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In this video, I take a look at the Dell Chromebook 13. A mid-range Chromebook well worth taking a look at and possibly the best combination of price and build quality.
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[Music]
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hey folks Robbie Payne with chrome unbox
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coming at you today with a full review
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of the Dell Chromebook 13 now for those
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of you who have been around the channel
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for a little bit you probably saw the
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unboxing of the Chromebook 13 with the
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Celeron version this now is the I3
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version um I got both of those in and
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I've spent some considerable time with
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the
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I3 uh wanting and hoping to make it my
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daily driver and it just about made it
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to the point where it was going to be
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the only device I used uh and I'll go
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into why I'm not going to be doing that
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um but that doesn't take anything away
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from this Chromebook and how awesome and
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gorgeous and useful it is as a daily
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driver device um this thing is rocking
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fifth gen I3 processor uh 8 gigs of RAM
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which is one of the reasons I wanted to
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switch to it it's one of the few
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Chromebooks you can get with 8 gigs of
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RAM as an option uh it did take a
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considerable amount of time to ship uh
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which is why I got the other version
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First did the unboxing and then ended up
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moving to this one it took about 6 weeks
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to get this from Dell hopefully they're
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turning that around a little quicker now
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uh but for those of you who um have have
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checked this device out you'll know this
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and for those of you who are seeing this
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for the first time we'll go through a
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few of the specs and we'll get a we'll
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get a closeup look at it here in just a
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minute uh but we're looking at a 1080p
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IPS display this is not the touch
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Edition eventually they're going to be
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uh offering a a a touchscreen version
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which would have glass all the way to
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the edges here um and it would be a
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glossy B our glossy display versus the
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matte finish here uh we're at 1080p uh
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13.3 in we have a backlit keyboard which
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you can probably see and again we'll see
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in the hardware overview here in just a
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moment we have a glass trackpad
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magnesium alloy box
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uh carbon fiber on the top and that same
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magnesium aloy on the bottom so overall
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um my my impressions of this Chromebook
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are um are are really good um it's not
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the cheapest Chromebook on the market by
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any by any stretch of the imagination
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it's actually one of the more expensive
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ones and that's for good reason Dell has
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done a good job of building a really
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high quality machine here and so nothing
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about the quality or the usefulness of
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this device uh have anything to do with
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me not using this as my daily device
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for me it just came down to screen size
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when I'm sitting at a desk and I have a
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large Monitor and a secondary monitor uh
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13.3 in just for the most part is going
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to be too small for me so um I'm
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sticking with my configuration of using
2:42
a chrome box while I'm at the desktop
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with a couple nice large monitors and uh
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when I'm on the go um I'm kind of back
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and forth deciding what it is I'm going
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to use I think I'm going to uh hold on
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to the Toshiba Chromebook to the 2015
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Edition for a little while I do uh
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really enjoy the the real small size
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lightweight weight of that device in the
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display but I will say this display is
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second to none uh the keyboard is
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fantastic it has the best trackpad other
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than the pixel and I think it gives the
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pixel run for its money too as far as uh
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usability it's just Ultra smooth buttery
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feel it is glass but it feels like it
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almost has a coating on it makes it just
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a little more soft touch it's it's
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wonderful it's I might say it's the best
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trackpad I've ever used and I know some
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people might disagree saying the pixel's
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better but it it is a great trackpad um
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it it's it's the reason I considered
3:30
saying you know what I'm going to ditch
3:31
everything else and this is going to be
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my device but like I said the screen
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size is the only thing and and honestly
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that's a on a per user basis but uh when
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you get 1080 pixels this way on a
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display on a 13.3 in you end up with
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some pretty small fonts and so when the
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device is right in your face and you're
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typing from it you know right here no
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big deal at all didn't bother me one bit
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uh it was just when it was up on a on a
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stand next to a large monitor I felt
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like I was having the strain a lot to
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kind of see it and constantly you know
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adjusting pages and blowing them up and
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stuff and so uh for my workflow it just
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didn't make a whole lot of sense anymore
