The Chromebook for the Chromebook skeptic

The good A very long list of features for the price, including a QHD touch display, hybrid hinge and included stylus. Adding support for the Google Play app store means this Chromebook can access a wide range of software.

The bad The keyboard and touchpad both remind you this is a budget laptop, and the accelerometer is way too touchy. Running too many apps and browser windows at once eats up the RAM quickly, leading to slowdown.

The bottom line The Samsung Chromebook Pro will make a believer out of many Chromebook skeptics by offering great value, features and performance for a budget-priced laptop.

If you're looking for a solid all-around laptop for roughly $500, the new Samsung Chromebook Pro should at or near the very top of your candidate list. Sure, there are plenty of Windows laptops and tablets in that price range (or lower), but none that I can think of offer this combination of a decent design, mostly metal construction, lag-free performance, long battery life, better-than-HD touchscreen, built-in stylus and a hybrid hinge that transforms the system into a tablet.

Despite the hybrid design, this is still a laptop first and a tablet second. For the opposite approach, an iPad plus a snap-on keyboard would cost about as much.

I know what you're thinking: "But wait: Chromebooks use Google's weird browser-only operating system. They won't run any of my must-have software, and they're useless when you're off Wi-Fi." And you'd be right about some or all of that -- if it wasn't 2017.

Yes, Chrome OS -- while significantly evolved over the past few years -- is still essentially the Chrome web browser with a laptop wrapped around it. But, Samsung and Google are using this new model, and its sister system, the Chromebook Plus, to showcase an important new Chrome OS feature coming to all new 2017 Chromebooks, as well as a handful of older models. These new systems are compatible with the Google Play Android app store, allowing you to download, install and run millions of Android apps, much as they would on any Android phone or tablet (with a few exceptions).

It's a twist that changes the entire nature of Chromebooks for a huge swath of people, giving the platform access to a universe of software, from games to office tools to social media apps. In practice, it's not as universally useful as it looks on paper, but it's also incredibly satisfying in surprising ways.

That, plus the touchscreen, hybrid and stylus features and decent performance and battery life are why the Chromebook Pro feels like a very smart buy at $549, which is admittedly on the high end for a Chromebook. There's no official UK or Australian pricing yet, but that works out to roughly £440 or AU$720.

The Pro is coming in the next few months, but a less expensive version, called the Chromebook Plus, is shipping in mid-February. It costs $449 (about £360 or AU$590) and the main difference between the two systems is that the Pro has an Intel Core m3 processor, while the Plus has a non-Intel ARM processor. (That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we won't have head-to-head benchmarks until we get our hands on the Plus.)

Both have 2,400x1,600-pixel touchscreens, dual USB-C ports, 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot. And both have a keyboard by default -- something you have to pay extra for with iPads or Surface Pro tablets.

SAMSUNG CHROMEBOOK PRO

Price as reviewed $549
Display size/resolution 12.3-inch 2,400x1,600 touchscreen
CPU Intel Core m3-6y30
Memory 4GB
Storage 3G2B SSD
Networking 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0
Operating system Chrome OS
Return of the not-so-widescreen

The metal body isn't going to make anyone think this is a MacBook, but it still feels sturdier than the plastic laptops that usually cost just as much. The system, while very slim, has an oddly squared-off look to it, because the 2,400x1,600 display has a 3:2 aspect ratio, while most laptops have a wider, shorter 16:9 screen (the same as an HDTV).