Acer Aspire AS5755-6699 15.6-Inch Laptop (Glossy Black) I purchased this, mostly because I desired to see what the COMPUTER ITSELF was like, & my current laptop gets shaky, but isn’ t QUITE done.
The Good: Like Google claims, it boots FAST (under 10 seconds). The screen is a terrific size, along with the key pad, & the battery life is better-than-to-be-expected. As for the COMPUTER ITSELF, everything happens through the web interface. It’ s like having this Google Chrome browser open on a regular basis. The app store has numerous apps (I haven’ t found any that cost money, yet, but I haven’ t actively looked for just about any, either) – simply just " click-and-install, " which is pretty practical. Games, productivity, third-party – it’ s all there. After installing, it’ s all right there within your browser. Open a new tabs, click on the app you wish to use, & there it is from the browser. Want to browse the web, just open a new tab, & type in the address like you would with any internet browser. Need to Google something? Just open a new tab & search from the handle bar, just like the Stainless browser. It’ s fast, efficient, & easy.
The Bad: There’ s something frustrating about not to be able to see the " Desktop, " but I think that’ s just part from the learning curve. Allegedly, there are off-line applications available, should you not get access to the interwebs. Unfortunately, finding what is accessible, how to use this off-line, or having off-line proof isn’ t easy to uncover. In fact, getting any help & documentation isn’ t all that smooth. I’ m sure Google has a forum, but finding it hasn’ t been straight-forward, & requires its own in-depth research just to get to what you want. Also, the touch pad is awkward. I have used literally hundreds of laptop input devices, & aside from the eraser-head " nipple" available on many IBMs, the touch pad is among the poorest input devices I’ve got used. It’ s completely usable, to be clear, & the touch pad features some interesting gesture attributes, but its sensitivity is off. I think the best way to describe it is " clunky. "
The Ugly: I had to receive a replacement for my very first one, because it was shipped in my experience with a defective display. It was viewable, but had something comparable to aliasing lines running across it on a regular basis. When I went to the Google site for help (which took me some time to find), it said I should contact the manufacturer. When I contacted Acer, it was clear their tech support team didn’ t have much stick time using the Chromebooks. They sheepishly told us to download the healing software & run it – that redirected me to The search engines. The software, however, only functions when there’ s a software mistake (i. e. an error routine from the Chrome OS causes the Chromebook to take into consideration alternative media from which to recover). Since there was simply no software error, the recovery media couldn’ t be detected, & wasn’ t used (there’ s no BIOS, so you can’ t configure it to help " boot off" external media). So back to Acer My partner and i went, & explained the problem – now I was over the tech assist guy’ s knowledge base. Eventually, I did my own bit of research, & managed to get recovery software to take through a developer’ s hook. That still didn’ t solve the problem, so I shipped it returning to Amazon – had a whole new one in 3 nights, which has worked without incident since i got it. Point being, if you need tech support team, it really doesn’ t exist for a novice computer user. (more…)
