the struggles of a chromebook!

quick warning - this is sort of a rant, and sort of a review, i went from a lenovo legion 5 with an RTX 2060 to a lenovo flex 5 with integrated intel i3 graphics. 

the transition from a windows pc to a chromebook has been wild this is for many reasons - not just because they are such different softwares, but also because it has changed how i use technology fundamentally, and it sucks.

for one, EVERYTHING is optimised and made more efficient, for better or for worse. you want to open any google software? it opens on a chrome tab, making your tabs quickly pile up until the 4gb ram that is standard on all chomebooks is quickly overwhelmed, making everything slower. you want to have more then 2 apps open? sorry bud, one has to go and whatever u were doing on that app is reset for when you next open it. you want to remove your tabs? you do have to do it one by one, you can't just delete all tabs because it saves the tabs you delete once you reopen chrome. the oddest thing by far though has to be the LACK of optimisation for the CPU when you close the laptop and put it on sleep mode, as instead of going into energy efficient hibernation mode like a macbook or windows laptop it will keep every tab and activity going on, quickly draining battery and making the laptop very slow and hot once you reopen it. its purely inefficient for little to no reason and i have to turn it off every time i close it (it does boot pretty quick tho).

another major issue i have had to encounter with the chromebook is the simple lack of functionality and an almost lack of actual technology that is present 24/7 on the chromebook. it is less laptop, more tablet, and that becomes apparent by the focus on the android functionality within - all apps are only downloadable by software, whatever you use is presented like how it would be on an actual android tablet and worst of all, many things simply do not work because detachable hardware cannot recognise the PC as a laptop - it is an odd mishmash that is hard to even call a laptop especially when one handed use and keyboard detachability is so heavily focused upon throughout.

this brings me to my biggest complaint - nothing works and is transferable on this laptop. all the windows games i used to play? well, of course, the pc is so underpowered that 90% of the apps would not work, however even simple stuff like roblox just will not download as the pc cannot recognise the software. this gets a lot more tricky when you get to things like SD cards, MP3 players and phones, which the file finder will not recognise, and unlike a windows PC where you can go to task manager or some other in depth software and figure out what to trouble-shoot EVERYTHING is done from the file reader. ive spent hours upon hours trying to get windows softwares which are supposedly "chromebook compatible" to work, to no avail with some of my fav softwares like bryce 3D just not working.

I must say, however, this brings me to one of my biggest benefits of a chromebook - the linux virtual machine has made up for many shortcomings that the laptop has suffered from. whilst it did take me a long time, i was able to set up slsk and i was also able to mount various devices from the crostini VM to the chromebook itself which let me transfer files. and, to add to this, as it is basically a laptop only meant for kids and students who need to write, it has an alright battery life paired with some really, really decent speakers. and for £300 (370$ for Americans) i cant deny that the hardware on the thing is pretty awesome in terms of plain performance but by no means is it a replacement for a windows laptop. if i could go back in time, id defo put in £200 more to get a base spec windows laptop or a used dell XPS, as that performance and usability for people cannot be understated.

i hope my mini rant didn't annoy too many people, i just had these thoughts floating abt in my brain for a while xD