Asus Chromebox

The final Chrome device I've ordered has finally arrived. I am typing this post with it. As you can see from the picture, it just comes with the unit and the power cable. No keyboard or mouse is provided. I don't expect to for the price which is less than USD $120 before shipping.

It has 2GB RAM with a 16GB SSD and a Haswell Celeron 2955U CPU. I''ve upgraded the RAM to 4GB as my experience tells me this will have the biggest impact on performance. Technically this has the exact same hardware configuration as my original HP Chromebook 14.

Upon boot up, the first thing I noticed is that it is not as smooth as the HP. It has the exact same specs but the HP somehow boots up faster and launches programs faster. Another thing I've noticed is that the ASUS will sometimes stutter when I have music running in one of the tabs via Google Play Music. It's not always but I never get this with the HP. So what accounts for this? I suspect ASUS has cut corners and installed a much slower SSD. But this does not account for the stutteriness of Google Play Music where music is streamed from the network and not stored locally. Maybe it's stored to SSD first during streaming before it gets played? I don't know. 

I'm not terribly happy as a result. I was hoping for the HP's performance level when I bought this. Compared to the HP and the ACER which do not have a large performance difference between them, the ASUS can be noticeably sluggish in comparison.

Other than that, there is nothing much I can say about the device other than it is a nicely built unit. The power button is a bit sticky so you are left wondering if you have turn it on when you press it. Luckily it has a white LED indicator to show that it has turn on. It does not have a VGA port, only HDMI, so I have to use an adapter to use it with my current HDMI-less monitor. The unit is also easy to upgrade as you only have to remove its rubber feet to access the screws which allows access to its internals. 

Maybe I should have bought the HP Chromebox instead?

Lenovo Yoga 11s

I did it again. Spending money that I don't really have.

Before I dive further into the subject, first a little background on its purchase.

I actually really really like the Acer C720. The only thing that I felt could improve it further is for it to have a better screen, This led me to a journey of discovery for a better screen Chromebook but one with not too many sacrifices in terms of performance.

I decided early on that what I actually wanted is an IPS screen Acer C720 equivalent. I wanted something small like the Acer so it has to have an 11.6 inch screen. The resolution does not really matter because at this screen size, a full HD screen will make things on screen way too small for my old eyes. The current Acer's screen resolution is fine. Anything smaller than 11.6 inches would be too small and anything bigger I will have to deal with the additional size and weight. However there are not many IPS screen Chromebooks let alone a 11.6 inch one. I counted 3.

The first one is the Chromebook Pixel but it is way too expensive for me.

The second one is the HP Chromebook 11 which has the exact screen size that I wanted but it's crippled by the Exynos processor and I'm not willing to compromise on that.

The third and final one is the Toshiba Chromebook 2 which has an 13.3 inch IPS screen but I was disappointed by its N2840 BayTrail processor which is slower than the good old Haswell Celeron 2955U. This was however the most promising of the 3 as the BayTrail is still a massive improvement over the Exynos in the HP Chromebook 11. However I decided I do not want to deal with the extra size or weight of the Toshiba. It was close though.

During my journey I stumbled upon a very good deal for the Lenovo Yoga 11s on eBay. It is running a Haswell Core i5-4210Y processor with 8GB RAM and a 128GB SSD. I basically paid the price that I paid for the Acer C720 Core i3 version. Well maybe just a little bit more. To be precise, just SGD $36 more. It was a very good deal. Simply too good to pass.

So let's now get to the meat of this post. The Lenovo Yoga 11s.

It came in a very nice packaging. Upon boot up I realise why I would rather have a Chromebook on any given day. The boot up is still plenty fast at about 8 - 10 seconds. However once I launched windows update I ended up spending the next 4 - 5 hours updating the notebook before I can use it. This is unlike Chromebooks where the update do not take longer than 2 minutes. I am missing the Chromebook already.

The screen. This one has got an IPS screen alright. And it comes in the 11.6 inches that I was looking for. The viewing angles are great. However it is quite dim even at max brightness and as a result are quite bad on my eyes. Why why why?!? There is always one thing which ends up as a deal breaker and this happens to be a big one. Let's see how I adjust. The Acer has poorer viewing angles but it is a lot brighter in comparison.

