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Chromebooks - latest news and discussion

Evaluating android apps on the flip, I'm very impressed so far.

Google Earth works and looks brilliant, though a bit glitchy.
I installed a couple of random games which worked well
Medium is perfect, looks really good on laptop type interface
Most pleasingly Caustic, (music programme) works perfectly so far and the onscreen keyboard responds to the physical device keyboard, suggesting the keys are mapped. Not yet tested if I can connect a keyboard via usb, if I can that'll be incredible.

As with others, found the bug when flipping into tablet mode but as others have said, if and when this is ironed out and apps can be installed to SD card, this really does begin to look like an incredibly good device.
 
How about a Lenovo Chromebook for just £99! And yes, it runs Android apps already.

11.6-inch display, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage internally plus 14 houts battery life...


81OHDHS0TbL._SL1500_.jpg


http://amzn.to/2aZcB22
 
How well do the £200 Chromebook handle some of the more graphics heavy apps, like 3d games and stuff, for android? As well as/better than my moto g 3rd gen phone?
 
Jon-of-arc said:
How well do the £200 Chromebook handle some of the more graphics heavy apps, like 3d games and stuff, for android? As well as/better than my moto g 3rd gen phone?
Click to expand...

Games? Most big modern games need Windows to run (though a lot will run on Linux).
 
"... Lenovo Chromebook for just £99!"

Rotatable camera is a nice feature. And anything with "rugged" in the description has my attention, even "semi-rugged".
 
Some reviews suggests performance is sluggish with more then a few tabs. Which for a 100 quid is probably to be expected.
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
Some reviews suggests performance is sluggish with more then a few tabs. Which for a 100 quid is probably to be expected.
Click to expand...
It'll still boot up much, much quicker than a Windows laptop!
Something you’ll immediately notice about the N20 is how quickly it boots up, whether it’s been off or just asleep. As soon as you hit the power button or pop open the lid, you’re pretty much ready to go, and that’s something we wish more laptops were better at.

Powered by a dual-core Intel Celeron N2830 processor paired with 4GB of RAM, it’s powerful enough to handle the tasks most students would throw at it. We used it for watching movies, editing documents and browsing the internet, and came across no issues, even when we left it on for three days (and nights) in a row, without shutting it down. After four days, we noticed a tiny bit of lag creeping in, but it was minimal.

Lenovo N20 Chromebook review | TrustedReviews
Click to expand...

Over excited review:

 
Janh said:
It's not all roses with these Chromebooks.

My humble Chromebook Samsung 303C has a broken hinge. I've ordered used hinges and a lid - cheap enough - and will be replacing them using this guide

.

Wish me luck.
Click to expand...


That worked better than I expected. Now my CB hinge is like new again. Hats off to the guy in the video doing the Jack Nicholson impression for the guidance.

While inside the CB - it required taking out the motherboard, battery, and screen - I was surprised how modular the build was, and how little stuff there is in there. Its obvious to me now how these are low cost items.
 
Janh said:
That worked better than I expected. Now my CB hinge is like new again. Hats off to the guy in the video doing the Jack Nicholson impression for the guidance.

While inside the CB - it required taking out the motherboard, battery, and screen - I was surprised how modular the build was, and how little stuff there is in there. Its obvious to me now how these are low cost items.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure "low cost" is applicable. It's more that the cost is commensurate with the tech required for Chromebook functionality.
 
Jon-of-arc said:
How well do the £200 Chromebook handle some of the more graphics heavy apps, like 3d games and stuff, for android? As well as/better than my moto g 3rd gen phone?
Click to expand...

I've fiddled with a couple of cricket games on the flip. They look good and it felt as if the machine was absolutely fine handling them, no stutter or lag. I've also got a Moto G (3rd gen) and I'd say the flip seems smoother. The 3d on google earth looked absolutely lovely, a little bit of lag as you spin the globe and the world appears, but I get that on a macbook pro as well... I have been meaning to test out GTA San Andreas as I bought it years ago for a now dead nexus tablet but I've can't be arsed waiting for it to download!
 
I'm sure a lot of the questions I have about Chromebooks have been mentioned before, but figured I'd ask again anyway, it's a pretty long thread and some information may be out of date. I'm pretty tech savvy but I'll be honest, i know very little about these and after some bad Android experiences I've been put off such things. Although Chrome is my browser of choice on Windows and OS X as I like the way it syncs everything.

My Mum is dropping hints that her laptop is slow, she's probably right, it's a Thinkpad that's about 9 years old now and despite me doing a clean Windows 10 install, she still thinks it's slow. Another complaint is it's too heavy (she's in her 60s now) so my other idea of whacking an SSD into it for a new lease of life is probably not going to be a welcome one as it means keeping the heavy and hot Lenovo......

Budget is a issue, so we're looking at around the £200 mark. Which is where the Chromebook comes in.

We've discussed what she uses her laptop for. Essentially it's just online banking (so a browser, check) emails (check) surfing the net (check) and some Youtube/BBC iPlayer and the like, which I'm making the assumption the Chromebook can handle without an issue? The only other thing is, she sometimes has to print stuff off. She currently has a HP Deskjet. It doesn't have any cloud printing capabilities. Will she be able to just whack it into the USB port and it just works? if they have USB??

