By any chance, does anybody use one? I'm really close to grabbing an Acer C720 as a secondary laptop. I'm going to use my MacBook Pro as a desktop since the backlight is gone. I spend 99% of my time in Chrome anyways, and for the other 1% I'll have the MacBook if I really need it. I know Toshiba is about to release a 13 inch Chromebook next week. Similar specs, better build quality, bigger screen, but also 50% more expensive and I'm not willing to spend that much.

My main question is regarding documents. Any trouble opening MS Office documents using Google Drive (or Google Docs, or QuickOffice, or whatever the hell they call it) or vice versa; opening documents created with Goole in MS Office? Also, any trouble opening PDFs? Finally, can you print using a USB connection or is it all WiFi/Cloud based printing?

o_O
This is seriously a thing?

Ya. Been a thing for a couple of years. Top selling "laptops" for a while, though I would put them in a totally different category.

Yes i own an use a samsung ghromebook and LOVE IT. Again its googleOS based. But i use myn for email, browsing, i manage a few websites they run on wordpress so its great! Battery is great. Use gdocs for word excel etc
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Cant complain. Paid about $330 AUD.

errrr..... you mean ChromeOS.

I have used a Chromebook but do not do so regularly. We see them a TON in K-12 education now, especially since standardized online testing requires a keyboard and you can get 3 Chromebooks for the price of one iPad+keyboard.

Plus, they are virtually immune to viruses and the break/fix is zero hassle since its all cloud-based with nothing locally stored to lose. Finally, Google has done some amazing stuff with remote administration that allows them to manage/provision tons of machines simultaneously off P.O.'s. Overall, Google is kicking Apple's ass.

I dont have one but im pretty sure you can dualboot linux on it as well if you want more functionality.

No, bonus points!

Long live the Surface. Death to Chromebooks.

<3 Chromebook

but -DO NOT- expect it to run any programmes, only what you use in a browser

hahaha... let's hope the new CEO has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Yes we have one. The chromebook is great for browsing and doing general word processing and excel spreadsheet equivalents using google drive. We also use Google services for photos, gmail, calendar, all that sort of stuff. For us it works great.

The Chrome Store has some decent options on what you can get there. Plex works fine amongst many other programs/web apps.

We own the Samsung Chromebook that came out in 2012. It works quite well but there are certainly times where it gets a little sluggish if we are trying to run too much media or cast tabs over to the chromecast while listening to music.

IMHO if a chromebook had slightly more ram and an upgraded processor, it would fly. The idea of a chromebook is simple, yet we have never felt limited with the online vs offline debate. Everything we've needed has been available offline.

I've not ever spent much time searching through the chrome store to see what options there are to meet my needs for windows program alternatives that you can't install on a chromebook (I still have a Windows desktop), so I'm of no help there.

The new Chromebooks that are running Intel's Haswell processor are WAY ahead of those older Chomebooks.

I was at Costco today and I picked up a Lenovo Ideapad S210 Touch just to see. It was $399.99, which ends up being $165 more than the Chromebook all in when you factor in taxes, exchange rate (buying the Chromebook from the States), gas to Niagara Falls etc. I wanted to give it a go just because I haven't used a Windows PC in years and I wanted to see what Windows 8 had to offer with a touch screen device. So far, I don't mind it, but it certainly takes some getting used to. I don't like that it's all MS, though that's to be expected. I feel like Bing, Outlook, and IE would offer a lot better experience than their equivalent Google, GMail, and Chrome apps. But I'll give it a shot, I'll pick up the Chromebook on Friday, and I'll use them both for the weekend. I fully expect to return the Lenovo but it doesn't hurt to try out all of your options.

Might be worth it since your using it 99% of your time on chrome only.

Found an HP Pavilion TouchSmart 14-b150u on sale on Amazon.ca for $396 down from $620. Price matched it at Best Buy. They add 10% of the difference, so I ended up spending $371+tax for it. After playing around with this Lenovo I realized how useful a touch screen is to me. The Acer touch would have come to $420 all in, including gas, taxes, exchange rate etc. Got this for $421. I'm happy.