it is adorned on the top with this faux
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leather finish those of you who've been
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looking at this guy knew this was
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happening fake stitching and all I will
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say this particular device compared to
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the Galaxy Note 3 in black especially or
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any of the Note tablets with this faux
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leather finish this device tends to feel
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a little bit more plasticky in the hand
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versus that leathery feel but it looks
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nice honestly it's not off-putting at
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all it actually gives it a pretty decent
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feel and the device overall it's very
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solid a big step up from the Samsung
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series 3 Chromebook across the bottom
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there's really nothing except the feet
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and some screws because we don't need
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any fans we're running an ARM processor
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which is a nice touch we're gonna open
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it up here and get a glimpse of that too
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bleh I'm gonna tilt it back just a
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little bit like I said this is an
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led-backlit display thus the viewing
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angles from left to right not too shabby
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I'll turn it just a little bit here you
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can see we don't really lose much on the
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other hand top to bottom you get some
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serious loss of color polarization what
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we expect out of a TN panel pretty much
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LED backlit or not and so again a shame
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that we're not seeing any IPS panels yet
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except for the HP 11 which doesn't
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perform that well we're gonna move past
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that because it seemed a rant on that
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all the time continuing on with the
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hardware we've got a webcam up top again
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these are these are basic Chromebook
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features so this is nothing out of the
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ordinary we'd have a rather large
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trackpad here I believe four inches
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diagonally across plenty of space to
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move around on here and in the chrome
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around it as a nice enhancement the
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trackpad is nice and quiet a good feel
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to it it's as good as any trackpad save
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the pixel that I've used on a Chromebook
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that's far very responsive nice smooth
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motions all your multi-finger gestures
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work just fine which is very nice and
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very good step up from previous arm
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Chromebooks as far as performance goes
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the keys have a slight scoop to them
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very well textured very good travel very
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good typing experience and the device as
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a whole has a little bit of give to it
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but honestly it's firm it's well built
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what you would expect of a $399 laptop
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honestly it's more than what you'd
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expect hardware wise if you wouldn't buy
3:48
a $400 laptop that was running Windows
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you would expect something much cheaper
3:53
and it's overall feel and appearance
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than this device moving on back up to
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the screen that the screen is very very
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crisp it is the first 1080p Chromebook
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now the chrome base which I do have my
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hands on and we'll be doing an unboxing
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review and all that kind of stuff in the
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in the following base it is the only
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other 1080p device that I know of and
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then again I'm excluding the pixel here
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and so everything is very crisp and very
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very clean everything looks really good
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again if your own tilted just the right
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angle
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others are pretty good they're not
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really that much better than any of the
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other TN panels but the crispness does
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add an extra little bit of quality to
