Chromebooksare brassy , compact , lightweight , various , and durable — so you should definitely pick one up for your next laptop , right ? Not so tight , likely portable computer buyer , because there are still a number of areas where Windows and macOS have a distinct advantage , and we ’re expire to go through them here .
Our intention here is not to rain on the Chrome OS parade , as wehappen to thinkchromebooks perfectly accommodate for a lot of users , with their own exercise set of strengths ( affordability and limited bloat being two of them ) . But we do want you to verify that you ’ve press all the pros and cons before separate with your cash .
1) Take your media library with you
You ’re no doubt already aware that Chromebooks trust on the swarm rather than local storage , but it ’s when you reach the road and have patchy wifi that the difference really hits : You ca n’t easy listen to music on the train , or watch picture on a woodworking plane , or labor deeply into your 5,000 - trail - hard iTunes library when you ’re vacationing in a cabin in the forest .
If your Chromebook supports Android apps , you’re able to fix this to a certain extent — by synchronize offline Spotify playlists , for example — and apps like Plex give you an option to stream content from a server at domicile . Even with these workarounds though , it just does n’t compare to having stacks of movies , television show , and medicine stored on the local hard drive . Chromebooks rarely have more than 32 GB of storage on plug-in — that ’s less that most headphone !
2) Play games
Gaming is slow shifting towards a swarm future , but until we ’re all enjoying rock - square broadband connections capable of hold a steadfast 4 kibibyte watercourse without a soupcon of lag , we ’re stuck with the current status quo . That mean you ’re not going to be able to play anywhere near the tier of game on a Chromebook as you’re able to on Windows or even macOS .
Not only do Chromebooks not have the storage distance for all those beautiful biz asset , they do n’t have the processing office to deliver top - drawer titles at acceptable bod rates either . There is one caveat though : If you bribe a Chromebook laptop computer thatsupports Android apps , you may at least enjoy the best games that the Google Play App Store has to offer .
3) Power through demanding tasks
Of course there are online photo editor ( here ’s one ) and video editors ( here ’s one ) , but compare to their screen background vis-a-vis they ’re comparatively bare osseous tissue on the whole . When it come to doing serious encoding or applying some real enhancements , Chrome OS falls down ( and that ’s before you get to the progeny of having a circumscribed amount of local storage space ) .
In theory you could upload pic and videos from your smartphone ( or even a connected tv camera ) to the cloud , then fire up an on-line editor program to get to piece of work — the basics are all covered . But when it comes to dealing with big files or masticate through some complex processing , the apps that live inside your entanglement web browser app are going to be encounter want .
4) Multitask easily
Chrome OS has canonical multi - window support , but Windows and macOS are still a retentive room in advance in this department — not only in how window ( and indeed built - in virtual desktops ) are managed on screen , but also in how those windows expose contentedness . On Chrome OS , every windowpane is basically a antiphonal website , and the interface suffers for it as a result .
In situations where you need a passel of applications up on concealment and want to be able to cursorily flip between them , vane apps and Chrome OS do n’t quite abridge it at the minute . On top of that , most of the Chromebooks on the market make use of humble , down in the mouth - resolution displays to keep costs down and battery life maximized , and that compounds the trouble .
5) Organize files easily
One of the hardest times we have with Chromebooks is when we need to organize files into folders and subfolders , and do tasks like duplication or omission . On Windows or macOS this can be done quickly and well , with a flurry of keyboard shortcuts and mouse ( or trackpad ) movement that get Indian file from one place to another with scarcely any fuss .
Not so , alas , on Chromebooks . Whether it ’s the sparse user interface of the build up - in file manager , or the bare bones entanglement interfaces of Dropbox or Google Drive on the web , moving filing cabinet around feels like a task . These web apps are fine for basic operation , but they ca n’t compete with the sophistication of File Explorer or Finder for begin your data devise .
6) Give you enough customization options
you may modify macOS andespecially Windowsdown to the last pixel if you call for to — not only through the built - in customization options ( macOS isgetting more soon ) , but also through the wealthiness of third - party plug - in and app you ’ve catch to toy around with . As for Chrome OS , well , you’re able to alternate to a different wallpaper pictorial matter if you want to .
Of of course part of the appeal of Chromebooks is their minimum aesthetic , but if you want to make your computer interface your own , your choices are limited on Google - power laptop computer : That goes for the unlike direction you’re able to organize and set in motion apps as well as the different options you ’ve got forrevamping the look and feelof the operating system of rules .
7) Do much without an internet connection
in conclusion , the obvious one . It ’s reliable that Windows and macOS also bank heavily on having web access to be useful , and it ’s lawful that offline reinforcement in web apps like Google Drive and Gmail continues to improve , but you still ca n’t do all that much with a Chromebook when it ’s offline – especially if you have n’t synced any file or documents to it in front of time .
you could tap off in a Google Docs or Google Sheets file ( with the changes synchronize next prison term you go online ) , but the available features are limited in offline manner ; you could also play any telecasting or audio recording you ’ve got saved locally , in a simple web browser app tab . To really be productive when you ’re away from wifi though , Windows and macOS cover to be the better choice .
ChromeBooksdesktopLaptopsMacOSWindows
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