Best Valued Chromebook

[timoseewho]

Hello, I just wanted to know the general public's opinion on Chromebooks as I haven't been keeping up with those. I'm just looking for one to do some surfing and documents, nothing big. Are they worth it atm? Also how user friendly is the ui? Would say.. My grandfather who barely uses his Microsoft pc be able to adjust? Thanks!

 

[Ravynmagi]

The Dell sounds like it's the good one right now. Looks pretty nice, has a Haswell CPU, 4GB of RAM, a good keyboard and great battery life.

Samsung has two new Chromebooks coming out... in theory, seems like they keep getting delayed. The 11 inch looks nice, but has kinda crappy specs, the 13 inch looks like crap, but has better specs, though both run off ARM processors. Not sure what cruel game Samsung is playing at. I'd probably skip this train wreck.

 

[Ravynmagi]

PS. While I'm not sure I'd recommend it to most people. I got the HP Chromebook 11.

It's pretty slow and has terrible battery life by Chromebook standards (about 4.5 hours).

However Google worked with HP on the designed, it has a reinforced frame so it feels very solid, no flex anywhere, has an outstanding keyboard and trackpad, good forward facing speakers (they come up through the keyboard), and a very nice looking IPS displays (won't find any Chromebook with IPS except this and the $1500 Pixel sadly).

Since I use my Chromebook for light casual web surfing it works fine for me. It really can't do much more than that though.

 

[s44]

For your grandfather I'd recomend the Toshiba 13". Cheap, fast enough, significantly larger screen area than the 11" models but not big and bulky like the HP 14. Lower-res than the 13" Samsung Chromebook 2 but I'm not sure that's an issue for his purposes.

As far as user friendliness... it's significantly more idiot-proof than any tablet. Anyone who's used Chrome, and certainly anyone who mostly uses Windows for Chrome, will get it very quickly.

 

[Bateluer]

Hello, I just wanted to know the general public's opinion on Chromebooks as I haven't been keeping up with those. I'm just looking for one to do some surfing and documents, nothing big. Are they worth it atm? Also how user friendly is the ui? Would say.. My grandfather who barely uses his Microsoft pc be able to adjust? Thanks!

The UI is the Chrome web browser. If your grandfather has browsed the web with Chrome, he's more or less used ChromeOS. Its very easy to use.

Market opinion of them is very popular, 7 out of the top 10 selling notebooks on Amazon were CBs, last I looked. And Microsoft is scared shitless of them.

If you are going to going to get one, look for one using the Celeron 2955U. It runs circles around the older Exynos 5 ARM part in the Samsung XE303 and HP CB11. We should see reviews soon for Samsung's new Chromebook 2 line though, which use newer Exynos ARM parts.

 

[timoseewho]

Alright thanks guys!

 

[ponyo]

I'm a huge fan of Chromebook and Chromebox. I think it's brilliant. For my needs it's perfect and does everything I need. I think the best value is the Acer C720. It's $199. http://www.amazon.com/Acer-C720-Chromebook-11-6-Inch-2GB/dp/B00FNPD1VW/ref=pd_ts_zgc_e_565108_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&pf_rd_p=1611884842&pf_rd_s=right-5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=507846&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=15DCA60KD8FWBT1CVBKS

Do not get the ARM Chromebook. It was nice when it was first released but the Intel Celeron 2955U is better and faster.

 

[timoseewho]

Before I go ahead and order one, are these things fast? It seems like I'd be taking a huge step backwards in terms of specs lol. Is it sluggish switching between tabs/processes, open/closing documents, etc etc.?

 

[ninaholic37]

If you want fast, the post above yours is probably best advice atm:

Do not get the ARM Chromebook. It was nice when it was first released but the Intel Celeron 2955U is better and faster.

There are some complaints about the keyboard on the C720 though:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36310846&postcount=56

 

[Ravynmagi]

There are several Chromebooks with low end Haswell chips like the C720. The C720 would be the last thing I'd pick unless you are on a very tight budget and looking for the cheapest Chromebook available.

The Dell 11, Toshiba 13, and HP 14 Chromebooks all have the Haswell based Celeron 2955U CPU. And it's fast enough for anything you can do on a Chromebook. All much better quality than the C720.

 

[ponyo]

Before I go ahead and order one, are these things fast? It seems like I'd be taking a huge step backwards in terms of specs lol. Is it sluggish switching between tabs/processes, open/closing documents, etc etc.?

