I know I'm late (way late) to the party but I just bought a very cheap Chromebbook and it beats both of my Windows and mac book i7 machines when browsing the web.<p>Both my i7s are fast but when browsing the web there's always a period of time when things slow to a crawl when web browsing or the never ending updates that tie them up at some very inopportune times.<p>I was surprised how smooth and hassle free it is. I use an ad blocker. I will still need my 2 i7s for work but I'm sold. If I'm browsing the web to relax I'm using a Chromebook from now on.<p>I know most people think of them as less than great but both windows and OSX have gotten so blotted that it slows down even the fastest CPU. Google has done a great job at optimizing the code to work well with low end CPUs. Both Apple and Microsoft should learn from it and create a web only OS.
I can only speak for myself, but for me they are devices in search of a purpose. If I'm passively browsing, my phone covers that. If I need to do active work, then I use my laptop. For me, I don't have a need for the small overlap in the Venn diagram.<p>I think they make great sense in the edu market and other similar scenarios.