The keyboard. The keyboard on these are excellent. I am typing this post on it. Doesn't take long for me to adjust. Like a duck to water.

The trackpad. OK. This is another deal breaker. Movement is pretty good. But on Windows 8, scrolling is the reverse of the Chromebook. What the hell! What is Microsoft thinking? The scrolling on the Chromebook is a lot more natural. Another thing about the track pad is that the left button ends up somewhere in the middle instead of the left and the right button is way on the extreme right which makes it hard to press. Another deal breaker for me but not as bad as the reverse scroll thingie.

The speakers. The speakers are side firing. That is, one is on the right side of the notebook and the other is on the left side. I guess this makes sense as the Yoga can folded into a tablet and it will not make sense to have the speakers down firing from the bottom as it will then be covered when it is folded. As a result the speakers are not very loud. Disappointing if I were to be honest. The Acer is a lot louder. The HP is somewhere in between which is not very loud but still better than the one on the Yoga.

Battery life. It's too early to tell but based on my usage so far it has been quite decent. Time will tell.

Performance. This has a Haswell Core i5-4210Y so performance has been pretty great. However I found out that this is actually a slower processor than the Haswell Core i3-4005U on the Acer C720. I guess this is due to the Lenovo having a Y series CPU even though it is a Core i5 and the Acer is using a U series CPU which is more performance oriented. Lesson learnt here is don't trust the i3 i5 i7 nomenclature too much. It does not matter as much as the actual architecture of the processor.

Other stuff. The screen rotates 360 degrees so this can act as a tablet. However I find it too heavy to use as a tablet for long. I also find Internet Explorer 11 superior compared to Chrome when using this as a tablet. A lot smoother.

OK. That's it for now. I will update my findings as I use this more. I get the feeling I will be falling back to the Acer C720.

UPDATE 1 : I have managed to get the reverse scroll problem resolved! There is a Synaptics program on the taskbar which allows me to change the setting. Evidently it was set to reverse scroll by default.

UPDATE 2 : I have managed to solved the screen dimness problem! It seems that Windows 8 will override whatever settings for brightness and will get the screen to auto adjust as it sees fit. Another reason for me to hate Windows 8. Chinese have a saying "kay kiang" or too much artificial intelligence when you never asked for it in the first place. The screen is still not very bright at full brightness but it's bright enough to negate the number one problem I have with it so it is no longer a deal breaker. Let's see how it affects the battery life. I have a feeling it will drain it fast.

Now to find a resolution to the track pad buttons alignment problem. Once this is solved I will have nothing really to complain about the Yoga 11s. I get the sneaky feeling that the problem is hardware related and not really a software issue. We'll see how it goes.

UPDATE 3 : I am unable to find a solution for the track pad buttons issue. I am able to find a workaround however. I generally do not have a problem with the left button activation and I am even able to perform a light touch to activate it. As for the right mouse button, I was able to configure a 2 finger button press to register a right click anywhere on the track pad. However it has to be a physical 2 finger button click and not a light 2 finger tap for it to work. At least that's better than nothing. I guess I just have to live with it.

More impressions. After using this notebook for awhile, I notice that it has small stutters here and there as I go about my work. Not a deal breaker but it can get annoying. The HP Chromebook 14 with its theoratically slower Celeron CPU feels a lot more fluid. Not faster but smoother. I suspect the Yoga has a slow SSD. The Acer C720 Core i3 on the other hand simply flies through every task.

UPDATE 4 ; One more pet peeve. The power is really hard to turn on. The button is located in front of the Yoga but it is sunken in making it hard to press. It's easier if you have nails but I don't have any! Even if you do have nails, it takes quite a bit of pressure to trigger so your nails will hate you for it.

ASUS C720 Core i3 version

So the ASUS C720 arrived today and I am typing this post with it. It has 4GB RAM with 32GB SSD for storage and a Core i3-4010U CPU.

Out of the box it is considerably smaller than the HP but it is not as light as I thought it would be. I mean it's light but it's not light for its size.

