Maria Korolov
Contributing writer

10 reasons to take a Chromebook on the road

analysis
Oct 24, 20131 min

When it comes to computing on the go, Chromebooks have a lot to offer

If you’re trying to decide which device to buy for your next trip because your current laptop is too old, too slow, too heavy and just plain too embarrassing; or, conversely, too new and too expensive to risk a mishap on the road, consider a Chromebook.

Here are 10 reasons why.

1. It works even without an Internet connection

Yes, a Chromebook is basically just the Chrome browser with the minimum possible hardware and operating system wrapped around it, and normally a browser is pretty useless without the Web. But if you’re using Google Drive, then your Google documents and applications are still available offline.

The way it works is that the Chromebook downloads the last 100 files you opened in Google Drive, plus any files you specifically flag that you want to work on offline. (There’s a setting under the More option in the left-side tool bar of Google Drive that enables offline access.)

The Chromebook’s offline functionality includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, photo editing, email, calendar, a music player, plus hundred more other offline apps available for download from the Google Chrome Web Store. And that includes Angry Birds. You can also save Web pages for later offline reading.

Maria Korolov
Contributing writer

Maria Korolov is an award-winning technology journalist with over 20 years of experience covering enterprise technology, mostly for Foundry publications -- CIO, CSO, Network World, Computerworld, PCWorld, and others. She is a speaker, a sci-fi author and magazine editor, and the host of a YouTube channel. She ran a business news bureau in Asia for five years and reported for the Chicago Tribune, Reuters, UPI, the Associated Press and The Hollywood Reporter. In the 1990s, she was a war correspondent in the former Soviet Union and reported from a dozen war zones, including Chechnya and Afghanistan.

Maria won 2025 AZBEE awards for her coverage of Broadcom VMware and Quantum Computing.

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