Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
147 of 153 people found the following review helpful.
Finally no more calls from my mother
By mr pickle
I decided to order the Chrome Box after a long decision making process. My mother who is close to 80 was always calling me about a virus, forgotten password, virus software or firewall message, foo-king windows update etc. the list goes on and on!My mother only uses the PC for email, Facebook, and her games like Farmville (Ah!) so I thought this would be a great fit for her needs. Shortly after unpacking the Chrome Box, plugging in her old USB mouse, keyboard then old monitor it was up and running (after an initial update that took about ten minutes).I had her create a Gmail account and she was quickly on her way. This really does boot up between 5 and 7 seconds ... amazing! She was able to play all of her games on Facebook, Farmville and Bejeweled (Ah! Again), and all her other sites. After seeing some of the reviews I was concerned about some sites not working. Went to CNN and had her click on several videos and repeated this on the Yahoo news site, video ran better then on my expensive machines.My mom now lives happily inside the Chrome browser and I have a lot more free time! no more phone calls, snicker snicker:)
41 of 42 people found the following review helpful.
Very happy with zero administration computer
By Kent A. Henderson
I just purchased my 4th chromebox today for our business. I also have 2 chromebooks (since June 2011) for a total of 6 Chrome OS devices. I am a business owner and a Google Apps for business customer. Also, understand that we are not just Apps users, we are fully engaged/entrenched. We use Google Apps to it's fullest including using Google Drive like a file server and Google Cloud Print for printing services and Google Voice/Chat. For a guy like me, these are dream machines. These are used in a business environment. I am the owner of a small business with 14 employees. When I say these are dream machines, I mean they are dreamy for me as the owner/IT guy/bathroom cleaner guy/light switch operator guy, etc. I always hated IT issues and the last computer on the network, the one the person puts their hands on, is always the one that consumed the majority of my time. We use(d) Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, and now Chrome OS. My employees now fight over the Chrome OS devices. The absolute simplicity of the is truly remarkable. As the IT guy, I don't even have to remove it from the box. It arrives from Amazon, and I hand it to the person and tell them to login with their gmail credentials. That's it. Done. They log in the first time and there is their browser, opened with their tabs, bookmarks, password credential, auto-fill settings, printers, etc. My job is done.This is kind of a side note of elation. With our accounting, CRM, and ERP software all provided as a service in a browser, Google Drive allowed me to shut down our last server (except for SIP-VOIP and Scanner/Document). We are server-less (except the afforementioned). Now all I have to maintain is a DHCP server. I hate to sound giddy, but, really I am. This is the future.
110 of 122 people found the following review helpful.
Good, with some issues.
By J. Guidry
I was getting ready to buy a new desktop when the chromebox came out, so this was a perfect opportunity to give it a try.Overall it's a nice web browser. It boots fast, was easy to start using, and is great for doing anything on the web. The interface is pretty much like windows 7, but a little simpler.I was having a grand old time playing with it, but a number of issues came up of basic things that just didn't work.The main issue so far is that it doesn't support USB audio. I have three USB audio devices that didn't work. (integrated microphone/webcam in monitor, wired and wireless visa USB dongle headsets) What this means, in layman's terms, is that you would not be able to video chat without buying new equipment - you'd need to buy a headset with a single speaker/mic jack, like the old cell phone head sets used to have. Then you'd have to unplug your speakers and plug in your headset each time you wanted to chat.When the Chromebox is powered off, but plugged in, it sends a huge buzz through the speaker cable that is unliveable. This doesn't happen when the computer is asleep; just powered offAfter that, there's just a long list of little things... things like forward/back buttons on the mouse not working.Overall, this is a nice little thing to play with, if you like new electronic toys. But, I wouldn't buy it for Mom just yet.
See all 77 customer reviews...
Very happy with purchase
