Is Chrome OS Worth It? (6 Advantages)

Last Updated on December 3, 2022 by Ernests Embutnieks

Chrome OS tablets have cemented themselves as the de-facto standard for an operating system that is lightweight, easy to use, and can run on most system specifications. With that said though, if you still haven’t made up your mind about Chrome OS, we’ve tested the OS out ourselves and have a few points that may just convince you.

From our usage, here are the reasons why you should switch to Chrome OS:

• Lightweight and Smooth
• Runs Android Applications (APKs)
• Updating is extremely easy
• Stellar battery life
• Great security 
• Amazing parental controls

With that said, we’ve also dived into detail about each reason and have tried to justify our choices. You can read all about our reasons for preferring Chrome OS down below!

Lightweight and Smooth

When picking an operating system, most go through the premise of either picking Linux, iOS or Windows. For most, Windows is the obvious choice. However, for older systems, Windows can turn out to be quite laggy and sluggish.

In fact, you can’t expect the system to run smoothly at anything less than 4-6 GBs of RAM. Even with such a system, you’ll often run into crashes especially if you, ironically, open Chrome tabs.

On the other hand, Linux is comparatively lightweight and does not require tons of system resources. However, this open-source system too has its caveats. For instance, Linux is quite hard to use for a non-technical user.

To make the best out of both, Chrome OS is based on Linux. Therefore, it is lightweight but still contains the overall ingenuity and fluidity of a Windows-based operating system. In essence, you can expect a non-technical user to get familiar with Chrome OS extremely quickly.

From our experience, here’s the minimum system specification you need for Chrome OS to boot and perform reasonably well.

CPU	Any 64 bit x86 Processor
RAM	4 GB
Storage	16 GB

With these bare minimum specifications, our Chrome OS chugged through every application, video playback, editing documents, and browsing through files with ease. 

On the other hand, Windows 11 wasn’t really happy with the meager 16 GBs of internal storage. Moreover, the lack of RAM was quite apparent on the system as even opening windows was quite laggy.

Run Android Applications (APKs)

Let’s face it, who doesn’t want to use Snapchat on their laptop? Jokes aside, the ability to use APKs turns out to be quite useful in certain situations. For example, more intuitive applications like Lightroom hog up a lot of system resources with their desktop equivalents.

However, with Chrome OS, you can just download the APK / Android version of the application and enjoy most of the same functionalities. In some cases, Lightroom, for instance, you can get away with the free version of the Android application while you’ll have to pay for the Adobe Suite on a PC.

Besides that, there are a few games on the Android Play Store that work great with a touchpad and keyboard. While yes, don’t expect AAA titles to be popping up anytime soon, they’re a great way to kill time especially if you thought your laptop could not run any game at all.

Updating Is A Breeze

Ever gone through the hell hole that is Windows Updates? Now, couple that with the fact that you’ll need to update every individual application once a bug fix comes out and it turns out quickly to be a recipe for disaster.

While yes, beefier rigs don’t mind constantly being bogged down with updates and installations, your measly laptop might not be so lucky. With that said though, Chrome OS primarily operates on web applications. In essence, most of your data alongside the applications you use are present in the cloud.

So, if a new feature rolls out, you won’t have to go through dubious installations in order to get the latest and greatest. All you need to do is refresh your tab, and you’ll always have the latest version of the application you are using.

This is also helpful in workspace environments. Generally, larger enterprises have to spend a lot of money to make sure that all their systems are running on the same versions of software. With Chrome OS, that turns out to be a non-issue as the cloud handles all the backlog for you.

Great Battery Life

With a lightweight operating system like Chrome OS comes the added advantage of stellar battery life. While yes, they are no Macbook M1, but, considering the fact that Windows would not really let your laptop last for more than a few hours, Chrome OS really makes up for it.

In fact, from our test rigs, we’ve seen a whopping increase of about 50% screen-on time when switching to Chrome OS as compared to Windows. While this may seem unbelievable, this is because Chrome OS handles most processes over the Cloud. So, your processor / internal system resources aren’t used that much.

In some cases, your laptop turns into a glorified monitor with a keyboard and mouse plugged in with almost no processing being done on the device (including storage.) As you can imagine, this helps with your battery life and allows you to use your device for longer.

Stellar Security

Building a modern operating system from the ground up has its advantages. While the enclosed nature of Chrome OS might feel confining to some extent, it also brings with it an added layer of advantage that you simply can’t expect from Windows.

While Macs still reign supreme in terms of their security (primarily due to their vertical integration with software and hardware), Chrome OS is certainly no slouch. The operating system focuses on security as a paramount feature by introducing metrics like sandboxing which prevent malware / viruses from spreading to other parts of your system if one is infected.

Besides that though, since you’ll primarily be using web applications and with most applications being verified by Google, there’s a very low chance that you’ll be infected with anything nefarious. Even if you do, unlike Windows (looking at you Defender), Chrome OS actually has a capable anti-virus that is updated regularly.

So, if you are worried about your grandma accidentally infecting her computer and having all her personal information phished out, you’ll feel at ease with Chrome OS as it contains multiple security warnings and indicators that ensure you don’t run into any trouble.

Great For Kids (Parental Supervision)

Not a lot of operating systems feature integrated parental control over the cloud right out of the box. And that too, for free. With Google’s Family Link application available on both iOS and Android, you can manage your child’s Chrome OS laptop from the cloud.

You’ll be able to perform the following parental control functions on your child’s Chrome OS enabled laptop:

• Remove private browsing
• Grant visiting permissions to certain websites
• Automatically block sexual content
• Check your child’s browsing history

All these features do not require extra setup and can be activated on your child’s Chrome OS enabled laptop right from the get-go.

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