Chromebook vs iPad: Productivity

This is the second part of my small series about the comparison between the iPad and the Chromebook. This one talks about the "Productivity" side of things and how each work well and how they work badly. There are several different ways each works well for this, but also some areas in which one works better than the other. At the end of the day, neither is truly capable of fulfilling a primary computer role, however since I use them in a secondary role most of the time anyway, it isn’t really a problem.

The usual stuff that goes in my 'work' bag

Apps vs the Internet

The Chromebook uses Google’s Chrome browser at its core, this means that it uses the internet for the vast majority of tasks. On the other hand, the iPad uses iOS apps. These are each self-contained entities . They are often lighter, less complex versions of full-blown desktop apps and are built for the touch-centric interface on the iPad. An example of this is the Google Blogger app. It is nowhere near as full-featured as the Blogger webapp, but it is a good place to draft a post. before completing it in the browser. For example,  I wrote and posted the first post in this series using just the iPad. There were no opportunities to insert hyperlinks, or to decide where pictures should be placed in the text. This problem does not occur on the Chromebook as the full version of Google’s webapps are available in the browser.
On the other hand, the iOS App Store has access to far more apps that are incredibly capable and often easier to use than those on the Chrome Web Store. Where the Chromebook falls short is when no webapp is available or no website can perform that function and another must be used that performs a similar function, forcing the user to make the best of the situation. Often those webapps that can are only usable with an internet connection, whereas most iOS productivity apps are built with offline capabilities in mind. A good example for comparison is that Pages, Apple’s own word processor has a full dictionary whilst offline, something Google Docs does not. Very strange.

Form factor

We would naturally expect the Chromebook to win this category hands down. It has the full-size keyboard and trackpad, the larger screen. However, the problem is that there are so many different things that come under the catch-all of “productivity”. Not only have I been using the iPad to read papers and draft the odd post. It fits easily into a bag and is smaller and lighter than the Chromebook. I have even been known to write chapters of a story in full creative writing mode. The form factor is great for sitting in a cramped coffee shop and since I have a spare Apple wireless Keyboard and a great case for it, as well as a cheap, but functional stand for the iPad, it can be just as good if not better than the Chromebook for getting words on the page.
Having said that the iPad does have some serious shortcomings as a word processing machine with the keyboard. Firstly, the keyboard shortcuts simply aren’t up to snuff. The inability for the user to jump between the different apps or tabs in the browser is very disappointing, meaning that you have to reach up and touch the screen to perform many actions. Now this doesn’t necessarily take a long time or a lot of effort, but it is less efficient than using a key shortcut. Something that is easily available on the Chromebook.
Finally, while the Chromebook is bulkier than the iPad, there is something to be said for a physical keyboard. While I have been known to type a great deal on the iPad’s onscreen keyboard, I much prefer to be able to see the entire screen while typing rather than having half the screen obscured by my fingers and the keyboard.

Convenience

The convenience of connectivity is all important with these two devices, and each has its benefits. The Chromebook has a USB port and an SD card slot. This means that I can plug flash drives or cards into it to watch videos or transfer files across. This is something the iPad doesn’t do, nor intends to allow, and is certainly a massive plus in the Chromebook’s favour. The ability to quickly plug in a device and quickly drag files on or off it, is a massive bonus, something the iPad cannot do.
On the other hand I have a 3G iPad with a GiffGaff SIM card in it allowing for access whenever I want when I am out and about when the Wifi isn’t available. While this is something that *is* available for Chromebooks, I have yet to delve too deeply into the settings to get it to work on a UK phone network, and even if it did, it wouldn’t quite beat the almost smartphone-like convenience of taking an iPad out of a bag, as it is still a full-size laptop!

iPad or Chromebook?

Part 1

This has been on the cards for a long time, and actually is something I should really have written before the Cr-48/ M11X comparisons. Considering that the Chromebook starts at £199 and the iPad starts at £269, they are far more likely to be compared by consumers, than a Chromebook and a gaming laptop!

This is going to be a strange sort of comparison given that I have the original iPad and the original Chromebook, both released in 2010. This means that neither of these devices are tip top especially in terms of hardware. There have been four newer 9.7" iPads and even a 7.9" iPad that are more powerful than this one. They also have the ability to run iOS 6, giving them access to newer software. The Cr-48 was never commercially available, but has had three different releases of Chrome OS machines coming after it, yet it is still able to run the latest version of the Chrome OS.

While neither of these machines is the best or the brightest, they still allow me to compare their everyday use as coffee table computers, machines you could easily take to the coffeshop or the library. These are uses that I regularly use the Chromebook for, and have previously used the iPad for. The 'productive' ones include adding to this blog, taking notes for university work and writing a story for Nanowrimo, and the 'less productive' include checking social media and watching videos. I will talk about the positives and negatives of using each machine, and how they compare how good they are at being productive and being unproductive!

