You’ve got stylus.

Truly my girlfriend is sick of me talking about how much I love my Samsung Chromebook Plus. You can read my post on 10 things I love about my CB+. However there are so many things that are problems. Many of these are not specific to the CB+ but are ChromeOS, but this is my first experience with Chromebooks and I’d like to share it.

As background, I use a Macbook Pro at work. I consider the Samsung Chromebook Plus a healthy medium between Tablet and Laptop for home use. I love it, highly recommend it… depending on your purpose. I cannot recommend it to be someone’s primary computer. But if you’re like me and love tablets but find them highly limiting, the CB+ is awesome, with some faults. So here are 10 things I hate about my CB+.

Build Quality — After about 8 weeks now, I’m starting to notice little build quality issues that I never had with any MacBook even 7 years down the line. The screen tilt has gotten a little weaker at certain angles and there is starting to be a slight clicking on the bottom of the device. All of these make me worry about if this thing is going to last. I’m constantly considering the way I hold it, or if I’m opening it too fast or slow, and damaging the device. Software Development — Coding sucks on this thing. Sure I could use Cloud9, but there are certain things that just won’t work. I can’t run the React project from work because Karma is installed on the repo and C9 has issues with it. (Well yes it can work, but then I have to change the dependencies locally for a shared project, huge PITA). Before you ask, I cannot run Linux distributions because the CB+ runs the ARM processor. Rotation Lock Doesn’t Persist — For Chrome apps, especially the browser, the rotation lock doesn’t persist. Sometimes I like surf the web in landscape mode while lying on my side (don’t judge me, it’s super enjoyable). But then anytime I switch to another app and back to the browser I have to turn my device awkwardly, set rotation lock again, and then turn it back on. Enabling rotation lock should persist globally for all apps until I disable rotation lock! Like on my phone. No multiple Google Accounts — I’m a fan of separation of concern. I know this is software terminology, but this is also a term I’ll tend to express for general life. On MacOS or Windows, one can switch accounts in Chrome by actually changing the Google user. I use color schemes to differentiate which account belongs to which. However in ChromeOS I am locked into one main account so I have to log into several different Google accounts within a single account, and sometimes I’ll be unsure which account I’m actually in as I type an email. Chrome Extensions Eat Up Memory — Okay, 4 GB memory is enough, IF you manage your Chrome Extension usage. For example, AdBlock Plus kills your computer speed, which is why most CB users elect for UBlock Origin. File management with Android — The Samsung Chromebook Plus includes 32 GB of hard disk space. Clearly not enough unless you actively manage it. So I bought a 256 GB SD Card. Turns out it is useless in relationship to Android apps. Any files I download that I want to be universally accessibly has to be on the measly 32 GB on-board hard disk. Evernote Sucks — I’m a heavy Evernote user. Evernote Web Sucks (especially the new version). Evernote Android does not do well on a desktop. Only the native desktop versions are manageable. One pain point is I can’t select multiple notes. At the beginning of every week I carefully tag and organize my recent notes. If I want to tag 10 notes I have to click in to each one individually to manage. I barely touch Evernote on my Chromebook. Note: I do recommend the Android version because you can save notes which is great for traveling. The Speakers — They really aren’t loud enough. In the kitchen, I can barely hear the song playing. Podcasts are completely inaudible. Multiple Email Management— There simply is no good option for managing multiple email addresses on a Chromebook. Having to search each of my email addresses for a specific email is a huge pain. Some people recommend Blue Mail for Android, but I personally found it frustrating on laptop mode. The best alternative is (and this is only because I actually use it for my task management) is the Moo.do web app. I pay a lot for this service and as email management sucks, but is the best option I’ve found. I wouldn’t pay for it if I didn’t already use it for my task management. The trackpad — Okay it’s not bad. But everytime I use an Apple trackpad I’m like: “ooooh, this is soooo much nicer.” Fine movements on the CB+ are frustrating because it sticks to your finger just slightly, so there is some inertia to overcome when you’re moving your finger. I mean it’s fine but if you’re a laptop user, it’s probably the thing you touch most in this world. Also I feel like 5% of the time using the dual finger click just results in a normal click, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

All in all, yes these are frustrating, but I love my CB+ regardless. It fits my specific desire, which is a tablet with the versatility of a laptop. Or vice versa. Whatever. I love this thing.