ZBetween Mac and Windows and between iPad and Android tablet, there has been an operating system for years that has its own charm but is hardly known. Chromebooks have a market share of more than ten percent when looking at the notebook segment. Providers are well-known manufacturers such as HP, Acer, Dell, Asus and Lenovo. Still, most people don’t know what to do with the term Chromebook.
The idea behind this is to connect the Google Chrome OS operating system to Google services, the Google account and the Google cloud. The concentrated pack of Google ends up in the hardware of a notebook or tablet, which at first glance hardly differs from conventional devices. So you can’t do without Google, everything is up to Google, you have to know that and not everyone will like that.
However, Chromebooks are available at low prices because the operating system is frugal with existing resources and data ends up in the cloud anyway. Most programs run as a web application in the browser, no software needs to be installed. Updates are automatic and there is no need to create backup copies because everything is in the Google clouds. You have to trust Google, they have total control over every single Chromebook.
Unusual in several ways
Android apps have even been running on Chromebooks for a few years, but they are far from covering all application scenarios, and scaling the apps to a large monitor is not a lot of fun. The advantages, in turn, include the short start-up time of the Chromebook of usually only ten seconds and the long battery life of ten hours and more.
You log into the Chromebook with your Google account and you will immediately find the complete working environment including the Google word processing Docs and the spreadsheets. Apart from the files created in the Google account in Google Drive, there is no additional file system on the device itself, although external storage media and data in other cloud services can be accessed. This sounds disadvantageous, but it has the advantage that the complete Google ecosystem is immediately available when you register and you can easily give the computer to someone else after logging out.
We’ve now tried a new Chromebook that’s unusual in a number of ways. Lenovo’s IdeaPad 5 Duet is one of the few Chromebooks with a high-quality OLED display that offers high contrast, rich black tones and good color fidelity. One likes to see a video on such an ad, especially since the diagonal is lush with 13.3 inches, although the black borders are also lush. In addition, the resolution of only 1920 × 1080 pixels is a minus point, as is the maximum brightness of the reflective display, which is less than 400 candelas per square meter.
Silent working
The IdeaPad is available with four or eight gigabytes of RAM, but you should always take the larger variant. EMMC media with 64, 128 or 256 gigabytes are used as flash memory. The operating system, including user data, occupied around 19 gigabytes on our test device, so that more than 40 gigabytes are left for additional data even in the smallest expansion stage. The IdeaPad does not have an adapter for memory cards, there is only one USB-C port on the left and right side with the data speed of USB 3.1, to which a monitor can be connected. The battery life is between 8 and 10 hours.
Like almost all Chromebooks, the young Lenovo does not need a fan and works silently. This is also because the processor is not the fastest. The second generation of the Snapdragon 7c causes some stutters during demanding tasks and makes this Chromebook unsuitable for gamers. When it comes to typical office tasks, editing texts with Google Docs or surfing the Internet, the machine is sufficiently fast. However, the 10-finger typist is not happy with the supplied keyboard. Like the touchpad below the keys, it only leaves a mediocre impression. Curiously, mouse clicks cannot be performed on the upper edge of the touchpad.
In order to set up the tablet ready for work, you have to magnetically attach a fabric-covered back to the case as a stand. The keyboard is also attached magnetically and makes contact with the base unit with five pogo pins. The whole thing is mechanically not very well thought out and fiddly, nothing for frequent travelers who want to have their computer ready to work with a flick of the wrist. The Ideapad weighs 1.2 kilograms when fully equipped, which is as much as a light notebook. The tablet alone weighs just over 700 grams. For a street price of 450 euros (with 8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage), this Chromebook is primarily aimed at users who are looking for a large monitor with very good color reproduction. The iPad with A13 processor is slightly cheaper and faster, but comes without an Oled display.
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