Now my main 'worry' about a Chromebook is actual support from the vendor. Not wanting to turn this into an Apple vs Google debate, but for the most part we are a family iOS devices. And it works well for us. My Android knowledge is decent, in fact the first Android device I owned was the Nexus One because I wanted vanilla Android and not a load of shite added on. But my main gripe with android and even google issued devices is the updates side of thing. Every nexus device has stopped receiving updates after 3 years. Compare this to Apple devices where the 4s (which she has) is still going strong with updates 5 years later. I appreciate the 4S will not get iOS 10, but that's not the point of this comment, just that Google/Android device lifecycle tends to be pretty short, even worse when it comes from another vendor like HTC etc.

Also if we get a HP/Acer etc one, do the vendor put a load of crap on them, or do they come as vanilla ChromeOS? i'm guessing the former. Is there a particular favorable vendor in terms of support lifecycle? Or am I looking at getting a vanilla chromebook from google if support updates is an issue for me?

Cheers in advance for any advice/feedback

EDIT: I'm likely also going to need to remote on at some point, is Teamviewer an option, it looks like it only supports outgoing? I know theres in built Chrome remote now, but when we tried that on Windows it didn't seem to work very well. Teamviewer I can just remote on without her even having to do anything other than turn it on. Any alternatives?
 
Last edited:
If argue that Chromebooks are the absolute ideal choice for non techie types. They come with zero crapware.

The Chromebook concept means that they will always be updated to the latest OS, regardless of the age of the machine.
 
Yes, it will get updates, forever as far as I can tell. I'm not sure it will print from USB though - there may be a way round that, but as far as I know it's cloud print or nothing. They don't come with any vendor bloatware. A Samsung chromebook or a Google chromebook or a Tosh chromebook is exactly the same. It's got the same OS, identical. We've got a Samsung which is about 5 years old and it is identical in appearance once booted up to the ASUS one I bought 2 weeks ago.

I also agree that they are ideal machines for anyone less tech orientated than a technician. If speed and weight are the issue, the Chromebook is a sure fire winner.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

That HP app may well save the day. Otherwise she's cloud printing to my house for a while. lol

Skype has just been thrown into the mix, which some googling, is just text talk only at the moment? Although looks like Microsoft are actually changing the web version so it doesn't require a plugin? Anyone confirm if that's gone live yet. Doesn't seem to want to work on my Windows PC so I guess not, but looks like it's at least coming. Can't test on the VM as it don't pick up my cam (more on that below)

is a 16GB internal drive sufficent also, I know most stuff is geared towards cloud storage and that's fine, but wondered what you guys thing as people thatuse them everyday?

I think I'm going to have to take her to a currys/pc world to at least look at one first before taking the plunge then using the good ol online purchase with 14 day cooling off period if she decides after a few days use it's not the thing for her.

Also, I came across this while researching which is pretty cool, and only recently release, a ChromeOS Virtualbox disk image: So you can try out ChromeOs on your existing device: *UPDATED* Un-Official CloudReady Virtual Machine Images!
 
Skype, I dunno, don't use it but with android apps coming you could just use the app.

You can always add an SD card storage wise.

On my flip I can see it being an issue as I add apps but on the other two we've got (not mine primarily) it's never been an issue and one of them is 5 yrs old.

What do you realistically need to download these days?
 
tangerinedream said:
What do you realistically need to download these days?
Click to expand...

Not a lot, I just know she's practically filled her iPhone, wasn't sure how good this was with storage, so was more a query to you seasoned pro's to see if you've come across storage issues. Although just come across the Acer C910 with 15" screen with 4GB RAM and 32GB SSD for just shy of £240.
 
It's almost certainly photos and videos that fill up a mobile. Get her into flickr or pribs better with a Chromebook Google photos and she never needs to physically put them on the device.

My only downloads are music, I do use a streaming service but I also buy flac when I really want something and that's the only storage issue really for me.

I stopped bothering downloading TV and films ages ago. Wouldn't even remember how to go about it.
 
I've put google photos onto her phone, but she doesn't seem to get it! So I've given up telling her. Will just need to clear out the cache and delete/reinstall apps and make sure she's using iCloud to back up photos to claim back some storage next time I'm at hers.
 
cybershot said:
I've put google photos onto her phone, but she doesn't seem to get it! So I've given up telling her. Will just need to clear out the cache and delete/reinstall apps and make sure she's using iCloud to back up photos to claim back some storage next time I'm at hers.
Click to expand...

Problem is on iOS it doesn't do automatic back up does it? On android you could just tell it to back up whenever on WiFi and show her the logo for photos on the Chromebook and they'd be there. Im pretty sure the iOS app has to be left active to be uploading.
 
It does, I use it myself as a another backup of my photos, so for a 60 year old, that's too cumbersome a solution I think. Doubt I'll get her on Android and she likes the iPhone, especially as facetime etc is so simple especially when myself and my sister have iPhone's also. Not sure I'd trust her with the play store either an inadvertently installing some crapware. Had to make her Windows PC a general user account so random crap didn't get installed after 1 Windows re-install to many. Think apart from the Windows 10 install, I haven't had to reinstall once since taking admin rights off her. (She does know the admin password if she ever needs it) and I can easily remote on with Teamviewer.
 
Play store is a lot better than it was. I think Google now screen apps in a more apple-esque manner. It used to be awful I agree. Mind you, you can access icloud on the web can't you but what you can't do is install iTunes on a Chromebook. Not on chromeOS anyway. Is that an issue?
 
No she's got bugger all music, and I can always upload it to Google Play and give her the Google Play Music app. Do like that myself.
 
Final point, I think the key stuff like browser, word processor etc are really good for less techy people as they are so 'baked in' to the os. Using drive doesn't feel like it does on other machines as the os automatically searches your drive and stuff like Gmail links to it really simply so the google drive feels like an actual hard drive if that makes sense.
 
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