It started with a simple and innocent request to borrow a Google Chromebook. I was going to be traveling over Thanksgiving and wanted to bring a compact computer with me to write. Previously, when I needed something lightweight and portable, I’d take an iPad, but between two six-hour flights, plus several days of invariably waking up earlier than anyone else around and wanting to use that time to write, I thought it might be more comfortable to something with a keyboard. Plus, I was curious to find out how the Chrome operating system worked.

One of my colleagues, Brian Westover, just happened to have finished running tests on a Samsung Chromebook Series 3 ($298.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) a few days earlier. Praised for its low price (from $249) and portability, Chromebooks were the biggest selling laptops on Amazon this past holiday season. All the hype had piqued my interest.

“How do you like it?” I asked.

“It’s a pretty good netbook,” he said. “I can definitely see how it would be an attractive purchase for, say, a student. It’s great if you’re on a tight budget.”

“What about offline stuff?” I asked.

“You can do some things offline,” he said, “but I didn’t spend too much time evaluating what software you can run.” Seeing as my job is to evaluate software, I figured I had plenty of time to experiment with apps.

Mad Dash to the Airport

Few people leave the office the day before a big holiday with a calm, cool, collected demeanor. I was no expection.

I signed out the Google Chromebook, made sure it was fully charged and completely wiped from any testing my colleagues had done. I quickly signed in using my Google account and saw the netbook unlock, a set-up process so simple, it seemed too good to be true.

I should have explored the interface and capabilities at that point, and I take full responsibility for not doing so, but I was tight on time. The fact that I logged in successfully with my Google account seemed like a sure sign the Chromebook would be plug-and-play ready from there on out.

I closed the clamshell case, stuffed the Chromebook and its power cord into my bag, and dashed home to try and get the dog to her caretakers on time. From there it was off to a farewell dinner for a friend moving back to the U.K., and then a very late night of watering the plants, emptying the milk in the fridge, and calling for a car to the airport for an early morning flight. Playing with the Chromebook would have to wait until later.

“Later” turned out to be on the airplane, somewhere between New York and California. Out came the Chromebook, small enough to fit on my lap or the tray table comfortably. But when I opened it, it wouldn’t start. A black screen stared me in the face. Not even the power button glowed.

“How did I manage to break it before I even used it?” I thought. I turned to my traveling companion. “This is not good.”

“Wanna watch a movie?” he asked.

“Not really,” I said, “I have a whole bunch of ideas I’d really like to write down. I guess I’ll use my phone.”

On the phone, I compose in the note-syncing service Evernote, and because I have a Premium account, I can access “offline notebooks.” That’s how I’ve gotten work done on an iPad before, too. If I’m offline and want to edit a piece I’ve already started, I can do so with no problems whatsoever. And the next time I’m connected, the changes sync up to the cloud and are reflected everywhere that I use Evernote. That’s more or less how I assumed the Chrome OS would work on a Chromebook as well, and if it did, I couldn’t tell because the whole device was dead, despite having been fully charged and unused since the night before.

There’s no question that I should have spent more time reading about the Chromebook before hopping on the plane. So be it. I’ll take the blame for the initial bad experience, but it only got worse.

Plugged In, But Not Online

Arriving in California turned out to be just as hectic as leaving. We showed up at one house, discussed that sleeping arrangements would be better at another house, and never settled in or unpacked. By the time I had an opportunity to plug in the Chromebook and troubleshoot my problems the next morning, I was the only person awake.

Continue Reading: Chromebook Woes Continue>

Chromebook Woes Continue

Chromebook Woes Continue
Charging helped, as the Chromebook eventually did boot, but not without me holding down the power button for at least 10 seconds (which I learned by searching for help online using my phone).

I signed in and found under the apps panel a section called Get Started. Surely, I could stand to read a few pointers before moving any farther with this Chromebook.

And what do you know? You can’t read the Get Started material if you’re offline, and my friends with the network login credentials were all asleep. Brilliant.

I poked around a bit more and realized there is a power down button on the desktop in the settings (lower right corner), which you need to select before closing the computer. Every other laptop I’ve used has gone into sleep or hibernation mode automatically when closed, so this need to manually put the machine to sleep feels counterintuitive.

Even though my colleague had explained that the Chromebook did have some offline capabilities, you can’t necessarily figure out what they are or set them up if you’re offline. Perhaps my strongest advice to any new Chromebook owner would be: Make sure you have an Internet connection during setup. It’s not plug-and-play ready without one. Fair enough. The Chromebook does advertise itself as a machine that uses online apps predominately, and “offline apps for the rare times when you’re disconnected from the Web(Opens in a new window)” (emphasis mine). Perhaps I’m disconnected less “rarely” than most people.

Connected! 

Eventually, my friends shared their Wi-Fi password, and I was able to get into Chrome completely. When a Chromebook has an Internet connection, you can use Google Docs/Drive and Gmail and many other Web apps, such as Evernote, in the Chrome browser. I don’t mind working online one bit, but my lifestyle apparently isn’t so predictable that I know I’ll have a Wi-Fi connection at all times.

