Strawberry Recall Best Plant-Based Bacon Unplug Energy Vampires Apple Watch 9 Rumors ChatGPT Passes Bar Exam Your Tax Refund Cheap Plane Tickets Sleep and Heart Health
Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
No, thank you
Accept

Chromebook diaries: day five

In the fifth and final day of the Chromebook experiment, Nic Healey is ready to get back to a more traditional computing experience.

I think I'm ready to get back to my PC.

(Credit: Acer)

That's not to suggest that I hate the Chromebook because I most certainly don't. And it's certainly not that today has been particularly hard — it's actually been a bit of a breeze.

I'm not actually sure what's making me pine for the desktop world of Windows, really. It's just a collection of small things I miss, I guess — a kind of gestalt of minor functionality that I'm eager to have.

Spotify, as I mentioned yesterday, is a big part of it. So is my TomTom Multi-Sport watch, which I haven't been able to dock, leaving me unable to upload any of my run data. And a few other bits and pieces.

I'll be writing a proper verdict on Monday after I've had some time to process my thoughts, but if I had to use a single word to describe the experience, it might be "adequate".

In terms of a piece of hardware, however, I've liked the C720. The touch pad took some time, but the keyboard is genuinely good to use: nice travel on the keys and a great feel for a small laptop.

In the whole time I was using it, I don't think the battery got even close to half empty. Some of that was how desk bound I was, but a lot can be attributed to fact that Acer has put a really long-lasting battery into the Chromebook.

And finally, I did eventually find out how to adjust the screen brightness. It turns out I was right: I was definitely being stupid and missing something obvious.