Chrome Books, what's the point?
Community Forums/General Help/Chrome Books, what's the point?
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| I've been eyeing up what to buy with my redundancy (mostly a decent video editing rig and HD camcorder, but thats for another thread altogether) but I'm umming and erring over a tablet/netbook, for the price of a semi decent chromebook you are into the average full on laptop league, makes me wonder, what is the point of one? every time I look online for something like this (just so I can get back into writing on the go) I look at the hmm for £x more I can get x y or z feature on a laptop, then browse the laptop sections ignoring the chromebook altogether, hell the Asus Transformer which I like in concept goes for £400 give or take and that again is why bother when you can get a laptop for the price, originally it sold the KB seperatly and I know the KB is more than a KB its a USB hub and extra power source, but it was over £100 ffs. All the pro's of a netbook/chromebook seem to get whacked down when you look at the prices of a laptop. So what are the really good reasons to even consider slapping down the cash on a chromebook vs a few extra for a laptop? edit: one of the 'turn off's' was the 16gb SSD found in most vs 300gb average on hard drives, funny the cheapest at pc world actually has a 320 gb HDD Last edited 2012 |
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| just so I can get back into writing on the go If that's all you need then just go to Laptops Direct or somewhere and pick up the cheapest netbook/notebook they've got. Pretty much anything will do what you want it for.The only two sticking points may be the keyboard layouts (some have the home/del keys in stupid places), and the screen size. But other than that you do not need top spec. |
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| So what are the really good reasons to even consider slapping down the cash on a chromebook vs a few extra for a laptop? "Few extra" or "three times as much"? I thought the point of Chromebooks was that they were cheape- *looks at prices* Oh. Yeah you could at the very least get a decent netbook for the UK price. Any laptop you can get for that price bracket that isn't marketed as a netbook or Chromebook will be utterly crap, though. Well the other selling point is the simplicity of not having to think about OS operation at all, not having to worry about files or running programs or anything to a point that makes iOS look overcomplicated. I have a feeling it would be infuriating for a programmer/poweruser to live in such an environment. |
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| It's my predominant reason, looking up on and watching a few vids on the £200 chromebook, it seems its a first and all others were kinda WTF price range for what you got, hence my head scratching as to what exactly is the point of chrome book, which I am still curious about, why go to that ammount of dosh when something better is out for a wee bit more? the acer chromebook does look nice and impulse buy (if pissy werld have retail stock not just online) all this cloud nonsence makes me wonder if it can actually be used off line for basics like text editing, but you can rig it to dual boot to Ubunto (sp) so if it can not be used feasably off line Linux and Libre office to the rescue. I could check out dirt cheap 2nd hand and give that Laptops direct a quick whirl, but tbh £200 is dirt cheap even if it is a celery processor. edit: I thought the point of Chromebooks was that they were cheape- *looks at prices* Oh. Yeah you could at the very least get a decent netbook for the UK price. Aye if the £/$ was actaully accurate the acer one would be really cheap as it's $200 and £200, alas ripoff britain still exists. But the Samsung ones are in the price bracket of "damn look what else I can buy" (prices only checked at pissy wurld so far) Last edited 2012 |
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| A tablet is not a replacement for a notebook, it is a separate device. I still use my notebook quite a bit, but I love my tablet. If I am sitting on my couch, or on a plane, or laying in bed, and I just want to simply browse the net for something, read a book, watch a movie, play a simple game, etc I pull out my tablet. It is quick, easy to use, not bulky, etc... They both have their place. A notebook can do the same things a tablet can do and more. So if you are going to have just one, I would get a notebook. A tablet just does what it does less intrusively. |
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| Although I did meantion tablets in the OP, I am looking at gagets in general (not fancying the idea of touch typing a few chapters on a Galaxy Note fwiw) to spend my redundancy on (8 months due circa march) the thread is predominantly about what is the point of a chrome book. aside from the £200 one meantioned, UK prices from PCworld had the samsung ones slap bang in the middle of "Bigger Better more or less the same £" Celeron powered chromebook £380, i3 powered Samsung £400 and thats 6gb/500gb vs 4bg and a poxy 16gb SSD As you should have noticed I did call the celeron celery before, as I've never seen it as a real chip to begin with and to charge the same ammount of dosh as an i3 chip is a bit o.O, so what makes a chrome book so damn worth it? |
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| Judging by usage statistics, the answer to the question "What makes a chrome book worth it?" is "nothing". It's a concept that google has taken to market. If you're on board then you're on board, otherwise you're not because it doesn't make any sense if you're not buying into the whole live you life in the cloud pitch. Of note: you can use a chrome book in a limited capacity offline, but really if you're not expecting 99% up time on your internet connection don't bother, you lose out over anything else that was actually designed to be used offline from the start rather than having app caching for offline use patched in down the road. If ALL you want to do is write and browse the web, and you expect to be near wifi basically ALL the time, or you are willing to invest in a cell connection of some type then a chrome book is a really interesting thing. No worrying about your docs. No updating, none of the daily hassles. In the real world you're paying *extra* for simplicity, not saving money by having things removed. If you might be offline for an hour, or you'd like any kind of control over what you're using the chrome book goes right off the table as a viable option. In the real world there are HUGE numbers of people that *could* use a chromebook as their main system (grandma for example. never leaves the house, would like to sit in her favorite chair, doesn't get the concept of moving windows around, etc.). But at the price point, and with any level of historical computer experience it's all wall and no garden. |
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| Chrome books were before tablets got hugely popular. I would think they will go the way of the DoDo soon. |
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You could get more use out of it by installing Ubuntu or Fedora. |
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| Already meantined that a few posts ago, iir thats from the liliputer (sp) website where I did some research |
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| The point is they are suppose to be featureless. A quality that most computer people seem unable to comprehend. |
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| I almost went home via pc world to see if they sold it in stores yesterday, but as it started to rain I decided not to, I could order it online if I was really commited to the idea (would rather try it out first to see if I could enjoy using that keyboard more than anything else), but living in a shared house, well if they just leave it with a house mate whos to say I might as well just given one of em £200. If it's returned to the main depot, well that's right behind the pc world in town, kinda defeats the purpous of home delivery if I have to go out of my way to pick it up from a few hundred yards away from the store. Also, Capt, I know you jump in with ideas like this all the time (even if you end up being the 3rd one to sugest it sometimes ;) ) but that image says nothing to me that it's Linux, it's just a pic of an acer laptop no real clue it was even the chromebook (save for the fact I was at the liliputing site reading up on Ubunto on it and it kinda looked like his desk), but please, you could have linked to the article, 'sall I'm saying |
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