Business
Xolo Chromebook: Handy device for enterprises (Tech review)
By
By Anirban Ghoshal(16:01)
New Delhi, May 25
Google Chrome OS has been
developed on the Chrome browser which has become hugely popular and
successful. Google, which has also made the OS capable of running
Android apps and games, recently launched three Chromebooks (laptops
that run on the Chrome OS) made by three different manufacturers in
India targeted at different segments of consumers with attractive price
tags. Here's a peek under the hood of Xolo Chromebook, priced at
Rs.12,999.
Design and dimensions: The Xolo variant has a compact
design, easy to grip and carry as it has rounded edges and the top panel
has been cleverly merged with the back cover panel. The Chromebook has
no removable battery. The camera is placed at the top end of the lid.
The keyboard is normal looking as in any 11-inch laptop with a trackpad
to aide the mouse movements. The device measures 11.4" x 8.1" x 0.71"
and has a weight of 1.15 kg. The negative point is the location of the
speakers at the bottom panel, which drowns out the sound, although the
sound quality is quite loud.
Display, Hardware and Performance:
The Chromebook comes with an 11.6" (diagonal) display which puts out 200
nit of brightness which is more than enough in all light conditions. A
Rockchip 3288 combined with 2GB of RAM forms the core of the device
along with graphics support from the ARM Mali 760 quad core GPU. This
combination has been good for most medium range laptops that target
multitasking. The Rockchip is more of a new entrant compared to Qualcomm
or the Mediatek processors. It can deliver speeds up to 1.8 GHz. The
GPU also supports 4K x 2K resolution.
Ports and Battery: The
device has a 16GB internal eMMC storage card unit and a microSD slot.
Files can also be uploaded to Google Drive from the device or any other
cloud. There are two standard USB 2.0 ports but honestly 3.0 would have
been better. There is a headphone/mic combo port which might seem not
very utility-approach based at the first go. But the device has a
built-in microphone that can support calls on Hangouts or Skype. The
camera supports a 720P HD resolution. At the connectivity front, a
standard wireless 802.11ac is available for Wi-Fi and a Bluetooth 4.0
module is also present. The Xolo variant has a battery life of 8 to 10
hours.
Operating System, User Interface and apps: The OS feels
more like a Chrome browser taking over a laptop but the UI seems simple
enough and easy to learn. The boot time is as low as 12 seconds.
During
the first boot, the device asks for an internet connection. This
feature doesn't seem so bad because all smartphones today come with
Wi-Fi hotspot or tethering features. At the second booting, the OS asks
the password of the Google ID to which the device is synced.
As
soon as the user logs on, he has the choice to access all of Google's
features and as well as install new apps from the Chrome Web Store,
synonymous to the Play Store for Android. Google has cleverly added VLC
Player and other utility softwares to its app store and it also allows
installation of selected apps that are available on the Android
platform. The offline feature of Youtube is still unavailable though.
Security:
The Chrome browser is susceptible to a lot of malwares but Google touts
that it will not be the case with the OS. To fight malwares of any
kind, the OS promises automatic updates within a period of six weeks to
share the latest and most secure version of the OS. It also has a
feature called 'sandboxing' which guarantees that each web page and
application runs in a restricted environment.
So if the
Chromebook is directed to an infected page, it can't affect the other
tabs or apps on the computer, or anything else on the machine,
essentially containing the threat. To add to the defences is the
'verified boot' feature which comes into play in a case when the malware
manages to escape the sandbox.
Every time the Chromebook starts
up, it does a self check called verified boot. If it detects any
corrupted, it will repair itself, taking the Chromebook back to an
operating system that’s as good as new. The device also offers data
encryption along with a recovery module which can help the user revert a
known good OS version.
Verdict: The device is better suited for
organisations and institutions that provides employees, student with
devices. The Chromebook comes with a management control suite that can
monitor, secure and control each and every programme running on the
device. The suite comes with a license fee which is levied on each
additional device. Looking at it from an Enterprise point of view, the
device offers several capabilities and a decent price proposition.