Can I get some help purchasing a Chromebook?

[GreedyAdam91]

Help me Purchase a Chromebook

Hey Everyone

First post here --> looking to ditch my 2010 MacBook Pro 13.3" -- I have a Note 4 as my phone and Galaxy Tab S 10.1".

I have been looking to finally get rid of my last connection to Apple and get a Chromebook so all my devices are synched. I was looking at anything 11" to 13" - I want it to be lightweight and portable. Something with good Memory & RAM, expandable if possible.

I would love to hear your recommendations and top reason as to why I should make the change. I am looking to spend $200 to $500 -- Can't wait to see what you guys think!

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

Welcome to Android Central! One of the best reviewed Chromebooks is the Toshiba Chromebook 2, which has a 13" screen, with a full HD option available. Acer and Dell also make good Chromebooks--Acers tend to be more lightweight but less sturdy, while Dells are aimed more at the educational market and therefore a bit more rugged (and therefore a little heavier).

Chromebooks come with either 2 GB or 4 GB of RAM. The 4 GB units work a little more smoothly, but for day-to-day use, you probably won't be able to see much difference. SSDs range from 16 GB to 32 GB, but you really don't need much local storage, since you'll likely be relying on Google Drive or other cloud storage. There are currently no Chromebooks that allow you to expand onboard memory. Users have certainly been known to upgrade the SSD, but this is not something that the manufacturers intended, so it's not a straightforward procedure.

I love using Chromebooks, since about 95% on my computing needs can be done in the cloud. If that's you, then you'll love using them as well. Advantages over a PC or Mac include:

1. Lightweight OS with zero bloat, allowing for fast booting.
2. Highly secure--no need for antivirus, and if it falls into the wrong hands, there isn't much they can steal from the onboard storage.
3. Tight Google integration.
4. Good to excellent battery life.
5. System updates are painless--takes about 2-3 minutes to download in the background, and about 10 seconds to reboot and get back to what you were doing.

Good luck, and have fun deciding!

 

[Josiah23]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

Hello @GreedyAdam91 welcome to Android Central! I don't think you have to worry about memory that much, you will probably see little to no difference (depending on how you use the Chromebook). There are tons of Chromebooks in your price range that will do the job. The Toshiba Chromebook 2 that @B. Diddy pointed out is a great lightweight Chromebook, just under 3 pounds. Here is a website that gives you 10 quality Chromebooks (which, one of them happens to be the one pointed out by B. Diddy) in your price range. 9/10 are under $300.
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/mo...romebooks-top-5-chromebooks-in-the-us-1233696

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[GreedyAdam91]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

Thank you for the replies, I'll check those out.

Where can I buy the Toshiba one?

 

[BestPlayerEU]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

Hey guys! I have actually the same question as TS. So, can u help me with choosing a chromebook for myself? It must be (mainly) a lightweight device with a touchscreen. Emm, don't think i'm interested in high-end perfomance for gaming or 3D-modeling.
So, any suggesions?

 

[CHIP72]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

To the OP, at this point I would wait until Toshiba releases the (confusingly named) Chromebook 2 in a few weeks; it will offer the same strengths as the current Toshiba Chromebook but have a better processor (especially if you get the Core i3 version) and a back-lit keyboard.

 

[oscarnyc]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

FYI, the existing Chromebook 2 HD version is on sale refurbished for less than $200 at woot today.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[dullgeek]

I have owned 3 chromebooks:

1. Samsung Series 5
2. Acer C720
3. Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2014 IPS version)

The Samsung was woefully under-powered. I didn't really start to depend on a chromebook until my C720. It went with me everywhere. Where I couldn't find wifi, I would couple it with a hotspot on my phone and be able to get on to the internet and do almost anything I needed to do. I loved that little device. In fact, it's only recently that I gave it to my son while upgrading to the Toshiba.

The Toshiba is an interesting contrast. The one feature that I really love about it is that the bigger and higher resolution screen. It allows me to multitask in ways I couldn't before. I now find that I keep one browser open pinned to the left half of the screen while another is pinned to the right half of the screen. No way I could do that on the tiny screen on the C720.

But unfortunately, the processor is slower. And I can tell that it's slower. Octane 2.0 benchmark on the Toshiba gets around 8500 while on the C720 gets around 11500. If I have more than 3-4 tabs open, I can really feel it. This limits its effectiveness at multitasking. Even with only 2GB of ram, I never felt like the C720 got laggy. But on the Toshiba, I do feel like it gets laggy.

I really love the bigger screen, but the performance is disappointing. I may not have this long given that the 2015 version of the Toshiba has a better processor. One that I understand scores about 17000 in Octane. My fear is that the battery life will suffer. This is yet another critically important feature to me: at least 6hrs of battery life.

$0.02

 

[GreedyAdam91]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

Yeah I am going to buy the new 2015 version. No idea why they did not call it the Chromebook 3 or something.

 

[CHIP72]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

I would also take a look at the Dell Chromebook 13, which has much better build quality than the new (2015) Toshiba Chromebook 2 (C3300/C3350) but costs $100 more for the comparable specification (fanned Celeron processor with 4 GB RAM) model.

 

[ackmondual]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

Hey Everyone

First post here --> looking to ditch my 2010 MacBook Pro 13.3" -- I have a Note 4 as my phone and Galaxy Tab S 10.1".

I have been looking to finally get rid of my last connection to Apple and get a Chromebook so all my devices are synched. I was looking at anything 11" to 13" - I want it to be lightweight and portable. Something with good Memory & RAM, expandable if possible.

I would love to hear your recommendations and top reason as to why I should make the change. I am looking to spend $200 to $500 -- Can't wait to see what you guys think!

All I have experience with is the HP Chromebook 14. As the name suggests, it's got a 14" screen, which is too big for your preferences. Not sure if just under 3.5 lbs is light weight enough. I can still comment on everything else though...

I don't know if it's just with this HP one, or CB in general, but having a Tegra processor and 2GB RAM does suffice most of the time. There are some slow downs, but they're rare. Once in a blue moon, I get a browser tab that tells me I ran out of memory. I close down tabs I'm not using, but not sure what else I can do to better alleviate that (besides disabling services for a converter app that requires internet, and a freeware tank game that were also seeming to cause some Google apps to NOT work).

Still, my CB is quite a delight to use for many internet related stuff. My CB only cost $190 shipped, but it was a refurb from Woot, but you should be able to find something that meets and exceeds my model in terms of performance. Esp. if you pay in the higher range of $500.

 

[Rumblee1]

Re: Help me Purchase a Chromebook

After finding out about Google play going to chromebooks, I did some research and while I'll be waiting a bit longer for the play store, I purchased an asus c201, 4gb. I must say as a macbook air and pro owner, this c201 is very solidly made. Very quick, and had a micro SD card slot for expansion. Its definitely going to retire the macs to only a few uses. Now that the play store is only in developer mode, and bugs are still being worked out, im glad i got this ovet the asus chromebook flip, ONLY because I bought new from Amazon for $167.00 prime last month. The flip was $90.00 more. I. Got a slightly bigger screen, but gave up the touchscreen. Since I'm not a gamer, I don't think that will be a big deal. We'll see. Good luck. P. S.., even though I ran macs for computers, I absolutely hated the always outdated, and uncustomizable iphones.

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