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the display and so I did appreciate that
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what kind of bums me out a little bit
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especially this being a 13.3 inch device
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is that at 1080p you can kind of see
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probably if you're taking note how
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little all the icons are and that
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carries over into text rendering and
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everything as well and so if I bring up
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a page here I mean this this text is
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pretty tiny I've got good vision but it
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was a bit of a strain unless I was right
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up on it now if it's in your lap and
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it's real close to you not that big of a
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deal but when it's sitting on a desk
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this this becomes a bit of an issue and
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they can go into the settings you can
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change your font size and so that
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affects some things but not all things
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across the operating system and likewise
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you can actually change the scale so you
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could zoom in I actually ended up
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leaving it day-to-day zoomed in 110 or
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125 percent in order to feel like I was
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looking at a normal page in my personal
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opinion a 1080p screen needs to start at
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15 point 6 inches when it comes to
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scaling issues that the the way the
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pixel got around it technically is if
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it's scaled and half the number of
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pixels that were actually on the screen
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so it's still scaled as a 720p display
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and so icons felt normal size for the
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display itself and and you can't really
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do that with 1080p because it's not
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quite dense enough to scale halfway back
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and you do any of the other scaling I've
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tried some of the other resolutions on
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it and they all are very blurry they
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just don't they don't look good then I'm
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do the display justice at all so I ended
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up sticking with this cranking up the
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percentage on the zoom a little bit so
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that everything at least inside of a
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webpage was zoomed in a bit and turned
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up the font size just a little bit so
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your mileage may vary when it comes to
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those things and you may like everything
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to be kind of tiny and that's cool but
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again for me it works a little better if
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it's stretched out across a few more
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inches on the screen 13.3 seems a little
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small
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thanks 1600 by 900 would have been spot
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on the money for this size display and I
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think 1609 hunters would be great for
6:33
lots of Chromebooks but again that's a
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story for another time
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all that to say that the display is very
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good
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when we're comparing across Chromebooks
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again you pull out an iPad or something
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with an IPS panel on are you in front of
6:47
a regular television and a regular
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monitor or your phone or something like
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that it has a much nicer display on it
6:53
just like any other Chromebook it
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becomes pretty pretty apparent really
6:57
quickly but the extra sharpness is kind
6:59
of nice and and overall it's a it's a
7:03
decent display of just the the size
7:05
issues kind of gave me some some issue
7:07
there now a lot of you have been
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wondering about performance and really
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that's what it comes down to the
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Chromebooks anymore right I mean we you
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get in you put in your password it
7:16
downloads all your stuff you're caught
7:18
back up to where you were and it's a the
7:21
one Chromebooks no different than
7:22
another Chromebook then another
7:23
Chromebook when it comes to Chrome OS at
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its core so it's not a whole lot to show
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you there but there is some stuff I can
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show you because this one does fact that
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that Exynos ARM based processor and so