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so that's the reason I went away from
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that I did open this one up and uh add
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128 gig Solid State Storage to it uh
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it's very simple we'll talk about that
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in the hardware overview here in just a
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second too uh but it was easy to open up
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and just as easy as any Chromebook to
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swap out the SSD if you haven't done
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that um there are videos uh on a per
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Chromebook basis and um just some
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general overviews you basically make the
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USB B um uh boot stick uh swap the hard
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drive out when it boots up stick the
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stick in let it do its thing and boom
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you're up and running so it's really
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really simple uh I'm not I'm not a
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hardware guy really that much and it's
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not been an issue uh but the 8 gigs of
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RAM held up um never had any issue with
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anything um stuttering or lagging the
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thing is fast um it's beautiful and uh
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like I said I I have no problem
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recommending this now the I3 version
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comes in at around $650 with no touch no
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touch uh and um I think it's worth that
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um if you're looking for a premium
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Chromebook device I I don't know that
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most people are going to get uh that
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much difference out of the I3 versus the
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Celeron the the specs uh the the the
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benchmarks are a little bit different I
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want to say 3 4,000 you're going to see
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difference between Celeron I3 somewhere
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around 16,000 177,000 for the Celeron 20
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to 21,000 for the I3 I don't know that
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you're going to see or get that much
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difference real world out of out of that
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uh for the money because you can get the
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Celeron version for
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$429 I think it is or 450 somewhere in
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that in that ballpark and they're
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available and you can get them from
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multiple places and stuff um so that's
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not a big deal the problem is you don't
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step up to 8 gigs of RAM without
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stepping up to the I3 so there is no
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choice to get 8 gigs of RAM compared
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with the Celeron which would be really
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nice um and then I think they're only
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going to do touch on the upper upper
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models as well so um so you got to think
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through those things when you're
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thinking about how much you're going to
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spend is the Chromebook going to be your
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daily driver is it going to be a side
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computer cuz as a side computer the
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Celeron served me really well uh for the
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for the week or so or two weeks that I
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used it had no issues with it whatsoever
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had in Buu running uh on the side um
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just no issues at all so um I highly
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recommend this device it is it is
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awesome it's well built it does
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everything you want it to do uh it lacks
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really nothing um if they had a 15-in
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version of it it would absolutely be my
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device and I've said that a multiple
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times um I really enjoy the 15in version
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uh the 15.6 in device the Acer c910 um
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but they won't make it in an 8 gig
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version so um it that can't be my device
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but after using this for a little bit um
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my wife has the c910 and when I go back
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to it I feel the the cheapness honestly
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because this is such a high quality
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device um it's it's really nice and it's
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on par with uh the quality you would
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expect to get kind of from the pixel and
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that kind of thing so uh thumbs up uh to
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Dell for doing a good job uh we're going
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to take a second here and uh look over
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the hardware real quick and then uh
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we'll kind of wrap this thing
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up all right guys let's take a tour of
7:08
the hardware just kind of up close and
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personal here so what we're coming at
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you with is a 1080p IPS display so you
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can see as I bend it forward bend it
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back get a little bit more brightness
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off the center but not much uh you're
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seeing a little bit of the glare of the
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lights which is partially taken care of
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by the the mat finish screen you got a
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webcam up top 720p um we've got backlit
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keyboard bend it back you kind of see
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those backlights in there it is
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multi-stage let's see how many stages we
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get so there's full
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brightness so there's one two 3
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four
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five so if you count off you get six
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stage back lighting which is pretty
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sweet uh track pad's not the biggest
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thing in the world but it's nice and
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wide it's not very tall but that didn't
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seem to bother me at all you'll see
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you see some smudges that do collect on
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this thing it collects smudges but they
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wipe off pretty quickly so that's kind
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of a nice a nice thing uh you'll see
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down in the corner if you have the I3