It's fast. Trust me. You won't be disappointed with the performance or the speed. ChromeOS is extremely light and the 16 or 32gb SSD is plenty fast. It boots up in seconds. I have the Asus Chromebox which has the exact same guts as the Acer C720 minus the screen. I can't tell the difference between it and my i5 desktop with SSD and my i5 laptop with SSD. It's that good. I have the Chromebox hacked to dual boot to ChromeOS and OpenELEC. But you can pretty much put any Linux of your choosing on there. Acer C720 has good support in the hacking community.

My daughter has the Samsung ARM Chromebook. She loves the laptop and uses it constantly. I bought it for her two Christmas ago. It was a great laptop then and is still great laptop now but the ARM chip is old and slow and hasn't been updated in years. Having used both ARM and Haswell Celeron with ChromeOS, I would definitely go with the Intel Celeron. No question.

 

[CuriousMike]

The C720 would be the last thing I'd pick unless you are on a very tight budget and looking for the cheapest Chromebook available.

I might disagree with that -- I think for the price, the C720 is actually a choice to be considered, and the quality isn't that much worse off than all the other Intel-based variants.

I would definitely recommend looking at the Toshiba as it's 13" form factor might be better suited for you.

For general computing use, the Intel-based Chromebooks work as well as most mid-level PC desktop/laptops ... you'd probably never notice a speed difference.

 

[CuriousMike]

Also, I find the reddit Chromebooks sub-forum pretty good if you need more info.
http://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos

 

[Cerb]

Acer's C720 is good, save for the keyboard. It's total crap (as in I've got key caps worn off--not labels, but the scissor stabilizers that hold the cap on--and that started after less than two months of use). Not a problem if not typing much.

Acer's C710 can be found used/refurb cheap quite often, and is a very good value (often <$150 w/ SSD). A bit less battery life, you won't notice the slightly worse performance, and its RAM and SSD/HDD can be upgraded. Also, it has a decent keyboard.

Most of the ARM ones are like a typical phone or tablet, performance-wise. Not acceptable, IMO, when the Haswell based ones are available. Even the new Atoms and Jaguars are better, if barely. Samsung's ARM one (I forget the model, ATM) comes with a 1080P display and gets fantastic battery life, though.

HP and Dell both definitely offer a bit better quality, overall, and you pay some for it. I'd get Dell's, if the main goal is to not fuss with Windows, mroe-so than just getting a cheap notebook. Lenovo's is OK, but with the SB and Haswell CPUs in other Chromebooks, it just doesn't make much sense, for a personal purchase (they use crippled Jaguars, but it's ruggedized, so sells to schools about as fast as they can make them, it seems).

 

[timoseewho]

Thanks for the comparisons, off to get myself one!

 

[JoeMcJoe]

Don't get an ARM one, sooooo slow.

HP14 is really good, you can get refurbs for around $200 on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-14-Q010N...58731445?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item5664d2e9b5

Get the one with 4GB ram.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Saying a Chromebook is good except the keyboard is crap to me seems like saying a car is good except the wheels might come off.

The keyboard is kinda key, if it's crap, nothing else really matters. At least for me.

Also found the display on the C720 to be worst of the Chromebooks I've checked out as well. I think the matte coating was a bit think or something text looked pretty grainy.

 

[Cerb]

Saying a Chromebook is good except the keyboard is crap to me seems like saying a car is good except the wheels might come off.

Lots of folks have had no problems with it. They use it as a consumption device for web stuff only, so aren't putting a lot of wear on the keys, as opposed to spending lots of time in text editors and terminals (even mostly reading puts the arrow keys to good use). Checking it out under a magnifying glass, though, it's definitely how it was made, more than just my particular unit. You get what you pay for. I got a USB numpad to deal with mine, which I would now not want to do without, even if I had instead gotten a $1200+ Ultrabook.

People buy and use cars that will wear out, break, or just not work, under other folks' uses, all the time, if we're going to stick with car analogies . Acer needed a $200 price point, and as long as that warranty sticker i left in place, seem to be good, from what I've read, about servicing/replacing them under warranty. But, you are getting something at the higher price points of other Chromebooks (assuming you would prefer a Chromebook to a Windows notebook, such as to not have to deal with all of WIndows' complexities).

Also found the display on the C720 to be worst of the Chromebooks I've checked out as well. I think the matte coating was a bit think or something text looked pretty grainy.

I don't even notice any AG. It looks to me like bare matte, to me, which will look grainy under most lighting.