Chromebook tablet

I purchased an Acer Chromebook Tab 10 and have been exploring its capabilities for about a week. When I bought it, I had to go through CDW to have access, but this is changing and you should be able to find it elsewhere if you are interested.

There are some existing online reviews of this product (Verge, Endgadget, GLearning) so it makes little sense to offer a comprehensive reaction.

My summary:

• Intended for K12 market and not as a consumer device.
• Works fine, but not special in any way.
• Cost is equivalent to low-end iPad and iPad has access to more apps.

My wife’s analysis (she does not object to me spending money on technology) – couldn’t you just do the same thing on the screen of your chromebook?

My analysis – pretty much the same as what you see above. My cost was approx. $380. The tablet was 339, but with tax and shipping, the cost came to approx. $380. If you are a chromebook user, you will be completely at home with this device. It is nothing more, but also nothing less (with the exception of the keyboard), than a reasonable level chromebook. A key question becomes what is it you want from a tablet. In contrast to the comments about whether this is a consumer device, I would ask the same question of anyone. How do consumers use their tablets? I will use this pretty much like I use my iPad Pro. I do very little writing on my iPad. I prefer a keyboard when I write anything of length. I can use the apps or similar apps that I use on my iPad on my chromebook. My personal use of technology is quite extensive, but the number of things I do is fairly limited. The Acer product is certainly not better than my iPad pro and it is the size of the standard iPad. If I had to choose one device, I would choose the iPad pro. I would choose my Chromebook Pixel tablet over this device, but I would make the same choice if I had to select either a high-end chromebook or an iPad. Just to be clear, I used to have an early android tablet and the chromebook tab 10 is far superior.

Is there any reason to recommend that educators push for the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 over the lower end iPad? Since cost is really not much of a factor, I would be hard pressed to make the case for the Chromebook Tablet. It is possible the similarity to the keyboard chromebook when it comes to working within the Google environment is useful. My tablet was immediately populated the same tools I use on my chromebook laptop. To me and to be fair, this is a bit of a stretch. I think students need to be flexible when it comes to technology AND you can just run what you want to run in chrome on an iPad if chrome is your environment of choice.

My personal justification requires a more long-term view. I think it important that there be multiple players in the technology space. I think within a few years the hardware will be largely irrelevant and pretty much all of the software will be run by downloading what is needed as necessary. I don’t think “free” has long-term value and as the population rejects paying for their services through advertising and the sharing of personal information some micro-payment approach will be the way we support developers and content providers. Until then, it is important that there be multiple ways to access online content and services.