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Chromebooks - latest news and discussion

Good looking upgrade for the Lenovo Flex 5

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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.

 
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?
 
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?
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.
 
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?

What is it you do, again?
 
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.
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.
 
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.
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:

 
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:

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.
 
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
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?
 
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?

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.
 
awesome, I was probably going to go for one anyway but that is an extra bonus.

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.
 
Now this has got me interested (if it's cheap enough)


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.
 
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.
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....
 
Now this has got me interested (if it's cheap enough)



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.
 
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.

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.
 
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.
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.
 
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.

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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