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Chromebooks - latest news and discussion

Good looking upgrade for the Lenovo Flex 5

1613671083742.png

LENOVO FLEX 5 CHROMEBOOK KEY SPECS
  • 10th-gen Intel Core i3
  • Up to 8GB RAM
  • Up to 128GB SSD
  • 13.3-inch FHD IPS touch display at up to 300 nits
  • WIFI 6
  • Bluetooth 5
  • USI stylus compatible
  • 2 x USB-C, 1 x USB-A, MicroSD and 3.5mm audio jack
  • Upward firing dual speakers
  • 360-degree form-factor
  • 720P webcam with privacy shade
  • Spill-resistant keyboard
  • 2.97 lbs
  • AUE: June 2028
From £480 US, no UK pricing yet.

chromeunboxed.com

The upgraded Lenovo Flex 5 is putting serious pressure on Samsung’s new Galaxy Chromebook 2

Just this week, Lenovo rolled out an upgraded version of their very popular Flex 5 Chromebook that brings a fix to most of the lacking parts of the original's experience. You see, despite the low MSRP of $409 right off the bat, we've always wished there could be a slightly upgraded version of...
chromeunboxed.com chromeunboxed.com
 
Why is it that I can buy a £60 mobile phone with a 5MP selfie camera on it, but the laptop manufacturers - all of them - keeping shipping these shitty little 720p cameras that make you look like you've filmed yourself on a mobile phone from 2002?
 
Chz said:
Why is it that I can buy a £60 mobile phone with a 5MP selfie camera on it, but the laptop manufacturers - all of them - keeping shipping these shitty little 720p cameras that make you look like you've filmed yourself on a mobile phone from 2002?
Click to expand...
You can always stuck in a hi-def USB one if it's that important but I'd rather have a cheaper laptop with an average webcam. Not sure why 720p isn't enough for work video calls anyway.
 
Chz said:
Why is it that I can buy a £60 mobile phone with a 5MP selfie camera on it, but the laptop manufacturers - all of them - keeping shipping these shitty little 720p cameras that make you look like you've filmed yourself on a mobile phone from 2002?
Click to expand...

What is it you do, again?
 
editor said:
You can always stuck in a hi-def USB one if it's that important but I'd rather have a cheaper laptop with an average webcam. Not sure why 720p isn't enough for work video calls anyway.
Click to expand...
In a £250 Chromebook, sure. Macbook Pros still come with that as standard equipment though. I'd be content with it for work video calls, but I'd prefer something nicer for family and friends. I end up using my phone most of the time instead. The difference is night and day, even without factoring in that the phone's sensor has better low-light capabilities.

Again, we're talking about an item that's better in a sub-£100 phone. It's not going to add a tremendous amount to the bottom line.
 
Chz said:
In a £250 Chromebook, sure. Macbook Pros still come with that as standard equipment though. I'd be content with it for work video calls, but I'd prefer something nicer for family and friends. I end up using my phone most of the time instead. The difference is night and day, even without factoring in that the phone's sensor has better low-light capabilities.

Again, we're talking about an item that's better in a sub-£100 phone. It's not going to add a tremendous amount to the bottom line.
Click to expand...
I didn't know this:

" As most video call services run at 720p, the webcams included on most Chromebooks follow suit and ship at a measly 720p max resolution. "

There's some hope CBooks might improve at some point though:

chromeunboxed.com

Chromebook photo quality could vastly improve with ‘Compass Camera IQ’

Let's face it: photos captured on Chromebooks are hot garbage. They are useful only in the most basic sense of image capture and even then, it sometimes feels like no image at all would simply be better. This is due, in part, to a few factors. First, most Chromebooks have a single camera that is...
chromeunboxed.com chromeunboxed.com
 
editor said:
I didn't know this:

" As most video call services run at 720p, the webcams included on most Chromebooks follow suit and ship at a measly 720p max resolution. "

There's some hope CBooks might improve at some point though:

chromeunboxed.com

Chromebook photo quality could vastly improve with ‘Compass Camera IQ’

Let's face it: photos captured on Chromebooks are hot garbage. They are useful only in the most basic sense of image capture and even then, it sometimes feels like no image at all would simply be better. This is due, in part, to a few factors. First, most Chromebooks have a single camera that is...
chromeunboxed.com chromeunboxed.com
Click to expand...
That's a poor excuse, because it's easily demonstrable that taking, eg, a 4MP picture and downsizing it to 1MP (which is roughly 720p) looks vastly better than a native 1MP photo. Anyone who's ever skyped or whatnot on their phone can probably verify that it looks better than a laptop. It's even a thing with the primary sensors these days - all those 64MP phones by default shoot 16MP photos. The extra pixels improve the fidelity of the final image even when 3/4s of them get binned.
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
I'm using the remote desktop app into from the comfort of the sofa and it now feels like I'm using a pretty high end laptop. :D
Click to expand...
ohh this is interesting, I was thinking of getting a chromebook to mainly write essays on the go and maybe do some other google stuff but thought I might sometimes encounter stuff I needed to do but couldn't (not sure what but who knows)... but I have a desktop PC, if I could sometimes remote access that then it would solve the last issue... what do you use to do it?
 
rutabowa said:
ohh this is interesting, I was thinking of getting a chromebook to mainly write essays on the go and maybe do some other google stuff but thought I might sometimes encounter stuff I needed to do but couldn't (not sure what but who knows)... but I have a desktop PC, if I could sometimes remote access that then it would solve the last issue... what do you use to do it?
Click to expand...

