Do you remember netbooks? They were hugely popular after they were first introduced but then faded away several years ago. They promised to bring a low cost and often highly portable computing experience to the average consumer. They achieved this by using low cost, low power parts and offering a reduced set of features. It was enough to do many simple tasks like browse the web, do email and maybe some productivity applications.

Chrome OS has been in development by Google for many years and has been seen in a number of products the past couple years. There is a new push by several computer makers to release so called Chromebooks as low cost computing options. In many ways, these products very much resemble precisely what netbooks were before. Are they going to suffer the same fate?

A Look at Several Chromebook Options

For the most part, Chromebooks are looking to be extremely affordable. This puts them in the roughly $200 to $400 price range. This makes them slightly more affordable than a budget laptop but in the same price range as a tablet. Of course there is the Google Pixel (pictured at the top) which is a premium class Chromebook but it is an unusual case as the price tag is $1299.

The is the most affordable of the Chromebook options with a price tag of around $200. It features a 1.5GHz dual core Celeron processor with 2GB of memory, 16GB solid state drive and an 11.6-inch display. In essence it doesn’t look that much different than what the final netbooks on the market had other than the limited storage. It is certainly functional but could be improved in a number of areas particularly in the display which is a bit dim and limited in color.

is a bit different from the other Chromebooks available but is still very affordable at roughly $250. It shares the same external appearance in its standard 11-inch laptop clamshell design but it uses a Samsung dual core ARM based processor with just 2GB of memory. The result is performance that is a bit slower than many of the other Chromebooks that use Intel processors. It uses a 11.6-inch display to keep it very small but it certainly doesn’t feel as sturdy as a traditional budget class laptop or even a good quality tablet.

Finally, we have the which is more like a traditional laptop because of its larger 14-inch display. While the screen may be larger, it still uses the same 1366×768 resolution that the other two use. It is powered by a 1.4GHz dual core Celeron processor with just 2GB of memory which provides it similar performance to that of the Acer C710. Storage is limited to just 16GB like the other two. The larger size makes this a little less portable but gives it a larger keyboard which is useful for those that may be using it for lots of typing.

Chrome OS

What really defines a Chromebook is the software rather than the hardware. After all, the internal hardware either mimics that used in traditional laptops or what is found inside of tablets. The difference is that they are using the Chrome OS designed by Google and based around the Chrome browser.

The key here is the device is really designed to be used while connected online. The primary applications are effectively the Google services such as GMail, Hangouts (formerly GChat), Google Play, Google Docs and of course Google Drive for storage. There are advantages to using such a setup as your files can be accessible from just about anywhere as long as you have access to an internet connection. The thing is, you can do all of this with a traditional Windows computer anyways as all of these services are available through any compatible web browser. Now some of the applications like GMail and Google Docs can now function while offline but obvious the files and data can only be updated with the Google Drive storage when it is connected.

In fact, since the basis of the Chrome OS is the Google services, most of these tasks can even be done on a tablet or smartphone and is even one of the selling points by Google for Chromebooks. After all, these programs are either run through the Chrome browser or through dedicated apps for each of the major tablet operating systems.

So Why Get A Chromebook?

And this is where the crux of the problem is for Chromebooks. If you can essentially use these same services on a tablet or a laptop, why limit yourself to the Chromebook devices? After all, low cost laptops can be found for around $300. Even the very capable which can be used as a tablet or laptop sells for just $350 but provides much more flexibility than the Chromebooks mentioned. Sure, it does cost a bit your are able to do far more.

Even tablets offer a better overall choice than these Chromebooks. Take for instance tablet. It is priced at $229 so less than two of the three Chromebooks mentioned. The device is much smaller making it far more portable than any of them yet has a far superior screen. It even has better running times than the Chromebooks. About the only downside is the lack of a keyboard but you can find decent for under $50 which would remove that problem.

Because of the serious limitations that the ChromeOS software places upon the devices and the fact that their are more flexible options out there compared to Chromebooks, I think that they are going to share the same obscure fate that netbooks had. The one difference is that Chromebooks may end up finding because they are easy to deploy and manage plus have the added security of the limited services from Google which means that students can’t as easily hack them as .