Chromebooks

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david k

Hi
Location
North West
Just looking into buying a new laptop, chromebooks look cheaper and I'm just learning about them


Can you use office? Will it come with office?
Any other drawbacks?

I just want it for webrosing, iTunes downloads, uploading rides and photos and occasional form filling hence needed I got office of somekind
 

biggs682

Touch it up and ride it
Location
Northamptonshire
Yes i use a chrome book , ideal for webrowsing no idea if office included but will check and advise when at home later .

Only drawback we have found so far is we can't get our 3 - 4 yr old printer to connect to it either through a solid connection or wi fi
 

biggs682

Touch it up and ride it
Location
Northamptonshire
No to office as it has an in built equivalent but you can save it to word then you can use it on another pc with word so I am reliably told .
 

Starchivore

I don't know much about Cinco de Mayo
I've got open office on my laptop, basically a free version of office and files can be opened and saved from one to the other. It's worked for my needs. I got a refurbished laptop, for the 2nd time, definitely the way to go I think because you get so much more for your money
 
Location
London
Yes i use a chrome book , ideal for webrowsing no idea if office included but will check and advise when at home later .

Only drawback we have found so far is we can't get our 3 - 4 yr old printer to connect to it either through a solid connection or wi fi
I have a very old hewlett packard printer and manage to print from my chromebook connected by a USB lead using a web extension of some sort.
I think it hooks into/adapts the cloudprint* functionality.

If you have an HP printer and are interested I can check things out and report back.

Works fine.

* damn barmy - as I understand it you send your printing two and a half times round the planet or summat to get an inky bit of paper out of the box sat next to you.
 
Location
London
To @david k I'd look into a chromebook very seriously.

If you need to interface with work based systems things might be a bit involved/tricky but for everything you are likely to need domestically I think they are fine.

Far cheaper, far more reliably, massively better battery life (up to ten hours) than a PC.

You don't need anti virus and you escape the sheer nail-biting horror of windows updates - updates take place seamlessly and quietly.

Some folk think that you always have to be online - not true.

I have two chromebooks - a nice metal cased 14 inch one that cost me about £170 and a smaller 11inch one for various things including cycle touring - that cost £99 in a sale.

I create all my cycling routes for the garmin on the chromebooks and can do the final text editing stage totally offline.

If you go down the chromebook route I'd look at one that is ready to run android apps as that potentially gives you a bit more functionality. Though be sparing about which android apps you install.

Neither of mine were android ready when I got them - the 14inch updated itself to run them a fair while back - the 11 inch is on the wait list for this update and it is supposed to happen, but I am still waiting.

Final advantage of chromebooks is that if you have two on the same account they automatically sync with each other and backup to the cloud is automatic - handy for careless souls like me. If you have an android tab on the same google account, they will also sync with that automatically.

The one down side is that google knows more about you than you know about yourself - dread to think what they think of me.

edit:

status list of various chromebooks with regard to running android apps.

https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-android-apps
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
david k

david k

Hi
Location
North West
To @david k I'd look into a chromebook very seriously.

If you need to interface with work based systems things might be a bit involved/tricky but for everything you are likely to need domestically I think they are fine.

Far cheaper, far more reliably, massively better battery life (up to ten hours) than a PC.

You don't need anti virus and you escape the sheer nail-biting horror of windows updates - updates take place seamlessly and quietly.

Some folk think that you always have to be online - not true.

I have two chromebooks - a nice metal cased 14 inch one that cost me about £170 and a smaller 11inch one for various things including cycle touring - that cost £99 in a sale.

I create all my cycling routes for the garmin on the chromebooks and can do the final text editing stage totally offline.

If you go down the chromebook route I'd look at one that is ready to run android apps as that potentially gives you a bit more functionality. Though be sparing about which android apps you install.

Neither of mine were android ready when I got them - the 14inch updated itself to run them a fair while back - the 11 inch is on the wait list for this update and it is supposed to happen, but I am still waiting.

Final advantage of chromebooks is that if you have two on the same account they automatically sync with each other and backup to the cloud is automatic - handy for careless souls like me. If you have an android tab on the same google account, they will also sync with that automatically.

The one down side is that google knows more about you than you know about yourself - dread to think what they think of me.

edit:

status list of various chromebooks with regard to running android apps.

https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-android-apps

Brilliant post thank you
 
Location
London
@david k

If you are looking for a "full size" laptop

I'd check out this machine

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...hromebook-32-gb-emmc-silver-10148244-pdt.html

though look around for possibly better pricing.

You could wander into a Currys/PC World to check out the feel and keyboard - you might be pleasantly surprised by the feel of it.

I have that though with half the memory and half the onboard storage.

And it is absolutely fine for general use.

In truth I think a restricted onboard storage (used for downloads etc) is actually a fairly positive thing - it disciplines you and stops you, unwisely, having lots of stuff stored offline only and not backed up.

You can set the chromebook so that docs (don't take a lot of room) can be written and edited offline - they get backed up to online storage automatically next time you are online - and there is of course a lot of free wifi about these days.

You get a bumped up google drive storage capacity for 2 years but I have outlived that and the ongoing free storage amount is fine for me.

Nothing to stop you plugging in cheap pen drives to the USB ports for extra offline storage.

The higher 4 gig memory is I think only really needed if you use the chromebook for memory intensive stuff - games or video editing etc.

2 gig has been fine for everything I have wanted to do on my 2/16 machine with exactly the same case/build quality.

This post comes to you from the Acer CB3-131 £99 wonder which, thanks to auto syncing, has access to all the same stuff as its aluminium cased big brother/sister/whatever.
 

Cletus Van Damme

Previously known as Cheesney Hawks
I got my mother a chromebook for about £250. It's an Acer, it's fantastic, the only possible downside I can think of is that the keyboard doesn't illuminate. Other than that it is built really well, full HD display. Excellent machine.
 

Pale Rider

Legendary Member
'Instant on' is another Chromebook benefit.

My work one is never off, open the lid, whack in the password, and off you go.

Chromebooks are also very even tempered - they rarely freeze or get stuck in loops, and stuff seems to save on the fly without you having to press any buttons.

The 'virtual desktop' takes a bit of getting used to.

As of a couple of years ago, Skype video wouldn't work, although Skype voice always did.

All day battery life is a big plus for me, although I think the batteries on newer Windows laptops now last a good while.
 
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