I'm using two products. I'm using MS own apps for when at home, it's a slightly slicker experience. However I'm not confident enough to set it up remotely just yet.

Google have their own version which makes it stupidly easy, you just need the Chrome add one on the machine you want to use, you don't even need that on the machine your connecting from, just login to your Gmail and put the extra pin in. Quality depends on net connection, but it's pretty good. I even use it from work.
 
rutabowa said:
awesome, I was probably going to go for one anyway but that is an extra bonus.
Click to expand...

I'm not a total evangalsit like some, there's still some things I find frustrating, but they really excel at amazing battery life and speed at price points where Windows laptops would be dogs.

This has been super handy. Just remember to turn off hibernation on your desktop, caught me out the other day.
 
Had to fire up the windows laptop for the first time in months at the weekend (doing some raspberry pi stuff)

I think it would have and is possible to do it on the chromebook but i was getting tangled up with mounting sd cards and installing a few linux programs.

But day to day the chromebook is all I use - and i'm liking the almost daily updates and new features that they add - such as the phone hub thing.
 
editor said:
Now this has got me interested (if it's cheap enough)


www.asus.com

Chromebook｜Laptops For Home｜ASUS Global

Running on Chrome OS, ASUS Chromebooks are fast and streamlined with all-day battery life, built-in security and automatic updates from Google.
www.asus.com www.asus.com
Click to expand...
A great looking piece of hardware with the Amazon Fire processor inside it.
As with most things, there's no such thing as a bad product, just a bad price. So it will be interesting to see what they try and sell it for. I mean, the Fire 10" is a good product at its regular £110 sale price, but I expect this to be a fair bit more.
 
Chz said:
A great looking piece of hardware with the Amazon Fire processor inside it.
As with most things, there's no such thing as a bad product, just a bad price. So it will be interesting to see what they try and sell it for. I mean, the Fire 10" is a good product at its regular £110 sale price, but I expect this to be a fair bit more.
Click to expand...
I've ben using the original Asus Flip 101 for 5 years or something now and it's a got a rubbish CPU but it's been ding the job just fine for me. My main problem has been storage but this one comes with up to 128GB which is what interests me. Anything up to £300 and I'm interested....
 
editor said:
Now this has got me interested (if it's cheap enough)


www.asus.com

Chromebook｜Laptops For Home｜ASUS Global

Running on Chrome OS, ASUS Chromebooks are fast and streamlined with all-day battery life, built-in security and automatic updates from Google.
www.asus.com www.asus.com
Click to expand...

Nice looking.

All manner of Flips: Chromebook Flip - All Models｜Laptops & 2-in-1 PCs For Home｜ASUS United Kingdom

This article suggests that the screen might not be all that on the 12" model
"There is one surprise, however, at least to me.
Since the smaller 10.5-inch detachable CM3 will have a 1920 x 1200 screen resolution, I figured for sure the convertible model would have the same. It’s a larger screen after all. But…. no. The 12-inch display isn’t FullHD+ like I thought. Instead it’s a 1366 x 912 panel. I’m not sure what to say about that other than “ugh”. At least that will keep the price down?"
 
I'm happy with that cheap Acer one I got, does exactly what I need fast. The screen is huge, it is pretty awful for colours though but fine for my purposes... I wouldn't get it for watching films though! But for college type stuff it's great, lots of space for different windows.
 
I am thinking of getting the Lenovo Chromebook Duet. The screen is brilliant quality. But the sound is a bit too low. But I suppose it would be OK with blue tooth speakers or headphones. The keyboard is very cramped but I suppose I could get used to it. And it comes with a massive 128 gigabytes of memory! It is currently now only 250 pounds at John Lewis.
 
Waterwheel said:
I am thinking of getting the Lenovo Chromebook Duet. The screen is brilliant quality. But the sound is a bit too low. But I suppose it would be OK with blue tooth speakers or headphones. The keyboard is very cramped but I suppose I could get used to it. And it comes with a massive 128 gigabytes of memory! It is currently now only 250 pounds at John Lewis.
Click to expand...

Seems a good price, but 128 is pretty tiny in terms of storage. I mean it's ok if you use cloud and have an SD card, but just be aware.
 
UnderAnOpenSky said:
Seems a good price, but 128 is pretty tiny in terms of storage. I mean it's ok if you use cloud and have an SD card, but just be aware.
Click to expand...
Depends on what you're using the CBook for. My 4 year old Asus Flip - which I use every day and even doubles up for DJ back up duties - only has 16GB!

That said, I really could use more storage space but 128GB would really be more than enough. I can't think what I'd need any more for, tbh.
 
editor said:
Depends on what you're using the CBook for. My 4 year old Asus Flip - which I use every day and even doubles up for DJ back up duties - only has 16GB!

That said, I really could use more storage space but 128GB would really be more than enough. I can't think what I'd need any more for, tbh.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree. There is a tendency for more is better or for just in case storage. But do you actually need it?
 
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