Chromebook V Laptop.

[gavroche]

Could someone tell the difference between the two? You can buy a chromebook for about £200 compared to double or more for a laptop. So, can you do on a chromebook what you can do on a laptop? By that I mean full internet access, emails, write letters etc.... Not interested in videos, films, songs etc....

 

[Edwardoka]

Could someone tell the difference between the two? You can buy a chromebook for about £200 compared to double or more for a laptop. So, can you do on a chromebook what you can do on a laptop? By that I mean full internet access, emails, write letters etc.... Not interested in videos, films, songs etc....

A laptop is a full computer that can do everything that a PC/Mac can do, but a chromebook is more like an android tablet with a keyboard. You can't install any software other than Android apps but you can use web applications like Google Docs/Sheets just fine.

 

[biggs682]

Chromebook user here and i like it

 

[sleuthey]

Yes someone can tell the difference.

You can also buy a laptop for little more than £200.

You can do the things you mention using apps from the Google app store

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You can do what you want on a 20 year old laptop. Maybe get something second hand for about £20?

 

[Vantage]

I bought a new chromebook a month or so back after the main pc started developing issues that I can't fix cheaply.
I did consider a laptop but I wasn't keen on windows 10 as I'd trialled it previously. So chromebook it was.
Way less hard drive space was my main concern and not being able to use certain programs I had on the pc can be annoying, but there is an upside.
They're lighter. They're cheaper. They start up in no time at all. And the best bit? Not having to listen to that bloody cpu fan whirring around at 10,000,000,000rpm. It's completely silent. Bliss!

 

[Smudge]

Bought a Chromebook around 4 yrs ago. It really was a revelation after 20yrs of using a pc and Windows laptops, i'll never go back.
Super quick start up and runs fast, no slowing down with updates that take ages with Windows, and dont need any anti virus as its built in.

 

[Cycleops]

Chrome is a very light operating system so doesn't need such powerful hardware. It's web based so you really need some good internet connection. It won't do intensive stuff like advanced photo editing or ms word but if all you need is web browsing, watching videos, sending emails I'm sure it's fine.

 

[Drago]

One of each here.

If you were using it for work and a power user of stuff like office then a conventional laptop is probably better. However, for general surfing and casual emailing, letters, etc, the Chromebook wins. I actually do quite a bit of the admin for my SAR duties on the Chromebook, as its fired up instantly.

 

[Pale Rider]

Long battery life is another advantage.

My £150 10" Chromebook will run all day.

Not quite so handy as my Mac when it comes to playing around with photos, although that's partly because I've not studied how to use Google Pics or whatever they call it.

 

[Drago]

I think it's fair to say that they're not without compromise, but those compromises fall well in favour of the casual, none too serious user.

Mine is an Asus, about 2 years old.

 

[DRM]

The only thing I can say is firstly get yourself off to the computer retailers out there & have a good play with a few of them, I believe they don’t have much in the form of hard drive size, but you may well be able to connect an external hard drive in order to save things on, therefore keeping the built in hard drive empty, so it runs as delivered, with room for updates as & when they come through, it sounds ideal for what you intend to use it for.

 

[Cycleops]

I think they give you 100GB of google cloud storage for two years but then you have to pay. If you want to pay more for your chromebook you can get internal storage of 128GB or bigger and it's non mechanical so much faster.

 

[cyberknight]

You can do what you want on a 20 year old laptop. Maybe get something second hand for about £20?

i condidrerd buying a new laptop recently but looking at the prices i would be paying over £500 to get something as good as what my old one is specced at, for the OP i would go for a chromebook .