Scooter Computer and Mr. Cheap.

It’s cute. It’s lightweight. It’s inexpensive. It’s energy-efficient and it basically gets you around. But if you need to haul heavy stuff, or take an epic road trip, you might want something with a little more power under the hood. The original Samsung Chromebook is to laptops what the scooter is to motor vehicles.

Low in price, limited in power, what it lacks in comfort and features it makes up for in style and ease. If you just want to do something simple like browse the web or check your email or watch Netflix, it starts up fast and hassle-free. You’ll never strain yourself lugging it around. If that’s all you need in a spare computer, or even your first-string computer, rev it up and go. Did you notice how ridiculously cheap it is?

But we wouldn’t recommend it for heavy-duty work, in either the digital or physical senses. The Chrome OS is limited to the browser-based apps in the Chrome Store, so no iTunes, Skype, Office, PC games, etc. The 2GB system memory and 16GB SSD drive couldn’t handle much of that stuff even if Chrome OS allowed it. And if you need a tank of a laptop to stand up to hard travelling, get something more rugged. In any case, you need WiFi to do almost anything with a Chromebook anyway, so the road is not its optimal habitat.

Why get a Chromebook? Why are scooters more popular than ever? Not because they can do so much, but because they don’t ask much in return. This ludicrously low-priced Samsung Chromebook is the most computer - really, the only computer - you can get for this much money.

Just don’t play chicken with any 18-wheelers. And sometimes mean, tough guys with bigger, louder machines might point and laugh. Don’t let it bother you. They’re really the insecure ones. Right, guys? Right?