Trying ChromeOS Flex

My trusty Thinkpad X390 has been a reliable companion for several years but I recently noticed a drop in performance. I don’t install too much beyond the defaults since most of what I need to get done happens in the browser. I could have refreshed Windows 11 and started over without much effort. I have been thinking about “the next PC”, however, and recalled a conversation I had here on Thurrott.com about moving to Chromebook. The only problem is that my Thinkpad is still in great shape and, all things considered, not that old. I’m not ready to move on to something new. But I am willing to experiment. 

I did some research and found that ChromeOS Flex, Google’s distribution of ChromeOS for PCs that are not Chromebooks, might work on my Thinkpad. The X390 was not on the officially supported list but the previous models in the X series were. I was feeling adventurous and my son, a Chromebook fanatic, cheered me on. I took the plunge and installed ChromeOS Flex. 

I will state up front that we still have a Windows 11 desktop in the family office. I can use it any time I need Windows. I rely on Windows for my job but a PC is provided to me through work. I use my Thinkpad a lot, however, and if using ChromeOS could be a viable platform for my personal life it is the best device to test with. 

Installing ChromeOS Flex was about as easy as I could have imagined. I installed Google’s “Chromebook Recovery Utility” Chrome Extension and plugged in a USB hard drive I had laying around. I ran the extension, chose “ChromeOS Flex” as my device and OS, and let it write a bootable image to the external drive. I rebooted, booted from the USB drive, and when given the prompt to install or run ChromeOS Flex live from the drive, I chose the live image. This let me test ChromeOS Flex to ensure my hardware would work and I liked the experience. The OS itself ran smoothly and after spending an hour playing around I decided to commit to running ChromeOS Flex. 

After a reboot, I clicked the option to install ChromeOS Flex. I put my son in the driver’s seat and watched as he clicked to confirm we wanted to wipe the internal drive and install. A screen popped up to let us know ChromeOS Flex was installing and a few minutes later (and I’m talking two, maybe three minutes), we received a message that the computer would shut down in one minute, we were to remove the external storage, and power the computer back on. We powered the computer back on, I signed into my Google account, answered a few questions about diagnostic data and syncing bookmarks, and that was it. I was running ChromeOS Flex on my Thinkpad X390. 

How does it run? ChromeOS Flex boots in less than three seconds. The trackpad is smooth and responsive as is the iconic Thinkpad Trackpoint. Half of the function key options don’t work except for volume, brightness, and Lenovo’s mappable “star” key (it opens Chrome’s bookmarks). The fingerprint reader does not work, though I knew that from reading the documentation prior to installing. The Thinkpad runs cooler overall and I almost never hear the fan. Battery life seems about the same as Windows but I will get a better idea of that over time.

I am impressed by how well ChromeOS Flex runs. I understand it is browser based and lightweight by design but it works really well. I can always go back to Windows if I want to but I’m liking the ChromeOS Flex experience so far. I have been inching back into Google services, particularly Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Keep. It is no surprise that ChromeOS Flex handles all of these well. I noticed Docs in particular loaded much faster than in Chrome on Windows. The whole thing is a pleasant experience.

The biggest question I am asking myself is who ChromeOS Flex is for? I think a lot of people in techie circles like this community would opt for a traditional Linux distro for the extra flexibility before opting for ChromeOS Flex. The average user will likely run Windows until their PC falls apart and if ChromeOS is in their future they’ll just buy a Chromebook next time and never consider Flex. As for me, I am going to stick with it for a while. I’m happy so far and I haven’t found any roadblocks to what I want to accomplish.