By the way, this post was titled in Google Docs on the Chromebook, the written in the Drive app on the iPad, and posted using the Blogger app. The photo was taken on my iPhone 3GS, synced via Dropbox and added in the Blogger app as well. Let's see how it turns out!

Another Tale of Two Laptops

My M11X on top the Incase laptop case I currently use with it. Note the non-reflective matte screen. Great for bright days!

This is the second part of my two-part comparison of the Alienware M11X and the Google Cr-48. In this post I talk about the best and worst parts of the Cr-48 and how they compare to the M11X. If you have read the first part, you might already guess what is in here; check and find out!

Best of the Cr-48

Simplicity

The Cr-48 and the Chrome OS makes using a computer very simple as apart from a rudimentary file manager and basic media player, everything is done in the browser by webapps. I love the shortcut function keys and the simple matte exterior which match the Chrome OS. The computer does not require, or allow any complex activities to take place on the machine. From a user’s perspective, that makes the Cr-48 and all Chromebooks very straight-forward, easy to use machines that enable you to get stuff done, all of Google's products and services make this easy, from their Drive app and the laptops online and offline storage, to the different applications which enable online/ offline and collaborative use. All of them work very well together, and have meant I haven't needed to look at Microsoft Office since September.

Speed

It’s great knowing that when I open the laptop up it is either waking from sleep or booting up immediately and takes less than half a minute and turning off the machine takes less than 5 seconds. Opening an app takes less than two seconds with the internet speed often the only bottle-neck on performance. The simplicity of the OS and the SSD makes this possible, something that definitely cannot be said for Windows 7, or even Windows 8 with Microsoft’s attempts to improve speed and lightness in the OS, and it would definitely take an expensive hardware upgrade. Both machines do similar things but go about them in different ways. Chrome OS goes for speed and that works for me.

Hardware Decisions

I see what Google did when they designed the Cr-48. It only has one USB port, doesn’t have an ethernet port and has only 16GB of onboard storage. This is a bare bones work machine built with those constantly online in mind and build down to a budget. Even so, it means I was able to pick up a great work machine for very little money. It is a minimalist’s dream when it comes to work and I am a big fan. While the M11X would eat it for breakfast in almost all specs, when it comes to getting words on the page, it is a great little machine with access to Google Docs and a great keyboard. For the price it was an absolute steal! I cannot necessarily say the same about all of the Chromebooks, which vary greatly from the current Acer C7 when compared to the newly announced, large HP Pavilion 14. I still think the Cr-48 is Google’s idea of what a Chromebook should be, much like their Nexus line of Android products. After using the Cr-48, I'd love to buy a Nexus Chromebook if Google supervised the design and manufacturing process, but then even if they released the Cr-48 with updated internals, I would be happy!

Worst of the Cr-48

The Trackpad

The trackpad is an attempt to match those of Apple’s Macbook line. It doesn’t quite manage it, and so clicking and dragging is a real chore sometimes. The same is true with the two finger scrolling. It just doesn’t meet what I came to expect from an Apple machine, even a first generation MacBook from 2006, the Alienware machine is a worse trackpad, but comes with consistency. On the other hand, the Cr-48 sometimes works one way, and sometimes another, that makes it more annoying than the M11X. I have yet to test out the newer Chromebook models, but I would imagine they would have this sorted by now!

The Little Things

There are a few other annoyances I have with the Cr-48 that detract from it slightly. Not something that makes it awful, but they could definitely be changed in the settings very easily by Google and improve the overall experience.


Firstly, when watching a video full screen, the cursor stays on-screen. I hate that I have to see that throughout my film. There should be a way for it to fade out, just like most other OS I have ever used.

Secondly, when waking from sleep, if there is an SD card in the machine it will automatically minimise whatever you are doing and go to the SD Card contents and ask you what you want to do with them. I would love to click a checkbox to stop it doing that when awaking from sleep and just do it when popped into the active machine. It would just allow me to be lazy and leave it in the device.


Thirdly, while there are several benefits for the Atom processor, the drawbacks include an average ability to watch videos of higher quality than 480p. While it can play 720p video, it generally needs to be completely buffered for it to go ok, and even then the video can slow and stutter somewhat. Perhaps it is too much for the processor, or too much for Flash on the machine. I’ll have to do a few more tests to find out. Either way, it is likely to be no problem for the newer Chromebooks with their faster processors.

Definite Secondary Computer

This machine is a definite secondary computer for most people who use computers for more than browsing the internet and sending emails and I would include myself among them. A Chromebook still isn’t supposed to be more than that, and it is able to do more and more things, but it is not a fully-fledged desktop OS yet. This means that it has to remain a secondary machine for me, just like my iPad. Hmm, now there’s an idea... I could not possibly sell my other computers and do everything I want or need on the Cr-48, whereas the M11X could perform almost everything I would need my sole computer to do straight out of the box, and with a few extras, could do it well.