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performance has been an issue a lot of
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people wanted that octa-core thing to
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really just knock it out of the park but
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I've got to tell you Intel still winning
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right now
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now battery life on this guy can't show
7:45
you right on the screen because it is
7:47
charging right now
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but pretty much it clocked in it seven
7:51
to eight hours and pushing pretty close
7:54
to that eight hours when I wasn't in
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Ubuntu interface all the time and I will
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show you I do have it already booted
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into that you can switch over to a Linux
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distro of your choice I'm just by that
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click and if you're looking at this
8:09
going hi how'd you do that
8:10
there's a video subscribe giving the
8:13
channel there's a video that actually
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shows exactly how to do this on any
8:16
Chromebook and so with just a couple
8:19
touches you can jump back and forth
8:20
between Chrome OS and Linux is
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ultimately criminalizes is based on
8:23
Linux anyway anyhow I find myself in
8:29
that situation in less and less but it's
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still important to have a couple apps I
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need to be in Linux for and so it is
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important that it works and it seems to
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work on every Chromebook I've tried it
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on and this device is no different I got
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Linux up and running there may be some
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apps you're gonna run into that
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won't run for instance one of the
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packaged apps the games it's the name
8:48
escapes me it's a mystery like a murder
8:51
mystery 3d game
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can I think of the the name of the game
8:55
but it murder files sorry it actually
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will not run still on this device it
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wouldn't run on the series three either
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I was really interested to see how it
9:05
would render on here because it's it's
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not heavily graphic but it's all 3d and
9:10
so I just wanted to see how it run
9:11
wouldn't even open on here however I did
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get skid racers to run which I'll show
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that to you actually here in just a
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minute I'll close everything I was down
9:22
and make it fair because what I found in
9:25
this device is while it absolutely
9:26
trumps the the series three it is a
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little bit left wanting when compared
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with the current generation of Intel
9:35
Chromebooks so those has well based
9:37
Chromebooks are right up there with the
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battery life that this guy's getting and
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yeah they've got fans on them but they
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run circles around this thing still
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performance wise now that being said if
9:48
a Chromebook for you is gonna be
9:50
something you pop on the couch you check
9:51
Facebook that kind of stuff with you're
9:53
gonna do some web browsing close it back
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up and go to bed at night if that's what
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your Chromebook does this guy is well up
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to the task much more so than the HP 11
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or the series 3 same son and I'll show
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you a couple things here I've got Google
10:05
Plus loaded which we know notoriously
10:07
does not run well on Chromebooks to
10:09
finger scrolling no problem pretty
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smooth we're not even dropping frames as
10:13
we're scrolling through here and I've
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got some other sites open in the
10:15
background so that four gigs of ram is
10:17
really doing what it's supposed to be
10:18
doing it's all a little stutter there
10:20
but that is not surprising it all with
10:22
google google plus it is a very
10:24
intensive site so we're over the verge
10:27
again another intensive side I usually
10:28
put these devices through you can see
10:31
some framerate drops and the scrolling
10:32
so it's not the smoothest thing in the
10:33
world it's jumping around a little bit
10:35
but ultimately getting through the side
10:38
if we were going to scroll kind of
10:39
smoothly like this is where as we're
10:40
browsing we don't see any real hiccups
10:42
at all and so for your real time
10:44
browsing scenarios this seems pretty
10:48
pretty worthwhile a pretty decent
10:50
experience and I didn't have any issues
10:52
when I was just browsing the issues I
10:55
had performance
10:56
I can kind of see it's lagging all over
10:57
here the issues I had performance-wise
10:59
were when I had multiple tabs open and I
11:01
was working on across a few websites and
11:04
had a few other things open the Pixlr
11:06
editor down here had some google music
11:09
running my notes up and you know four or
11:13
five tabs and in the file browser when
11:15
when I got into that point we started
11:17
running into some issues as far as the
11:19
processor being able to handle the pain
11:21
width but you can see all your gestures
11:24
work just fine I want to play a video
11:27
for you real quick here the speakers a
11:29
little bit not the loudest speakers in
11:58
the world plays high def videos with no
12:01
issues whatsoever and that actually
12:04
ended up being a pretty decent
12:06
experience you know watched some
12:09
trailers and that kind of stuff on
12:10
YouTube and it actually was a pretty