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it's clearly marked right there on
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it coming around the
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side Focus there we have fulls sizee
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HDMI power slot uh 3.0 USB here earphone
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uh headset and then we have a micro SD
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card slot here so keep that in mind you
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may need to purchase additional storage
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if you don't have a micro SD sitting
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around over here we've got a USB 2.0
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Kensington lock across the bottom
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massive vent for fan um and then just
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that magnesium alloy with a nice long
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feet across the bottom here and nothing
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else save some screws take all those
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things out kind of pry at the top a
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little bit and that whole casing will
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come off you get to the solid state
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drive that you can swap down there on
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top we have this carbon f
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fiber let's see if we can get it to
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focus
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here it's being
9:13
finicky that is a tough thing to ask ask
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it to focus
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on now we're not going to get it you can
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kind of see that carbon fiber weave and
9:25
it has a weird like three-dimensional
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look to it it's hard to even explain
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it's very soft touch I think like Nexus
9:32
7 uh 2013 the back of it the back of the
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Nexus 5 it kind of has that feel but
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it's firm uh and it's got a really cool
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uh thing to it so from the side closed
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up we're nice and slim uh real clean
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across the front um it's just a a really
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nice um really nice no compromise kind
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of
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sleek clean looking design uh
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I'm actually going to finish putting in
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my
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passcode
10:10
here there we
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go and we'll do a couple things real
10:15
quick I'm actually going to sign out and
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sign back in as a
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guest so we can run some benchmarks on
10:27
it a it's doing it up
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update now for those of you wondering I
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did install Ubuntu uh and it ran
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perfectly fine on here as you would
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expect it's an Intel chip so not running
10:45
into anything different or strange
10:47
there let's browse this
10:53
guest and then we'll get some octane now
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as I was saying in the in the opening um
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if if you haven't messed with a 1080p
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13.3 in inch screen you can see the the
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fonts and everything is everything's a
11:07
little small um and again up close and
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personal when you're using it you kind
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of get used to it and it's not a big
11:14
deal um
11:16
but if it's up on a keyboard stand or up
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on a laptop stand and it's away from
11:21
your face a little bit like it is right
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now for me um it can feel a little small
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and a little hard to read
11:36
and so we'll go ah and get that
11:43
running the nice thing about the
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Magnesium Alloys you get all the
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benefits of metal as far as it not
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having any flex and being very rigid
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kind a softer touch and a warmer feel
11:52
than say aluminum or something like that
11:54
so it's uh it's a very approachable a
11:57
very comfortable device um like I said
11:59
you get really good travel on the keys
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uh they're not mushy at all it's a
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really good typing experience as there
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well as well there excuse me
12:10
um the bezels being uh plastic on here
12:13
for the matte finish display 19 860 so
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close to 20,000 I've I've seen it
12:20
anywhere between 19 and 21,000 just
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depending on uh what's going on and so
12:25
uh moving along quite nicely there uh
12:27
but that matte finish bezel help because
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this is where you handle the screen all
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the time it helps to kind of reduce some
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of those fingerprints so keep in mind if
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you get the Touch version and has the
12:36
glass edges there those are going to
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pick up some fingerprints on you so um
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overall that's that's the hardware um
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it's it's well designed it's really well
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made uh dell has done a very good job
12:46
with
12:47
this so in summary uh great device great
12:51
build quality great screen great
12:53
keyboard great trackpad decent speakers
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but honestly what are we expecting out
12:58
of a out of a laptop speaker honestly um
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there's really no compromise here
13:03
especially with the I3 8 gigs of RAM uh
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swappable SSD there's there's really no
13:09
limit inside of Chrome OS as far as what
13:11
you can do with this device so uh highly
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recommend it especially if if you're not
13:16
sitting at a desk if this is going to be
13:18
an on the- go work machine and you're
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going to work always at a table open the
13:21
thing up and get to work um I can't
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recommend this this device enough it's
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probably uh bang for the buck the best
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Chromebook I used and U again for me my
13:31
use case is a little bit different
13:33
because of screen size issues and what I
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would like to have at a desktop which is
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where I spend most of my time at a desk
13:39
that I come back to every day um my use
13:42
case is just a little bit different than
13:43
most people for most people when they
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say hey this is my computer this is what
13:46
I work from this is what I use on a
13:47
daily basis I cannot recommend this
13:49
thing enough it's it's absolutely
13:51
fantastic and uh uh I hope while having
13:54
watched this review if you're on the
13:55
fence or you're thinking whether or not
13:56
I should get this device go for it if
13:58
it's in your price range at that 450 to
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650 is somewhere you've been looking for
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you've been looking for that mid-range
14:04
Chromebook that offers kind of Premium
14:07
feel and premium fit and finish then
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absolutely go after this thing uh it is
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it is well worth your money it's well
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worth your time to get it uh I hope
14:14
you've enjoyed the video if you have uh
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give it a thumbs up uh subscribe down
14:18
below thanks for watching and stay tuned
14:21
for the next one see you guys later
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