Asus Chromebox -- 1-Week Update

The new Asus Chromebox arrived a week ago, so I've had a chance to break it in and see what it can do.

So far, I haven't really noticed that it has half as much RAM as the older Samsung it replaced. In one week I've had exactly one page crash with an error message along the lines of "Chrome may have run out of memory or there may be a problem with the page." Given that I only had a few tabs open at the time, that I frequently work with 20 or more tabs open and that on refresh the page came right up, I doubt it was lack of memory.

What can I say? It's a Chromebox. As soon as I started it up and pointed it at my home network, it updated to the latest version of ChromeOS. As soon as I logged in for the first time, it began importing all my synced bookmarks, installing all my synced extensions, etc. Within a few minutes after first boot, bada-bing-bada-boom, I was completely back in the saddle.

Over the course of my computing life, I've noticed that all non-Mac machines seem to have their own small quirks. The Samsung would sometimes have trouble coming back from sleep/suspension to two monitors. The Asus sometimes comes out of sleep/suspension with the keyboard not wanting to work right (some letters work, some don't). In both cases a restart (a matter of a few seconds with a Chromebox) fixes it. Right now I'm using a (pretty worn out -- about half the keys no longer have visible markings; fortunately I'm a touch typist) USB keyboard and a wireless USB mouse. I'm planning Real Soon Now to buy one of those wireless mouse/keyboard sets that work through a single USB dongle for both devices and see if that gets rid of the keyboard weirdness.

My recommendation, as usual: If your computing life takes place pretty much entirely on the web / in the cloud (or if it could), your next machine should be one of these.

It's So Tiny!

[That's what she said ... rim shot]

No, no, no ... I'm talking about the new Asus Chromebox. It's less than 5 inches square and less than 2 inches tall. Feast your eyes on a blurry photo of it next to the old Samsung model, which is a little bigger than my old Mac Mini square, though not quite as tall (for visual reference, that's a fairly standard size mouse sitting on top of the larger machine).

Power usage? From an early Computer World review:

With the system simultaneously playing an HD video, displaying a presentation on Google Slides and running a science simulation on the University of Colorado's PhET site, it used just 11.2 watts. That's roughly one-tenth the level of a standard desktop system and less than the typical notebook.

Per the specs, it's less powerful than the Samsung (2 gigs of RAM instead of 4, slower CPU), but I haven't noticed any performance differential. Maybe I don't push my machines hard enough to reveal one. Only four USB ports instead of six, but it has a card reader built in. Nice little machine (I'm writing this post on it).

In a previous post, I blegged for worshipful readers to defray its cost (ballpark, $175 for the machine and the monitor adaptor I had to order to have it work with my old display -- which fortunately arrived by USPS about five minutes after the Chromebox arrived by UPS). Thanks to AJ who ponied up $20. Not gonna bang the drum on this TOO hard, but $155 to go ...

[cross-posted at Browser News Digest]

(Chrome)Boxing Day!

I've had my Samsung Chromebox for about a year-and-a-half, and I'm still pleased as punch with it. For those who use a computer primarily as a "web appliance," ChromeOS just can't be beat. But I may replace it later this year -- with another Chromebox.

ASUS announced its Chromebox offering this morning. Available in March, starting at $179.

The specs look fairly similar to my Samsung, except that instead of an Intel Celeron, the ASUS box will use the new Intel "Haswell" CPUs. What that means for performance, I don't know. The raw GHz speed looks lower on the newer chips, but maybe there's some caching stuff or whatever that weighs in in ASUS's favor.

Other differences:

• My Samsung Chromebox is about 7.5 inches square (OK, rounded corners, but you get the idea). The ASUS model will come in at just under 5 inches square and it will have one of those rigs for mounting it on the back of a monitor if that's your space-saving desire.
• My box has a DVI port, while the ASUS model sports only HDMI and DisplayPort for monitor output. So I'll have to adapt there.
• The ASUS box has a built in card reader.

Anyway, it's not a done deal. I may just stick with the Samsung until it keels over and dies (if it does -- I have a Samsung Chromebox, a Samsung Chromebook, a Samsung TV ... and I've never had a piece of Samsung gear die yet).

My main reason for considering the ... "upgrade" ... is my younger son, Liam.

He loves Windows.

He insists that Mac and Linux and ChromeOS suck.

But every time I vacate the chair in front of my Chromebox for more than 30 seconds or so, he's on it. The only justification he can come up with is that he's looking at sites which might have Windows malware on them. You know, sites like Amazon.com and Wikipedia.

So, he secretly loves the Chromebox. If I get a new one, I can retire/wipe the old one and stick it in his room. Then he can indulge his secret love in secret instead of hogging MY machine.

Brief Addendum: In the original post, when I mentioned that the new ASUS Chromebook will roll out at $179, I meant to add something along the lines of "wow ... my Samsung was $329!" I thought the machine was a good deal at almost twice the price; at less than $200, it's just a no-brainer - TLK]

Another Addendum: It's just come to my attention that there's someone out there who really needs a new computer, who certainly deserves a new computer, and whose having of a new computer would measurably benefit the libertarian movement to the extent that it increased his blog output. And a Chromebook sounds like it would fit the bill just about perfectly. If this sounds like something you'd like to help with, here's the link. I'm throwing $5 at it myself, so if it pleases you to think of this as a "match me challenge," please do so.