12:12
decent experience watching on this thing
12:14
so you know performance wise it's a huge
12:16
step up from the from the old alarm
12:18
processor that X that I was dual what
12:21
just huge step up but it still does lag
12:24
quite a bit behind because I'm honestly
12:27
comparing the samsung series 3 to say
12:29
the HP 14 or the Toshiba or something
12:31
with that has a processor in it it's not
12:34
even a close fight and it it's a
12:36
completely different experience between
12:37
the two devices this closes that gap
12:40
substantially but there's still a pretty
12:42
pretty wide gap there we'll also look at
12:46
Twitter here which again is a bit
12:49
intensive for some reason I never could
12:50
figure out why and some of the scrolls
12:52
are a little bit behind and in the
12:54
frameworks not the highest but it's
12:56
usable it's workable
12:58
and so that's again it's that's a big
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step up so I'm going to close all these
13:02
guys down and I'll show you skid racer
13:06
which is this is the game that
13:07
I used I think actually this is a game
13:14
thing use when they're showing the i3
13:16
Acer Chromebook at the Intel events a
13:20
few weeks back and it's decently
13:23
resource heavy wits a fully
13:24
browser-based racing game and you'll be
13:28
able to see pretty quickly how quickly
13:30
the the framerate drops on this device
13:34
and just for comparison sake if I open
13:38
this up on my Acer c720 for instance it
13:41
runs high frame rate almost the entire
13:44
time it pickups every once in a while
13:46
but it handles it pretty well in this
13:54
loading time is pretty normal across all
13:57
devices it does have to download a good
13:59
little bit of information obviously we
14:01
were running a 3d game here in the
14:03
browser so some of these things are
14:05
exciting regardless and how they were
14:06
run right now it's exciting to see the
14:08
stuff happening with web technologies
14:10
and seeing already see the the frame
14:13
rates are pretty bad
14:21
and it's running better than it did the
14:23
other day and here we go
14:24
it's usually once there's multiple cars
14:26
on the same thing so they're just kind
14:28
of skipping around very low frame rate
14:31
I'd say that in the single digits
14:33
probably at this point and that's all
14:36
I'm going to do with that so yeah if I
14:38
were to if you open this up you know
14:40
Google skid racer open that up on an
14:43
Intel based device and it runs pretty
14:46
smooth so I want to show you a couple
14:49
comparisons to let you know that outside
14:51
hardware on this I feel like it's the HP
14:53
eleven all over again like the hardware
14:55
I like a lot of it
14:57
I like the trackpad keyboard is great
14:59
and then the screens pretty good - the
15:02
the small small icons and small text
15:05
issues so the hardware is there and then
15:07
they've stuck this ARM processor in it
15:09
that you know you're unlocked ain't on
15:12
it you're getting some around 7,000 or
15:15
something whereas the Intel Haswell
15:18
devices are getting between ten and
15:20
eleven thousand and so I don't really
15:23
understand the point of ARM processor
15:27
Chromebooks at this point I thought for
15:29
a little while maybe that was going to
15:30
be a push like this was going to be what
15:31
happened with Chromebooks but nobody
15:33
else has adopted it intel's really
15:35
stepped up I mean we just have to give
15:37
him credit gotta give credit where
15:38
credit's due they've stepped up that has
15:40
little processors have been awesome on
15:41
battery they're coming out with the Bay
15:43
Trail processors are coming out with the
15:44
next generation of processors after that
15:47
they're getting better battery life and
15:49
some of the my threes are gonna be
15:50
fameless I don't know that any of them
15:52
are going to be in Chromebooks but they
15:54
might be so we might could see a fanless
15:56
I three Chromebook I mean this Intel has
15:59
stepped up and the ARM arm division
16:02
Samsung and an arm in general has a lot
16:05
of way to go if we're going to talk
16:07
about putting them in Desktop scenarios
16:10
now in phones and in mobile devices the
16:13
killer
16:13
they're awesome Intel doesn't even have
16:15
a little bit of leeway really in that
16:17
but in this scenario right now until
16:20
owns it and they're winning big-time and
16:22
so overall I would say Samsung
16:26
Chromebook 2 is a good Chromebook it's
16:29
not great it's good it is it is a better
16:32
experience than
16:34
the older generation long processors but
16:36
it's not as good as an oven experience
16:38
as the Intel ones the only real upside
16:40
it has is that it doesn't have fans and
16:42
I don't know about you guys fans don't
16:45
bother me that bad unless they're really
16:47
loud or something but no no Chromebook
16:50
I've had if I said around and thought I
16:51
mean I wish the fan wasn't so loud never
16:53
have I thought this and so the fan thing
16:56
isn't really a big deal I do like how
16:58
thin and how well-built this guy is but
17:01
it doesn't change the fact that I
17:03
couldn't continue working from it the
17:05
entire week I just couldn't do it
17:07
I was unable to take out to actually do
17:12
some of the tasks I needed to do and and
17:14
when it got to that point I knew that it
17:16
was time to kind of put it away and get
17:18
the review done and move on it's a good
17:21
Chromebook and if again if you're using
17:23
it for light use you're gonna be happy
17:25
with it but don't expect a game on it
17:27
and don't expect to do a lot of heavy
17:29
lifting work on it if this guy is for
17:32
light consumption and at 399 that might
17:36
be a tough sell and I think Samsung
17:38
might being a little bit of trouble
17:40
sales wise with this particular device
17:42
now the smaller one that comes in at a
17:43
more reasonable price could be just fine
17:46
for most people this one seems to
17:48
struggle a little bit and who knows at
17:49
1366 768 resolution for the same
17:53
processor we might see a little bit
17:54
better performance but I'm going on what
17:57
I'm seeing here and I'm still saying
17:59
until it's got it together when it comes
18:02
to processors and Chromebooks so that's
18:05
it if you guys have any questions feel
18:06
free to put them in the in the comments
18:08
down below hit me up on Google+ and let
18:12
me know what you think about this device
18:14
whether you're still thinking about
18:15
getting it or not if you have any
18:17
further questions that could help you
18:19
make that decision just let me know I'll
18:21
do my best to get my answers to you as
18:22
soon as I can and I hope you keep
18:25
watching I hope if you're not a
18:26
subscriber yet you hit that subscribe
18:27
button give it a thumbs up if you liked
18:30
the video and until next time guys have
18:33
a good one
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