Second thing which is immediately noticeable is that the keyboard is not as good as the HP. Maybe it takes some getting use to. I remember how I hated the HP's keyboard but I got use to it and it is not as terrible now. The ASUS keyboard initial experience is just like the HP keyboard initial experience. Horrible. A lot of mistypes. Hopefully I get use to it like I did the HP.

The trackpad is actually quite decent. Just like the HP. I'm quite surprised by this. A lot of reviews out there condemned the Acer's trackpad and I was expecting the worst. Real life experience shows that it's neither better or worse than the HP.

Finally for the biggest difference. The Core i3 on the Acer. I expected a big difference over the Celeron on the HP but to be totally honest I don't really notice a big jump in speed if any. My advise? Save your money and stick to the good old Intel Haswell Celeron 2955U CPU. It is more than good enough. The 4GB RAM will make a bigger difference. I mean you can definitely feel some speed difference but it's really not worth the extra cash outlay.

The screen. It is brighter and have better viewing angles over the HP but that is not saying much. The HP has a horrible screen. To be perfectly honest the Acer is much better and I can see myself tolerating it faster than the HP. But its definitely no IPS level quality display. But I'll take any improvement I can. There is still a slight haziness but nowhere as bad as the HP. The viewing angles are much better too. It does not ghost out as much as the HP do from left to right. From above, it does not do as well but still better than the HP.

The speakers are just slightly louder over the HP but the HP has err...better tone? To be honest, both could have sounded better.

I will give more impressions as I use it more. It has been only...what? 45mins worth of usage so far? I want to see how long the battery lasts.

I'll have more impressions as I use it more.

UPDATE 1 : OK. My first update. After what? 10 mins after I first posted? I take back what I said about the screen LOL. It is not much better than the HP. Just slightly better. Once I start to move the Acer around, I find that it's not as good as I thought it was. Still better than the HP though. Just not that much better. I find a lot more ghosting at off angles. Both left to right as well as top to bottom. Front on it is still quite decent and better than the HP.

UPDATE 2 : OK. It's confirmed. The keyboard will never be as good as the HP. Not that the HP keyboard is stellar in the first place. You have to press a bit more heavily on the Acer in order for it to register a key press but it shouldn't be this way in the first place.

I rate the track pad lower than the HP too. For navigating and finger gestures, it works fine but registering a mouse button action requires a heavier touch. On the HP I can just do a light touch to register a button press but on the Acer the touch have to be heavier. I ended up clicking most of the time to register a button press. I find this annoying.

The display on the Acer is better. I got use to the screen on the Acer a lot faster than on the HP. Due to its smaller screen it also appears sharper. I never did get use to the HP screen. I simply tolerated it.

When placed on a hard surface, the Acer sounds louder than the HP. This may be due to its front bottom, down firing speakers. In any other position, it sounds equal or at times worst than the HP.

Battery life has been very promising. I use it heavily and I don't notice that big of a hit over the HP. For your info, I use both at maximum brightness so that may account for the more or less similar battery life. Maybe the HP lasts just a bit longer but based on my usage, I am very satisfied with the Acer's battery life.

Overall I love this little Chromebook and it has more or less replaced my tablet. Unlike the HP where I mostly use it in one stationary position due to its weight and size (it can be unwieldy at times), the Acer is very portable and I carry it everywhere with me. It is fulfilling its intended purpose that I had in mind when making the purchase so I consider this money well spent.

So what do I do now with the HP?

The march to the clouds continues...

So with the end of year coming and what's with all the Black Friday deals and IT Shows, I gave in and bought for myself not one but two Chrome devices! One is the Acer C720 chromebook. This is an oldie but goodie and what's different this time is that it comes with a Core i3! This thing will surely fly!

The second chrome device I bought is the ASUS Chromebox. The deal was too good to pass and I gave in to temptation.

Do I need either of these devices? Hell no. I already have a HP Chromebook 14. It is serving me very well and for my needs more than sufficient for 90% - 95% of my needs. Its only downfall is its poor screen. Not the resolution mind you but its bad viewing angles and that constant "pastiness" which gives a sort of fuzziness which drives me nuts sometimes. Performance wise it has been a champ and runs everything I throw at it.

