Anyone have a chromebook?

[UPDATE] I got one. its going pretty well so far. Actually I like it a whole lot. [/UPDATE]

My macbook is like 9 years old and all I use it for is Web browsing on chrome. So a chromebook sounds appealing. I should also say that my laptop is a companion to my desktop so its off to the side when I'm doing real stuff on the pc.

Should I get one?

I have an old Samsung Series 5 that was pretty awesome for a while. A little slow these days, so I just use my MacBook or iPad, but yeah for web browsing and as a secondary computer they're great. I assume newer iterations have only gotten better. Just make sure you get one with a decent screen, as color distortion at the slightest of angles can get real old.

Also, from what I hear, Google is looking to merge Android and Chrome OS into a singular thing, so that could prove to be pretty cool when it happens. It'd be neat to have a relatively cheap touchscreen laptop that supports everything on the Google Play store.

I'm just getting real tired of how slow my macbook is. I feel like anything would be an improvement and I can't spend much and I don't trust cheap windows laptops at all. but yeah it will take several minutes just open a tab and come here to make a post.it's faster to just use my phone.

@devil240z: That sounds crazy slow. I just took a look at the wirecutter's recommendation and as of a few weeks ago they're recommending the 2015 refresh of Toshiba's Chromebook 2.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-chromebook/#

Seems like a good option with a nice screen and plenty of RAM. That's the thing about Chromebooks is you want to avoid ones with low amounts of RAM, as tabs just don't load quickly enough with less than 4 gigs.

There's also the Asus Chromebook Flip for a pretty low price of $260, which has a screen that flips around for tablet use. Not quite as polished overall as the Toshiba, though, from what I've gathered.

Anyway. As a previous Chromebook user, I actually find myself thinking about buying a new model quite a bit. Those little machines are neat, and I'd recommend it if you're interested and understand the limitations of the system.

My mum has one, perfect for people who just want to browse, write or work on some documents and occasionally watch some streaming video or listen to spotify. That's pretty much all you can do with them but they're excellent at it - the one my mum has has one of the best keyboards I have seen on a laptop. Does a lot of the work of a tablet at a lower price and with a proper keyboard.

Very nice lean and focused OS too.

@devil240z: I have one. I am really enjoying it. Its super cheap and really durable. Just know its kind of useless without a wifi connection, but its still a great little companion piece. I'm not a big tablet person so its perfect for me.

I like mine (Acer C720). Battery lasts forever. The screens on most chrome books are crappy, though, due to how cheap they are. Another bonus is it'll run Linux from an SD card using Crouton so you can play some steam games on it with some work (FTL runs great).

It's absolute hot garbage for pretty much anyone. If you don't ever need to write or send documents, Power Points, or Excel to anyone, or do any kind of productivity work, you're fine. The minute you have to do more than check an email or browse the Internet you'll find it's just beyond frustrating. We got them in college and it was so frustrating I tried to return it an ask for a credit to my account.

I would say if you use your laptop (or want to use a laptop) for anything more than web browsing, do not get a Chromebook. If you're a video editor or a video game developer or an artist or someone who needs powerful hardware to make stuff on the go, just spend the extra cash and get a laptop that you can rely on if you're in a situation where you need it. You don't wanna be the one guy lugging his 15 pound PC into a game jam and spending 5 minutes setting it up while everyone else is brainstorming.

I've got a Toshiba Chromebook 2. I like it and it gets the job done. If you only want to use it for streaming videos and music, and web browsing, it'll work for you. The battery life is great, it doesn't overheat, and I don't notice any slowdowns while using multiple pages. If you can survive using Google Apps instead of Microsoft products, and are fine not playing games or doing any video processing, then a Chromebook could be work.

My husband and I purchased one when our ancient laptop finally gave up the ghost, and it's serviceable. It works well for browsing the internet, emails and stuff like that. Watching videos is where it can get a bit slow. The worst is trying to do something like watch UPF and participate in the chat. I know that's not a common use case for people normally buying it, but I do it enough to where the slowdown is enough to make me want to go upstairs to use my normal tower PC.

