Recs.
Updated
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Backed and supported by Google
Whilst Chrome is based on the open source browser Chromium, Google reviews this code and build on top of it. This means it takes (and contributes to) a number of the benefits of the open source model whilst having the resources, support and investment of a major company.
Pro Complete support for Linux
Contains proprietary ffmpeg codecs and widevine. All pre-packaged for Netflix, Amazon, etc. support on Linux systems.
Pro Good performance
According to TopTen Reviews, Chrome is currently one of the best performing browsers for initial (cold) startup, average startup, and navigation times.
Pro Great built-in developer tools
Chrome comes with built-in developer tools, making testing and enhancing web pages simpler for those of us involved in working with such technologies. As well as being beneficial to developers, this also has some benefit to non-technical users; in that by making testing simpler for developers those developers are more likely to use Chrome for their tests, and can spend more time making improvements over investigating underlying causes of issues.
Pro Syncs between devices
By logging into Chrome using a Google account it's possible to sync history, extensions, passwords, bookmarks and other settings between devices. This makes it great for anyone working with multiple devices as it allows experiencing consistent context when in the browser.
Pro Works great with many extensions
Unlike Firefox, Google Chrome can keep its fast performance regardless of how many extensions are installed. With more than 10 extensions Firefox gets slower and slower in a geometric progression rate. Google Chrome doesn't care how many extensions the user has installed - 3 or 133 it still performs great.
Cons
Con Heavily tied to Google's ecosystem
While it's possible to forego logging into Chrome via a Google account, the browser is designed to be used with a Google account in mind. A Google account is required to sync bookmarks, passwords, history, open tabs and settings for both the browser itself as well as extensions and apps across instances of Chrome both on mobile and desktop.
Con Online tracking by default
Chrome allows opting out of tracking by going to Settings > Advanced > Privacy and un-checking any unwanted services. Alternatively Chromium can be used to get a similar browser experience without Google's services on top of it.
Con Proprietary
Users are unable to view the source code, meaning malicious functionality could be implemented without users having any way to find out or combat it. Moreover, users cannot fork it to create derivative versions, or fix vulnerabilities in the code.
Con High RAM usage
The high performance and speed come at a cost of an abnormally large RAM usage when it comes to Chrome. This isn't a problem with machines with lots of RAM (4GB+) but it's very noticeable with computers that have less RAM than that and can slow it down a lot depending on the number of open tabs.
Con Increasingly slow
When Chrome first came out, it was known for being lightweight and very speedy. Over the years, more and more features have been added to Chrome. Because of this, crashes, errors, and general laggy-ness has increased noticeably.
Con Huge memory hog
Each tab and extension in the browser uses significant chunks of RAM, giving the browser poor performance on machines without enough RAM to supply.
Con Hard/impossible to transfer passwords to a different machine without uploading them to Google
Con Does not hardware accelerate HTML5 video correctly
Chrome is unable to hardware accelerate HTML5 video correctly which makes playing 4k video on laptops a poor experience filled with lag.
Though there is a workaround for YouTube in that a plugin can be installed to force Flash playback instead of HTML5, which plays smoothly and has no HW acceleration issues. There's another plugin (h264ify) that will force to use the h.264 codec video if available instead of the VP9 one which is the resource hog.
Recommendations
Comments
Flagged Pros + Cons
Con Blurred fonts on Windows
Fonts on Windows are blurred, that is especially noticeable in light fonts on dark background. Small italic text is hard to read.
Pro Sandboxed tabs
Every tab runs as their own process, so if one crashes or becomes unresponsive, the whole browser isn't affected.
Pro Open-source
The browser is completely open-source (as Chromium), except the proprietary media codecs like AAC, H.264, MP3 and Adobe Flash, that can't be legally open-sourced.