Conclusion

I guess this comparison comes down to what kind of laptop you need, or want to use. One is built around specs and power, and the other is a pared-down work machine. The power is expensive and the work machine is cheaper, but they both have a different ethos and a different raison d’etre. If I didn’t have my iMac, I would definitely be keeping the M11X, or selling it and buying an iMac! However, as I already have a decent desktop machine, I do not need a powerful laptop to perform double duty as a portable workstation, media hub and potential gaming machine. Finally, with the news that Windows 8 is now an absurd £189 to upgrade from Microsoft, but still £45 to get from Amazon. Although both are more now than they were last month. As much as I love having the M11X for PC games and every so often when I need portable power, to truly maximise its performance and longevity would involve a lot of extra costs. It would probably be cheaper in the long run to hold off on spending more on it, and concentrate on spending money elsewhere, rather than adding to extra sunk costs.

The Cr-48 is not perfect by any means, especially as a prototype Chromebook, but I would definitely be interested in one of the newer models which would likely improve on any of the problems I have with it at the moment, especially the Samsung Series 3 with an ARM processor and the new Lenovo Thinkpad X131e.

A Tale of Two Laptops

Right now I have two laptops, a much publicised Cr-48 Chromebook and the now discontinued Alienware M11X R3. Both of them are massively different machines even if they both have a svelte matte black bodies. I love the simple, inconspicuous exterior of these machines, that usually belies the power underneath.

 M11X (left) and  Cr-48, photo by Zathu at http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/570181-picture-m11x-next-normal-12in-netbook.html

Best of the M11X

Power

The M11X is sub-compact power. Mine has a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, a discrete NVIDIA graphics card  and a 240GB hard drive. It is a middle of the road M11X, but powerful enough to easily run many PC games of the past few years I loved Mass Effect 3 on it. Apart from the ending, but that is another story! I bought it because I thought it was the best subcompact laptop for the money at the time, and the MacBook Air just wasn’t worth the extra cash.

Specs

It is upgradable to any 2.5” drive and 16GB of RAM with a level of future-proofing and flexibility that isn’t available to the Chromebook. The M11X’s specs are among the best for a machine with a footprint smaller than the 13” MacBook and a 1366x768 pixel 11.6” screen, far more pixels than the Cr-48 with a greater density too making pictures sharper and clearer.

OS & Apps

Since the M11X runs Windows 7, and I even had the betas of Windows 8 on it, it can run any of the millions of different programs available for the OS, and run them well online and offline without any problems, something that isn’t the case for the Cr-48. This gives a huge level of flexibility to use the Adobe Creative Suite and other powerful desktop programs that simply would not be able to run on the Chromebook and its netbook specs. There are several apps I use on Windows and OS X that aren’t able to work on the Chromebook, especially Dropbox which is an inconvenience. The full desktop OS also means that I can take the M11x away with me and know that it will be able to perform well as a primary machine for weeks at a time. This is something I am not at all sure the Cr-48 can do.

Worst of the M11X

Windows 8

I have written about Windows 8 and my experiences with it before. I just don’t enjoy it on the M11X. It is well suited for the tablet interface, but it isn’t as smooth on an ‘old’ style laptop like this. This is partially the fault of Alienware’s design - the trackpad is tiny, as they expect you to use an external mouse, but on the other hand, Windows 8 is a very touch-centric interface. At the same time I feel Mountain Lion has actually increased the usefulness of Apple’s famed trackpads and is far better than Lion was at utilising the hardware, I feel the same cannot be said for the M11X on Windows 8.

Cost

The M11X R3 was a high-end machine when it was released and even now is punching well above its size category. I got a good deal on eBay when I bought it, but it is still worth around £500. I bought the Cr-48 for £100 with a bit extra for postage and I know that the M11X just isn’t worth five times more than the Chromebook, at least to me, especially with the upgrades and accessories required to make it a truly great gaming machine. Perhaps that means it is time to sell it and recoup the cash.

Gaming

This is a brilliant laptop, but it cries out for more attention than I give it. It deserves a 1080p monitor, an SSD and an external keyboard and mouse to play games properly and perform unhindered. Yet all of these things add up to an increase in costs and desk space, and considering I already have an Xbox 360 and an iMac, a gaming computer seems an extravagance I should do without.

Conclusion

The M11x R3 is an amazing little machine, that is probably exactly what I want in a gaming laptop with a tiny footprint, but with decent specs, but I am not sure it really fits within my budget or my lifestyle. There can be no doubt that the M11X is a far better laptop than the Cr-48, but I’m not sure that it is better enough to make it worth the increased cost.