So I would say that it depends very much on what you intend to use it for. The way we use it, it's pretty good, but if you want to get into more intense programs and internet stuff, you might want to look for something with a bit more power. For what you are saying, as a companion to PC, that sounds just fine. You just have to understand its capabilities when getting one. :)

Posting from my Toshiba Chromebook 2. I got it back in August for watching video and schoolwork with Google Drive, haven't had any problems with it so far!

I'm typing this from an Acer C720. I put in a cheap 128 gig flash memory chip in it (took about 10 minutes to install using a guide from the web) and used Crouton to install Linux (which also took about ten minutes). I can flip back and forth between ChromeOS and Linux with a keyboard shortcut. It's great for internet browsing and videos, and Linux can handle games like Rogue Legacy, Crusader Kings 2 and Stealth Inc with no issues, as well as run programming IDEs like QT Creator and PyCharm. I actually prefer using it to my 2013 Macbook Air.

So in short, yes, highly recommended.

well I got one. Messing with it for the first time right now. Seems good so far. But Im not at home so I'm using wifi tethering from my phone. Its been a long time since I have used a non macbook trackpad so tapping the pad to click is weird but its not like I plan on doing much click intensive stuff. Screen seems alright if a little washed out when the brightness is all the way up. Keyboard is good. But ive spilled so much beer and soda on my macbook over the years.

Is tapping the only option for clicking? Seems strange.

@substance_d: no it does both and I turned off tapping.

Just doing a check in. Almost two weeks in. Loving this thing so far.

@devil240z: Which model did you end up with?

An Acer.

This thread interests me because I am kinda curious about picking one of these up. Pretty much all I use my laptop for at this point is Chrome an Spotify.

So can I ask, people who do have them:

Is it a noticeably quick web browsing experience?

Is it usable at all for documents/Google Drive while offline?

And how has the battery life been on your models?

Thanks!

If everything you will use this for is online then a Chromebook will work perfect for you. The battery life is pretty great on most models.

As with a lot of purchases like this, I suggest The Wirecutter. Here is a great breakdown of chromebooks: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-chromebook/

Out of the box a chrome book is 100% online but if you are curious about doing certain things like g-documents offline check out the chrome webstore cause all that stuff works on chrome. I'm pretty sure google docs runs offline and syncs when you connect.

Okay I just checked and docs totally works offline. drive does too I think you just have to tell it what stuff you want to be synced offline.

you can basically simulate life with a chromebook by only using stuff off the chrome webstore if you want to see what its like to use a chromebook.

I cant say as to the speediness of the browsing cause my internet kinda sucks where I am right now.

the battery life is great on mine. Doesn't get hot and there isn't even a fan on it anyway so it never makes any noise.

@devil240z: @ssully: That's great, thank you. Sounds like it's right up my alley then!

Yeah I got one for the same reasons. Everything I used my old laptop is in chrome and I'm already super embedded into the chrome/android ecosystem so it was a really smooth transition. Might want to get a bluetooth speaker or something if you are gonna use spotify alot cause I doubt many chromebooks are gonna have phenomenal speakers.

Would a Chromebook be a good option for school? I'm starting some part-time classes in January, and I already have a laptop for work that I need to carry around, so I'd prefer something really small and light, so a second laptop is a nope.

Well if any of your classes require you to run a specific piece of software it would be bad. But if you just need it for note taking/writing/web stuff then it would be okay.

No it's nothing IT related, so I doubt there would any specific software I would need to run, and it would mostly just be for note taking. I guess there is a possibility I may need to use Excel, but I would have other computers to do that.

Well chromebooks have Google Sheets which is their version of Excel. And if you're unsure if it will do what you need you can just use it now in your browser. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets

I grabbed an Acer one for my wife about 2 years ago and the SSD just failed on it.

I have a chromecart with about 35 chromebooks at work and my students use them for research browsing, Sumdog, and typing google docs. They seem servicable, for limited applications of course, and there are great pricing deals for schools. They will conk out if they are left unhooked or if the cart is not plugged in every day after use.

I bought a Chromebook during a sale and have been enjoying it so far, its a great Netflix machine.