So why get the Acer C720? Based on most reviews it has an equally poor screen like the HP. I got this mostly for its size. At 1.25kg it is a lot lighter over the 1.8kg HP. It might not sound like much on paper but in real life, portability wise, it makes a lot of difference.

As for the Asus Chromebox, well.....I do have a proper Windows desktop for my other 5% - 10% needs and I have a great 24 inch monitor. Problem with that desktop is that it takes a bit more longer to boot up and get connected. Well actually its boot up time is not very long as I have an excellent Samsung SSD for its boot drive. I am however spoilt by the instant boot up of my HP Chromebook. I could be up and running and get connected in no time. Can't beat that convenience. I would like a similar experience at the desktop level and especially on a big screen. Old eyes you see and every little bit helps.

We'll see how it goes when they arrive.

Further Impressions on the HP Chromebook 14

Time to give further impressions on the HP Chromebook 14, now that I have lived with it for a while.

I still hate the keyboard with a passion. I don't know why in other reviews they say the keyboard is good to quite passable. I find them very hard to type on with its shallow keys and non-tactility. I guess I've been spoiled by my Topre keyboards.

Display-wise I'm just OK with it. It's something that I can live with for the price.

Sound is also passable. It's relatively loud enough for me that I can do away with external speakers.

The touchpad is also tolerable. There are no multi-touch gestures but it is on the whole responsive and do not get in the way while I'm doing stuff.

Performance-wise I am more than happy with the HP. It does not slow me down at all with any tasks that I put it through, whether playing FHD videos on YouTube or editing documents or general web browsing.

Currently I have my Leopold FC660C keyboard attached to it to compensate for its poor keyboard. I have also attached a mouse to do the navigation onscreen. I still prefer the mouse over any touchpad. I do not miss the use of multi-touch gestures. I still find the mouse faster.

So that's it. I'll add on if I find anything new. Ask me any questions you may have and I'll try my best to answer them.

UPDATE 1 : Want to hear something funny? Now that I'm using the HP with an external keyboard and mouse, I'm actually wishing that the HP is a tablet instead of a notebook. I wish it had the retractable stand of the Microsoft Surface or Surface Pro so that I can prop it up while using the keyboard and mouse. I also find myself wanting a touchscreen on the display.

So why not just use an Android tablet? I do after all have a Nexus 10 with QuickOffice already installed and that is a lot more capable than what is provided by Google Drive. The thing is, I've tried attaching the Nexus 10 to a mouse and keyboard. But when you actually use it, you find that a lot of things that you are used to on the Chromebook are missing. The way you navigate the Nexus 10 is also very different and it straight away reminds you that it is really geared towards touch and gesture-based input. Chrome OS on the other hand basically invites you to use the keyboard and mouse. I can't put my finger on why that is. It just is. You are a lot more productive in Chrome OS.

The other issue is that Chrome OS comes with a fully functioning Chrome browser. Or rather IT IS the Chrome browser. Chrome on Android, on the other hand, is a lot more limited and you are restricted in many ways, on what you can actually do. Most websites also do not scale very well. It is fine for consumption but the minute you try to be productive, a lot of things fall apart. I guess this is the same problem that the iPad faces.

Day 2 on the Chromebook

I like the convenience of just grabbing hold of the HP and start doing work almost immediately. It starts up within literally seconds. Love that.

Almost as immediately I begin to miss the back lighting on my other keyboards. Really wish this HP had one. I also miss terribly the dedicated HOME/END/DELETE/PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN keys. I never realise that I depend on them so much that I miss them on the HP. At the rate I'm going I suspect I might be Chromiuing (is that a word?) away on my other notebook with its more conventional keyboard arrangement. Am I too old to adapt?

Never thought I'd say this. But I usually have a strong threshold for cheap devices with their cheap ass screen and poor keyboards. What I couldn't tolerate is their poor performance and usually that is related to their poor storage speeds. Usually I would just put in an SSD in them and watch them fly.

