Review on 🔍 SAMSUNG Chromebook 4 Plus 15.6'' Full HD Intel Celeron N4000 4GB RAM 64GB eMMC Gigabit Wi-Fi - XE350XBA-K02US by Jeremy Tyson

So I was supposed to get a 15.6 inch model to test first and ended up with an 11 instead, 6 inch model. So, despite what Amazon will say about which model my review applies to; Actually it is for 11.6 inch laptop. I've spent the last few days using this laptop as my "main laptop" to give it a real shot and showcase Chrome OS. From the start I thought this laptop was horrible just looking at the specs and seeing the poor 720p screen (see the photos, the worst part of the device in all honesty). Coincidentally, my opinion on this has changed. Despite the "low-end" specs of the N4000 processor and 4GB of RAM, this laptop is actually very fast for normal web browsing. Things like email, shopping, bills, basic document editing, Amazon reviews are all good and fast enough. Load times not far from high performance desktop (unless the site is very heavy) - good WebGL support/performance (can hit 60fps in demo tank with 500+ fish), tanks up to around 45fps with 1000 fish huh is still good. - The keyboard feels solid; small key height but very responsive keyboard for very low fatigue. The keys hardly wobble and the distance between them is just perfect. Rarely does an inexpensive notebook have such a solid keyboard. Very accurate and large touchpad for the size of the laptop. Extremely good battery life; One charge is enough for 10-14 hours. Very thin and light; I can put it in my backpack and it's like it's not there. - Headphone jack, decent enough to let many good headphones sound ok. Definitely suitable for "everyday" audio use. - Supports HDMI output via USB-C dongle - Decent speakers - Strong Wi-Fi; can connect over long distances and still get good speeds. - Doesn't really heat up at all with passive cooling. Smooth playback of YouTube and Netflix (but you probably don't want to watch too much on that awful screen). Cons: The screen is inferior to a mid-range laptop screen from 12 years ago. I literally had a 2007 laptop with a much better screen and not that expensive. There are even cheaper Chromebooks with much better screens. (720p 1366x768 TN with poor viewing angles and general cloudiness). - ChromeOS has limitations; It takes a little getting used to when you do more than just surf the web. - Poor performance outside of Chrome/Basic Android apps. ; Using "Linux" mode in ChromeOS is incredibly slow, sometimes taking 10-30 seconds for the laptop to complete basic tasks. It's basically useless for anything unless you REALLY NEED to.- Limited use of Android apps due to the lack of a touchscreen. Screen and Android application design. Many apps that "work" are clunky or completely unusable with keyboard/touchpad controls. - No HDMI output, just a USB port outside of the USB-C charging port. This requires you to use a dongle for things like SD cards (but there's a micro SD slot) or HDMI. If you use an external mouse, you cannot connect a flash drive. - The case (especially the bottom) is slightly scratched by crumbs on the table (see photo. a photo). - The processor is too slow to load and use Firefox; I tried it and in fact the performance is unacceptable. So if you consider this a "cheap Linux laptop", don't. It just doesn't fit these use cases. To be honest, my biggest criticism of this laptop is the same as many other people's; The screen is just really unacceptable for 2020 (or even 2018, to be honest) because it's so bad. It has poor viewing angles with washed-out colors, general glare from the backlight, and a slow response time. I wrote this review from a laptop and will likely continue to use it for the foreseeable future. It is easy to carry, especially around the house. The lack of a fan means I don't have to worry about vents or even heating up the laptop. Incredible battery life means it can last for days on a single charge with little use. It truly is the "average person's computer" in a world where most people only surf the Internet on their laptops. If they made this laptop $50 more expensive but included a nice IPS screen then they would just knock it out of the park with this article. Unfortunately, that screen is something you have to contend with, and it's the single most important factor in purchasing this laptop. Although I did not pay for this laptop based on my testing program; If it came down to me buying it, I would never buy it because of the screen. However, my computing use cases typically use good displays, and my workstation has triple 4K IPS professional monitors that sell for around $5,000. So you can say that my expectations of the screens are "high". When my friends, wife, nanny and even my son use this laptop; the screen didn't particularly complain. Everyone mentioned that the screen wasn't great (although I didn't ask about it), but it didn't bother them enough to dislike the laptop. That's why I gave 4 stars; Even with the screen and my own opinion on it, I find it "decent" for the target audience. Overall I think this is a very reliable laptop for general everyday web browsing. with a good keyboard; long battery life and low weight; It's very user-friendly and you never have to worry about updates thanks to Chrome OS. If this review helped you at all; Please mark it as useful! Thanks very much!