Chromebook or Acer E1-532P-4471 ??

[tommyncal]

I'm looking for a Christmas gift for son & daughter-in-law. Their old laptop is dead. They have an ipad but would like a cheap laptop too. Trying to keep it under $400. I don't want a W8 laptop, but I found this Acer E1-532P-4771 notebook, with Windows 8.1 & Pentium 3556u CPU, on sale at Costco for $399.
My other choice is either the Acer C720P Chromebook or HP 14" Chromebook, both @ $299.
They pretty much just surf the web, you-tube videos, email, I think some video streaming and no gaming. Both OS will be new to them since they are coming from either XP or W7.
I'm assuming after the year ends there will be new laptop offerings with Windows 8.1 too. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[crashtestdummy]

In that price range, for their use case, they're going to find that a Chromebook runs a lot more smoothly.

 

[ninaholic37]

The mods on the Chromebook Forums are jerks, so I vote neither option :awe:

 

[Ravynmagi]

Not sure how good are bad they are yet, but there are some sub $400 Windows 8.1 machines with touch screens that I think look pretty interesting and probably a lot more functional than the slightly cheaper Chromebooks.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...750sLV-Touchscreen-Laptop/productID.288729300
This Dell Inspiron 11 inch has a low end Haswell, touch display, and claims 8 hours battery life.


I'd probably avoid any netbooks with AMD A4 1.0GHz processor, I hear those things are worse than Atoms.

 

[s44]

They pretty much just surf the web, you-tube videos, email, I think some video streaming and no gaming.

You've answered your own question. Get a Chromebook... specifically, the Acer.

Apparently the 14" HP screen is poo.

 

[cbn]

They pretty much just surf the web, you-tube videos, email, I think some video streaming and no gaming. Both OS will be new to them since they are coming from either XP or W7.

I would get the 15.6" Acer Windows Laptop.

If you need something cheaper look into the Ubuntu laptops. Example: Newegg has an ASUS 1007U for $225 -->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ckTab=true&Keywords=(keywords)#scrollFullInfo (Amazon sell the same one for $209 --> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CPIF63G/?tag=extension-kb-20 )

 

[tommyncal]

Thanks for the replys. Both of those laptops recommended, the Dell & the Ubuntu, have Celeron cpu's. I'm assuming the the Acer, I originally suggested, would be faster because of the Pentium Haswell 3556u processor. Right or wrong ? So, I'm also assuming the chrome books, with the SSD's, would run faster and smoother than the Acer? I'm debating whether my son+ would be lost without the windows OS and which of the 3 screens would be nicer.

 

[cbn]

So, I'm also assuming the chrome books, with the SSD's, would run faster and smoother than the Acer?

I doubt the Acer and HP Chromebooks actually have SSDs.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c720p-chromebook.html#ac-c720p

https://www.google.com/intl/en-US/chrome/devices/hp-14-chromebook.html#hp-cb-14

I'd bet they both actually have 16 GB eMMC.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I'm looking for a Christmas gift for son & daughter-in-law. Their old laptop is dead. They have an ipad but would like a cheap laptop too. Trying to keep it under $400. I don't want a W8 laptop, but I found this Acer E1-532P-4771 notebook, with Windows 8.1 & Pentium 3556u CPU, on sale at Costco for $399.
My other choice is either the Acer C720P Chromebook or HP 14" Chromebook, both @ $299.
They pretty much just surf the web, you-tube videos, email, I think some video streaming and no gaming. Both OS will be new to them since they are coming from either XP or W7.
I'm assuming after the year ends there will be new laptop offerings with Windows 8.1 too. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I got a HP 15 inch laptop with an i3 for around 350.00 (don't remember the exact price) on sale at best buy. It performs quite well. We are members of Costco, but it seems to me that their laptop choices are not as good value as they used to be. You do get an extra year of warranty though. Win 8 (or 8.1) does take some getting used to, to put it mildly. After the initial frustration wears off though, it is usable.

 

[Ravynmagi]

The Dell's Celeron will be slower, it probably isn't much faster than an Atom Baytrail and it's only has 2GB of RAM (RAM and hard drive are upgradable). But it's got enough power for web surfing, streaming videos, running Office/emails.

What I like about it is it has twice the battery life of the Acer (8 hours instead of 4 hours). It's 2 pounds lighter. And I like the portability of smaller 11 inch laptops over 15 inch.

 

[insertcarehere]

If you don't need a touchscreen, the regular Acer C720 chromebook is $199, I have it and it is very good for the price.

 

[tommyncal]

I doubt the Acer and HP Chromebooks actually have SSDs.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c720p-chromebook.html#ac-c720p

https://www.google.com/intl/en-US/chrome/devices/hp-14-chromebook.html#hp-cb-14

I'd bet they both actually have 16 GB eMMC.