I'm very comfortable around the Chrome browser so my problems seems to be mostly hardware-related. I'm beginning to see the rationale for better hardware for Chromebooks. You can only build something so cheap. The Chromebook Pixel would too be expensive. Maybe something more in the middle? I've yet to see one. Right now it seems to be 2 extremes. One is too expensive and the other is too hardware crippled (I'm not talking of performance here which is fine). But I guess it would be a harder sell since cheap always wins and the middle of the line would be more for those who are already familiar with Chromebooks and can live with them but just want something better hardware-wise.

But are there many of us? I guess when the cheap Chromebooks start flooding the low-end and people begin to get comfortable with them, there will be some (like me) who will start clamoring for better hardware. I wonder if we have reached that mass yet. Hopefully there will be 1 or 2 manufacturers who will build such a device to test the viability of that market.

Is it there yet?

It's here! It's here! The HP Chromebook 14 in Snow White is here!

The HP Chromebook 14 is finally here! I'm typing this post with it right now.

Shipping from BHPhotoVideo in the US to Singapore took less than 4 days! I'm impressed. I can really recommend them although shipping is incredibly expensive and I got hit by VAT which makes it a double whammy!

Out of the box the down cursor key came loose and I'm trying very hard to get it back into place. Not very successful though. Still trying.

First impressions are the build quality is ok. Feels plasticky on the inside but I've no complaints about the outside. The feel of the top lid is silky and smooth. I like it.

The screen quality not so much but I guess for the price it's forgivable. It's actually kinda blurry but I guess I've been spoiled by the sharp FULL HD screen on my Thinkpad T530 even though that is also not an IPS panel. The HP is also not very bright.

The keyboard also hardly impress. Once again I think I've been spoiled by the excellent Thinkpad T530 keyboard. The screen I can live with but the keyboard is really a......meh

I immediately got confused by the keys arrangement. While typing this post I immediately miss the HOME and END keys and especially the DELETE key. I never thought I'm going to miss them this much. Still early times though and I hope I can adjust.

Did I mention that the keys sucks? Still can't get over that. Currently that has been the biggest disappointment so far.

Performance-wise it is plenty fast enough. Not as fast as my Desktop with its Core i7-3770 or the Thinkpad T530 but for what I will use it for I have no complaints. The sound volume is also plenty loud enough unlike my Thinkpad T530 which has pathetic tiny sound. The sound quality is not fantastic but for the price I'm not complaining.

Geez....I can't get over this damn keyboard.

MUST....REALLY...GET...USE...TO...IT....I....JUST....MUST.....

Still working on that down cursor key.

I will post more impressions once I get to play with it some more. It is really too early to form any lasting impressions (except that damn keyboard).

UPDATE 1 : Finally managed to get the down cursor key fixed. What a major pain in the arse. Here's the funny thing. Although I hated the keyboard, I could still type relatively well with it. I did after all typed this post on the keyboard. Take that as you will.

UPDATE 2 : The screen is beginning to grate on me. There is this milky haze all over it especially at lower brightness. It's contributing to that blurriness that I mentioned before. Another pet peeve is that I would always put it to full brightness but every time I rebooted it will go back down 2-3 notches. Why can't it remember where I left it before the reboot? But to be perfectly honest its a relatively small issue.

UPDATE 3 : I forgot to say anything about the track pad. It's not terrible but it's not exactly fantastic either. It's tolerable. Usable at least and the relatively big surface area helps quite a bit.

UPDATE 4 : The battery life has been decent so far but not anywhere near the advertised 9.5 hours so in a way I'm kind of disappointed. I expected better. A lot better. I don't think this will last all day. Maybe half or two-thirds of the way if you are lucky. I guess this is due to me putting this to maximum brightness all the time. Anything lower and my eyes suffer. I heard that it has a maximum brightness of only 200 nits or so. That might explain it. Maybe the battery needs to condition some more before I can make a final judgement. I'll update if there are any improvements.

UPDATE 5 : I tested the 4G Mobile on the Chromebook with a 1GB 3G data plan that I got free with my home fibre broadband. It works straight out the box!