On software, the Mac has always boasted its simplicity. Since the 1990s , consumers typically lived in this dichotomy: Adapt to the laptop that Apple put out that year- as hard as that may be-or do the research to buy the Windows laptop that might best suit your needs. It just worksįor years, the answer to buying a costly Mac has been the vast menu of cheap Windows laptops available. But for those of us out of school, Chrome OS has also evolved into an entirely functional operating system that’s streamlined and versatile. Since their launch in 2009 by Google’s future CEO Sundar Pichai, Chromebooks have traditionally been seen as a tool for teachers and students in the classroom, with a massive market share inside education. I’ve been testing three Chromebooks over the past month across a range of prices: Google’s $999 Pixelbook, Samsung’s $599 Chromebook Pro, and Acer’s $250 Chromebook 11. My Bluetooth headphones connected effortlessly, and if they die there’s a headphone jack, as well as two USB-C ports, one regular USB port, and an SD card slot. I’m playing music from the Android app for Spotify, as I type into my text editor of choice, Notion, running in a web page. It’s not been too much of a jump, as shocking as that might sound. I’m now doing the same things I would be doing on my Mac, but on a humble Acer Chromebook 11.
Quartz/ Dave Gershgorn The apps have lost.
