It would have been understandable for the original Google Chromebooks to be written off as a failed novelty, a mid-price laptop divested of the huge ecosystem that you get with a Windows PC and without the wow-factor of Apple's Macbooks.
But this is Google we are talking about, and the search giant is desperate to show that it can do for the PC what its Android OS did for the phone. The criticisms of the original – some constructive, but some bordering on gleeful must have stung, but the second coming for Chrome OS is clearly a significant step forward
The original laptops, from Acer and Samsung, were nice pieces of gear – thin and portable although more expensive than a netbook and more limited in their functionality because of the operating system.
They also had a key problem with the touchpad – which was literally clunky; uncomfortable to use for long periods and not as responsive as Google or its early adopters would have liked.
But the real issue was Chrome OS itself. Designed around a browser, this was all about cloud connectivity, taking advantage of our increasingly connected world and the burgeoning market in browser apps to do away with our need for local storage, lengthy boot ups and security updates.
Unfortunately, this meant that when the laptop was without a connection it went from being a functional, quirky and well-priced offering to something of a white elephant. Offline use was simply not good enough and the lack of a desktop meant that multitasking was trickier than it should have been for a multi-function device.
The new Chromebook – complete with the latest Chrome OS – aims to address many of those issues and persuade people that the reasonable price of £379 ($592) – or £429 ($670) for the 3G version – for a laptop with 4GB ram, instant boot and a novel new approach is worth the risk of removing the safety net of Microsoft Windows.
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