And The Chromebook is an ultra-low power laptop that relies on the ability to run web applications, which are mostly run by remote servers. Thus, its work is reduced to capturing the actions of the user, transmitting them over the Internet and showing him on the screen the result that the remote computer has processed. So, just as a web page is not available without an internet connection, neither are web applications.
During 2020, and as a collateral effect of sanitary measures against COVID-19, the sale of so-called Chromebooks has exploded due to the need to work or study from home. Creation of a change in the supply of computer equipment. The reason? The need to have a cheap system that would allow them to work or study, as the case may be, and which would be relatively cheap for them. However, for some basic tasks, its performance is quite good. And with the Internet now in every home, they’ve become a cheap alternative to a full computer.
What is the origin of Chromebooks?
The concept of cloud computing is not new and if there’s one company that’s leading the way, it’s Google. After all, we have seen a shift in IT applications from the product model to a service model. It was with the appearance of version 5 of the HTML language, the one used to encode web pages, and the best of JavaScript in the mid-2000s, that so-called web applications began to be deployed. Not least because of the capabilities of the WebKit engine, which is used today in all sorts of browsers, including Google’s Chrome.
So, taking advantage of the fact that Linux exists, the people at Google came up with the idea of making a distribution of said operating system, but don’t run anything other than the browser and its web apps. After all, the second generation of smartphones launched by Apple’s iPhone did not start with the famous applications, but with web applications, the functionality of which developed over time. So, at some point and starting in 2011, the Gmail company started launching the first Chromebooks in the market.
It’s no secret that Chromebooks were specifically designed for the education market, a very lucrative market and where Apple has always been very strong. Although the concept of these computers seems more influenced by Nicholas Negroponte’s OLPC program, one laptop per child, than not in direct competition with the bitten apple brand.
Cheap yes, but much less powerful than a laptop
The best analogy we can make for you gentlemen to understand how they differ is the analogy of two types of cars. On the one hand, a car without a license which can only circulate in town because it does not exceed 50 km/h. On the other hand, a conventional car that we can use to move anywhere. Well, the first case would be a Chromebook and the second a conventional laptop.
In the same way that the vehicle that does not require a license will not need a very powerful engine, neither will our Chromebook, the reason for this is that most applications will be run remotely. Others, on the other hand, operate locally, but are designed to run on very low-power computers and, therefore, can be run on those computers without having to be connected to the network. So, while a low-end laptop today is usually moved to the 4 processor cores, Chromebooks have configurations of 1 or 2 cores and run at very low power.
The second of the things that differentiate them in terms of hardware is storage. To reduce costs, they use low-speed, low-capacity NAND Flash storage. Since the user is supposed to check out the cloud storage. Although there are models that usually have ports for SD cards. In general, they do not stand out for their performance, but they do not need it either.
How can I tell them apart from a regular laptop?
Mainly for two clear reasons, the first of which is due to their specifications, you might not understand the processor models, however, there are a number of details that will help you detect them. The first thing you need to look at is the type of storage. Because many use eMMC. A much slower type of flash memory than NVMe that isn’t recommended for a typical laptop, but a Chromebook has no problem with it.
On the other hand, many manufacturers, fortunately, mark on their models that you are in front of a Chromebook by adding the word to the name of the product, others, on the other hand, are more subtle and generally place euphemisms like Go on their models .
Although a quicker way to recognize them is by the fact that they arethe keyboard is different from that of a classic PC. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, we leave you the image of one of them above these lines so that you can see the visual differences of the keyboard of this type of computer. As you can see, some keys have been replaced by others, including the F1 to F12 keys. You can also see how in the specs they usually have support to be able to place a SIM card for mobile internet to connect to 4G or 5G networkssomething that conventional laptops don’t usually carry.
Knowing the difference between them is important, because today we can find Chromebooks of different sizes and form factors. Although we believe that with these simple tips you can very easily tell them apart from a regular laptop.