Not sure what eMMC is. But the specs on both those chrome books say 16Gb solid state drive.

 

[s44]

Not sure what eMMC is. But the specs on both those chrome books say 16Gb solid state drive.

They're just different kinds of flash storage. But ultimately it doesn't matter whether the Chromebooks' is super-fast or just phone speed: they're going to be way faster anyway, because (1) eMMC is still way faster than spinning platters, and (2) there aren't gigs and gigs of OS to load up on every boot. Sure, you *could* get the Acer to comparable boot speed by replacing the HD with a $150 SSD, but even then you'd be making them run virus scans, malware checks, endless Windows Update screens, and go through the hassle of learning W8... for zero additional functionality.

And you know how I said the 14" HP screen is poo? Well, 13*7 at 15.6" (as the Acer) pretty much defines poo...

edit - just checked and both the Acer 11" and HP 14" Chromebooks have actual NGFF SSDs that you can hand-replace...

 

[tommyncal]

The Dell's Celeron will be slower, it probably isn't much faster than an Atom Baytrail and it's only has 2GB of RAM (RAM and hard drive are upgradable). But it's got enough power for web surfing, streaming videos, running Office/emails.

What I like about it is it has twice the battery life of the Acer (8 hours instead of 4 hours). It's 2 pounds lighter. And I like the portability of smaller 11 inch laptops over 15 inch.

I did look at that Dell laptop. Since they already have the ipad and I don't think they take the laptop out of their home much, I thought the bigger screen would be nice. They prefer a laptop over a desktop. And your right, the battery life is an issue.

 

[tommyncal]

They're just different kinds of flash storage. But ultimately it doesn't matter whether the Chromebooks' is super-fast or just phone speed: they're going to be way faster anyway, because (1) eMMC is still way faster than spinning platters, and (2) there aren't gigs and gigs of OS to load up on every boot. Sure, you *could* get the Acer to comparable boot speed by replacing the HD with a $150 SSD, but even then you'd be making them run virus scans, malware checks, endless Windows Update screens, and go through the hassle of learning W8... for zero additional functionality.

And you know how I said the 14" HP screen is poo? Well, 13*7 at 15.6" (as the Acer) pretty much defines poo...

edit - just checked and both the Acer 11" and HP 14" Chromebooks have actual NGFF SSDs that you can hand-replace...

I personally like the idea of these chromebooks. Although I have 'zero' experience or knowledge of how they work and how practical they will be. I understand the basics. Are most of the apps you need, like a 'word' app free?
Would they be able to open a MS Word document from an email?

 

[s44]

Yes, Drive (the cloud mashup formerly known as Google Docs) handles Word attachments.

 

[tommyncal]

Yes, Drive (the cloud mashup formerly known as Google Docs) handles Word attachments.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Acer Chromebook. Some from curiosity and some from not seeing a lot of cons, for their usage, in the chromebooks. I know they can't use iTunes, need a compatible printer and the 11.6" screen is not much larger than their ipad. What other major cons are there in this system?
Looking at the Acer C720P, because it seems to have twice the storage, 32Gb instead of the 16Gb in the AcerC720.

 

[Gundark]

Why don't you consider Acer Aspire E1-731-10054G50Mnii 17.3". It's sub 400$ but without OS ( stupid linpus linux actually ). It has decent monitor and Ivy celeron with HD4000. After initial hassle with killing linpus and instaling Win8, it's working pretty fine.

 

[s44]

Why don't you consider Acer Aspire E1-731-10054G50Mnii 17.3". It's sub 400$ but without OS ( stupid linpus linux actually ).

So if he takes a $400 machine and spends time and another $200+ for Windows and a SSD he'll have a decent enough 7+lb machine? Well sure, but that seems out of spec here.

 

[tommyncal]

Correct, $400 was my top. Not buying a copy of Windows OS.
Has anyone compared the quality of the HP 14" screen to the Acer 11.6" screen?

 

[Gundark]

So if he takes a $400 machine and spends time and another $200+ for Windows and a SSD he'll have a decent enough 7+lb machine? Well sure, but that seems out of spec here.

Well, the actual price was around $350, but in USA I hope one could get even lower. We don't have a rebate. And Win Home Premium is $110 and there is a student version so it's possible to squeeze something out.. But if he want SSD it is way over budget. I just hate small monitors.

 

[alangrift]

The bad thing about some chrome books is that they don't support java which is what is used to play and run games.

 

[Bateluer]

Didn't care much for my Samsung XE303 chromebook, but I do like my Acer V5 122P. Chugs a little with anything remotely heavy though, even with the quad core A6 1450, 6GB of RAM, and SSD I put it. I can't imagine the Pentium chip in the E1 is much faster.