Chrome Book . . . Reviews?

[NightTrainLayne]

My iPad is getting old, and frankly sometimes so slow that it is becoming unusable. I've done all I can in terms of emptying cache's and changing settings etc. to eak out as much speed as possible, but it's just becoming painfully slow for we browsing. Still plays movies and music great, but mainly I use it for web surfing, including visiting here.

So, I'm looking to replace it, and it looks like a Chrome book might actually be a great option for me. As with the iPad, I don't plan to do any heavy duty computing with it. I already utilize gmail etc. I am never very far away from a wi-fi connection, and even if I am, have a 4g hotspot with my phone.

I would actually like a real keyboard. I became pretty proficient wit the iPad on-screen keyboard, but let's face it, someone who actually knows how to type is really slowed down by such a thing, and if you want to type a long-winded post on an internet forum, it can take forever.

So. .. . what are the downsides I'm missing? Anyone have one? Anyone recommend or not recommend one?

[Valar Morghulis]

I got one for my daughter - it is awesome. I see no down side for anyone wanting just to access the internet using wifi

[MasterShake]

Pretty basic and relies on web based apps to cut down on memory usage/storage. Not a bad little machine for the price.

[BroncoWave]

I was literally just about to start a thread on this as I just got a chromebook the other day. I absolutely love it. It's lightning quick, lightweight, just perfect for what I need.

I've read that's it's not great for heavy-duty things like gaming or video editing, but I don't do any of that so this is perfect for me.

Most of my computing involves surfing the web, doing word/excel stuff (which I use google docs for now and have no issues with), and watching stuff on youtube/netflix.

If stuff like that is mostly what you use a computer for, I would definitely recommend this. I have just been using a tablet for the last 6 months or so and I was just tired of it.

Sounds like you and I are basically in the exact same boat here NTL. Tablet got old and slow and I was looking for something to replace it with. Let me know if you have any more specific questions. I'm still learning myself, but I will try to help.

[NightTrainLayne]

Thanks guys. For the price, and for what I actually do with my iPad, this seems like a no-brainer.

Seemed like one of those almost "too good to be true" deals, where there was a catch.

BW and Valar, post any hints or helps that you run across.

Thanks!

[BroncoWave]

Now there are quite a few chromebook options, so I would read reviews on several before deciding on one. I went with the Acer Chromebook 11 because it was a great price at $150 and had really good reviews. There are some newer and better ones from what I have seen, though, that cost a little more.

[underrated29]

What is the general price of them that you guys are seeing? How many gigs do they have? I have never looked into them before but my Ipad is becoming increasingly slow. Enough that I was thinking I may need to look at an upgrade for my bday. Maybe I will just get one of these chrome things if they are pretty cheap.

[underrated29]

Now there are quite a few chromebook options, so I would read reviews on several before deciding on one. I went with the Acer Chromebook 11 because it was a great price at $150 and had really good reviews. There are some newer and better ones from what I have seen, though, that cost a little more.




Oh sweet. So you can get some apps on it im sure, and watch some youtube and also surf the web and its nice and fast and easy and wont crash? $150 is really cheap. I think my ipad was like $400 or something.....Its been a long while so I dont remember.

[NightTrainLayne]

What is the general price of them that you guys are seeing? How many gigs do they have? I have never looked into them before but my Ipad is becoming increasingly slow. Enough that I was thinking I may need to look at an upgrade for my bday. Maybe I will just get one of these chrome things if they are pretty cheap.

I've seen everything from $150, to $229, to $900 depending on various attributes.

They are designed as I understand it for "cloud computing". Therefore, the actual gigabytes of physical memory on the device itself is not as important. It looks like most of them are being offered with 100 gigabytes of "cloud memory" from Google Drive to 2 years for free.

[BroncoWave]

The internal on mine is 2GB, but others are up to around 16 or so. That tends to correlate with price, which mine is on the lower end of. Most of the apps are web based, so they don't actually take up any memory. And again, you get the 100GB of cloud storage free for 2 years. Given that the things that take up the most space on other devices are apps (which again, don't use much if any memory being web-based) and pics/docs/videos (which you can put on the cloud) the actual internal memory available isn't too big of a deal.

[Davii]

Love them. Perfect balance I think. My sister got one of the first ones and still loves. It's a couple years old and has had no noticeable slow down, still comes right on, still super quick

[BroncoWave]

Love them. Perfect balance I think. My sister got one of the first ones and still loves. It's a couple years old and has had no noticeable slow down, still comes right on, still super quick

It's awesome how quickly it boots up. Fully boots up in less than 10 seconds from being powered off. And it just installed updates the other day, and the whole process including restart took less than 30 seconds. That is certainly a welcome change from Windows.

[aberdien]

I have had a Samsung one for the last 2 years. It did everything I needed: YouTube, spotify, basic Internet usage, writing papers using Google docs. Unless you badly want iTunes or something, I have experienced no downsides. It's lightweight, good battery life, cheap (250), and does everything I need.

[BroncoWave]

I have had a Samsung one for the last 2 years. It did everything I needed: YouTube, spotify, basic Internet usage, writing papers using Google docs. Unless you badly want iTunes or something, I have experienced no downsides. It's lightweight, good battery life, cheap (250), and does everything I need.

Yeah, battery life is awesome. Can use it pretty much all day on one charge, with watching videos and such.

[MasterShake]

I've seen everything from $150, to $229, to $900 depending on various attributes.

They are designed as I understand it for "cloud computing". Therefore, the actual gigabytes of physical memory on the device itself is not as important. It looks like most of them are being offered with 100 gigabytes of "cloud memory" from Google Drive to 2 years for free.

Yup, exactly what I was referring to. It relies heavily on Google cloud services and web based apps. If you are good about managing your stuff on Google drive you should never run out of space. The solid state drives are a great feature as well on some models, less stuff to break down on you. I think for work stuff (notes, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.) Chromebook's are ideal. For something in the middle with more power for things like photoshop the Surface Pro is great. And if you just want something that can be your desktop as well as be portable just stick with a Mac or PC laptop. I imagine soon desktops will be relics of the past except for things like PC gaming, design, and video editing type professions.