Not everybody wants to make stuff, however. At this stage, the CR-48 isn't even quite as functional as the iPad, which was early on derided as a machine for consumption, not creation. (A trope now disproved by the many and varied wondrous things people have harnessed it for.) True, Chrome OS’s reliance on a physical keyboard makes it better for writing, messaging, and e-mailing, but iPad offers a better gaming and movie-watching experience—and the tactility of its multitouch navigation engages in an entirely novel way, to boot. Chrome’s meager advantages aren't enough to qualify it as a full-blown OS—it’s basically, and somewhat unapologetically, a computer wrapped around a Web browser—nor to justify its somewhat puzzling existence alongside Google's Android OS for mobile devices.

One other small—and hopefully short-lived—problem: the CR-48 is currently useless on most planes. Disable the Wi-Fi and 3G services, cutting off your access to the cloud, and there is no way to edit documents, read PDFs, or do any of the offline work possible in traditional operating systems. Google, however, , which should happily resolve that issue.

That said, I’ve written this entire review on the CR-48, and it’s been a fine experience. In a few minutes, though, I’ll want to package this story it with photos and send it my editor for publishing. To do that, I’ll shut down this device and move to the Mac, where those tasks will be much easier. That might tell you everything you need to know about the need for a cloud-based operating system like Chrome OS.