When I finally did have a chance to fully explore the Chrome OS, I found one preinstalled offline app that turned out to be what I used more than any other, called Scratchpad. I started using this app because I just couldn’t rely on an app that required Internet connectivity, and most of the others did—if not during use, then at least for setup. For example, you can enable Google Drive to partially work offline, but you need to be connected to configure it, and I wanted something that would work offline no matter what. Scratchpad was the only pre-installed app that fit my needs.

Scratchpad is a simple text editor, more elegant than the Notes app you’ll find on iOS, but not as robust as Evernote, which has tags and organizational controls.

Scratchpad has more than it first appears to have when you launch it. You have to resize its window to see all the features it has, which is counterintuitive, as you’d think any software developer would do her best to show you as soon as possible what her app can do. If you leave the app small, it looks like a blank note and nothing else. Drag the window to be larger, and you’ll see a column on the left with your recent notes as well as WYSIWYG buttons at the top.

Getting the Hang of Chrome

At this point, I had at least figured out my basic strategy for working during this particular trip (which was now half over): compose using Scratchpad when offline, and copy and paste to the app I really wanted later. Clearly, I’d figure out a better way later, but with limited time to learn all the ins and outs (it was Thanksgiving, remember), this would do.

My patience for the Chromebook was waning pretty dramatically. Back at home, even though I vowed to investigate the OS until I seriously understood how to use it, I didn’t. That’s what happens when you’re not enamored with a device, and to be perfectly frank, it is what many users find so appealing about plug-and-play-ready products. If a device makes a good first impression, the user has a greater tolerance to fix the problems and inconveniences that crop up later.

From the end of November until late December, the Chromebook sat largely unused on my office desk.

One More Time Around

In late December, I had to travel again, and this time, I felt a little more confident dragging the Chromebook along. Maybe it wouldn’t be perfect, but I could write offline and save my work to the cloud later, which encapsulates precisely all I wanted to do with the netbook.

Continue Reading: Chromebook: In Flight>

Chromebook: In Flight

Chromebook: In Flight
On the flight (once more to California), I used Scratchpad offline to write two article drafts and two emails that I planned to send later. They’d be safe and sound offline, and ready for me to copy and paste the next time I connected to a Wi-Fi signal.

By now I had the hang of this thing, right? At my destination, I powered up the notebook and… panic! The screen that loaded was the same one I remembered seeing the very first time I used the netbook, a “welcome, and please set up your account screen,” as if I were starting over from scratch! In other words, the Chromebook was locked and ready for me to setup as if for the first time.

Had my entire account had been wiped out? If it had, any offline work that I had saved would probably be gone. Of course, any work I had done online (and by now you know that while traveling, I’m rarely online) would be saved to the cloud.

“Okay,” I thought, “maybe if I just set up again with the same account, my offline work will still be there.”

But guess what you need to set up your account: a Wi-Fi connection! And once again, I didn’t have one. Once again, I was stopped in my tracks. No Wi-Fi, no logging in.

So once again, I set the Chromebook aside and turned to my trusty smartphone. I rewrote the two emails and tried to forget about the other two article drafts that I assumed were goners.

Finally, I got online, set up my account again, and found that my Scratchpad work was indeed still on the machine. Phew! Crisis mostly averted, but my tolerance for the Chromebook deteriorated completely. I just didn’t want to use the thing anymore for fear I’d lose my work or at least not be able to get at it when I need it.

Chromebook Not All It’s Cracked Up To Be

I honestly wanted to like the Chromebook, and I still won’t write it off completely, despite my troublesome experiences. It’s amazingly affordable, durable, and compact. I carried it easily in an oversized handbag without a sleeve or other padding. And some, but not all, of the problems I hit could have been overcome had I been using a Chromebook with a 3G data plan… except paying for 3G service thwarts the inexpensive factor.

But portability went down the toilet when I realized I couldn’t actually use the netbook when I went to the places I needed to go! I hit roadblocks every time I didn’t have an Internet connection, and that’s just not acceptable for me and my work. What is the point of a highly portable machine if it doesn’t work 75 percent of the times you remove it from your house or office?

If I’m going to be working at home or in the office, I’d rather have a larger device with a bigger screen and larger keyboard, as well as a little more power and speed. And when I’m traveling, it’s crucial I have a device that works reliably offline. The Chromebook does not.

I still do see the appeal for some people. A Chromebook costs less than an iPad and has a keyboard. All your work backs up to the cloud automatically (provided you have an Internet connection, of course). I’m not giving up on the Chromebook just yet, but I don’t trust it and will proceed with extreme caution as I continue to look for apps that might make the experience, well, tolerable.

For more from Jill Duffy, follow her on Twitter @jilleduffy(Opens in a new window).