A Great Chromebook Alternative

Related to my other posts about liking then having problems with the Chromebook, I wanted to post about my new favorite Ultrabook.

Walmart sells the Acer Aspire S3 for $395.

This hits all the things I said about the Chromebook that I love.  Light.  Instant on. Great keyboard.

It seems a hair more solid than the Samsung Chromebook.

It comes, of course, with Windows 8.  That’s been a bit of a paradigm shift – something for another post.

All in all, if you are looking for an inexpensive yet fairly powerful and comfortable notebook, this is what I would recommend.

Why You Will Not Like a Samsung Chromebook

A while back, I wrote this post on why I loved my wife’s Samsung Chromebook.

Well, funny how things change…

About a month into the Chromebook experience, it decided that it didn’t like staying connected to Wi-Fi.  It would disconnect and reconnect over, and over and over.  Sometimes this would happen right when you fired it up.  Sometimes it would stay connected for an hour before it would start having its fits and make the Chromebook useless – especially as it is completely dependent on the Internet.  (A feature I still appreciate.)

And so began the saga with Samsung…

It actually first started with Best Buy.  I went back to them asking if they could help.  They were willing to ship it back at no charge for repair.  But, then, that same day, a Geek Squad guy called me and interrogated me, saying “these types of problems are always with customer’s routers.”  I explained to him my level of expertise and that no other device in the house (Android or Windows) was having this problem.  Then, he said, “well, then we always flash them back to their original state.”  I told him I had Power Washed the device; something he had never heard of.  (Huh?!)  I capitulated and let him do his thing.  I got back a Chromebook that was on a really old version of the OS, and still disconnected.

I found out about and contacted the Google Ninjas.  That was useless.

Samsung at first seemed like they were going to step in.  They paid for shipping for it to be returned for repair.  I told Samsung, “please don’t let the technician just fire it up, see it connect, and declare ‘no problem!'”  Well, that’s what they did.  Many calls and emails later over like three months and Samsung finally agreed to refund our money.

I love Samsung products.  We’ve had a Plasma TV since 2010 we love.  I love my Galaxy Note II (though Samsung support was useless on a calendar problem – Recurring Appointments made out of time zone do not show at the right time.  Samsung’s “senior technical support” people shrugged their shoulders and hung up on me), and when the Chromebook worked, it was great.  But, service to the customer, from any organization, has to extend beyond the product to make raving fans.  Samsung is not there.

Instant On and Where Microsoft Windows Missed The Boat

Well, where they missed at least one boat.

Every morning I grab some on-line device.  My Samsung Galaxy Note II; my HP DV4 Windows 7 Machine, or my wife’s Chromebook. This morning, all three were right in reach, including my Windows computer as I left it on the couch the night before.  (Usually it’s in my office, because it needed charging).  What did I grab?  I went right for the Chromebook.

The Chromebook is like my phone.  It’s instant on – it’s ready to go.  Windows?  Well, Windows 7 is sure better than the past when it comes to booting and resuming, but, it’s just not the same.  I love grabbing a device and being ready to go with what’s on my brain right at that moment; not “kill the excitement” waiting for the Windows World to come to life.

At some point I want to write a manifesto about how Microsoft really got it wrong with Windows 8.  However, here is one main point – Microsoft should have focused more on making Windows 7 better, like making it instant on, as opposed to radically changing it.