I just received my new ChromeBook today (see my earlier thoughts about this). I love the quick setup of Chrome! I have two ChromeOS devices at the office (a Samsung ChromeBook 5 550, and a ChromeBox; see my earlier posts) so I’m familiar with ChromeOS as a user. I just popped it out of the box this afternoon, logged in, and it downloaded an update, my “Chromeness” 😉 , and then I was good to go. Have just used it a couple of hours, but I’m quite impressed so far. The keyboard feels very nice, the display is clear and bright and it’s a pleasure to use. I’ve used it to make a Google phone call and a Google videoconference. It’s carrying 1/2 the memory and has a slower processor than the ChromeBook 5 550, but I’ve not seen a performance difference so far. Have not tried streaming video yet, nor graphically intense web sites, but I do have 12 browser tabs open now.

Overall, it has a build “feel” that’s just as good as the 5 550, and $200 less. For $249, it’s hard to beat for most of what I need to do that’s not handled by my iPad and iPhone ;-). I’m happy to have personally bought this one for myself. I’ll pass the 5 550 on to someone else at the office to evaluate.