“You got yourself a toy?” the CTO of my company asked me. “BITE ME.” That’s how we talk in our glass box. I got a the Samsung Chromebook Plus (CB+) and I love it!

Before I continue, I want to note, what I’ve always wanted is a Macbook that can enter tablet mode. I hate when I’m standing with a laptop and balancing it with my left hand and typing with me right. Then whenever I use a tablet I inevitably have this moment where it would be preferable to move to a laptop. Well that’s what the CB+ pretty much is, an awesome tablet when I want it to be a tablet, and decent laptop when I need a laptop. On to the list of things I love about my CB+!

Android apps. Some Android apps are better than their respective native apps, especially the ones built on Electron (I’m looking at you Slack!). I would say the Android version of Slack exceeds the desktop version. In Electron’s defense, I think it’s done a whole lot of good to software development. The stylus. As a Product Manager, I have to give feedback on designs, wireframes, and user-flows. You can add text boxes in PDF editors, but sometimes this doesn’t accommodate all the little arrows, colors, and comments I have to express. I’m not designer, but I use the Stylus most days at meetings to sketch out ideas. Most important thing, the CB+ differentiates between stylus and human touches. I use Squid because I like write with the stylus and erase with my finger. It feels great. The 3:2 display in vertical tablet mode. It turns out I love reading books like a clipboard. I feel like I’m reading the Constitution all the time. Tablet hand grip position. As a tablet, the thick binding is the perfect place to put your hand without accidentally touching the screen. This is something that always bothered me about other tablets. I feel safe holding the CB+ like a baby in my left hand, and taking notes with my right hand. The battery life is great! I know some people are reporting 7 hours, but I’m tend to hit around 9 hours most days. Changing screen resolution is fast. No one else I know does this. Sometimes I like everything big because I feel I get the best reading comprehension if I follow words with my mouse cursor. But sometimes I like to edit two Google docs side by side, I just switch resolutions with a keystroke and my screen experience caters to me instantly. Android Games. You know this seems like a high-class problem, but thank goodness the Chromebook can’t run Civilization VI. A computer that only manages to give you Android games is exactly what I’m looking for, fun enough to entertain, but not addicting enough to kill my weekend. The ChromeOS subreddit. Just a good Reddit community that answers questions and shares experiences. It’s great for travel. I went to Myanmar with my partner. We had limited internet. Here’s what we did on our downtime: played Co-op Badlands, played The Room, watched pre-downloaded Netflix episodes of The Good Wife, and planned the next few travel days. Yes you can do all this on a tablet, but you know what sucks on a tablet? Planning. Having 12 tabs open for Airbnb accommodations with a Google doc on the rights side feels natural. It was cheap. An iPad Pro costs $800. The Samsung CB+ costs $450 and I feel like I’m getting a better product. I have a pen slot, desktop style web browsing, trackpad, and keyboard. For me, it’s the first time I’ve actually gotten work done on a tablet.

All in all, I love my Samsung Chromebook Plus. Yes, there are things that really suck about it, I’ll go into that later. But I find myself reaching for it more than any tablet I’ve had. If I don’t plan on doing any dev work, it’s the only computer I’ll bring home.