- Aug 14, 2019
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Tl;dr: I'm looking for a low spec, reasonably priced laptop for work only. Would a chromebook be a worthwile investment?
My son has a powerful desktop which he uses to game with his friends etc. However, he needs a laptop for schoolwork only (googling, microsoft office, etc.). It doesn't need to be able to run games or anything particularly intensive, though it should be able to, for example, display a 1080p video smoothly. Being quite out of the loop as far as new technologies go, i was surprised to stumble across Chromebooks. Essentially a thin(ish) client, with a lightweight OS, and all apps accessed through the browser? Sounds perfect! Low performance hardware should mean affordability, but an SSD and Chrome OS should mean still a very zippy experience for schoolwork. In addition, I believe chrome OS can remote access a windows pc (i.e his desktop) if the need arises. My questions are:
What is the general perception of chromebooks? Are they indeed fast at doing what they're intended for?
Are they good value for money? I could always buy a cheapo laptop off ebay, stick a lightweight linux distro on it and call it a day, but I think my son would appreciate a more user friendly enviornment.
I understand you can install some apps offline on the chromebook from the google play store (android apps?). Do these apps, which are intended for android, run well on Chrome OS?
What specs and storage space should i be looking for in a chromebook, bearing in mind the strict rule that this laptop is only for work, and that (i'm assuming) cloud storage solutions like google drive come as standard with chromebooks.
Are there any stand out recommendations?
My son has a powerful desktop which he uses to game with his friends etc. However, he needs a laptop for schoolwork only (googling, microsoft office, etc.). It doesn't need to be able to run games or anything particularly intensive, though it should be able to, for example, display a 1080p video smoothly. Being quite out of the loop as far as new technologies go, i was surprised to stumble across Chromebooks. Essentially a thin(ish) client, with a lightweight OS, and all apps accessed through the browser? Sounds perfect! Low performance hardware should mean affordability, but an SSD and Chrome OS should mean still a very zippy experience for schoolwork. In addition, I believe chrome OS can remote access a windows pc (i.e his desktop) if the need arises. My questions are:
What is the general perception of chromebooks? Are they indeed fast at doing what they're intended for?
Are they good value for money? I could always buy a cheapo laptop off ebay, stick a lightweight linux distro on it and call it a day, but I think my son would appreciate a more user friendly enviornment.
I understand you can install some apps offline on the chromebook from the google play store (android apps?). Do these apps, which are intended for android, run well on Chrome OS?
What specs and storage space should i be looking for in a chromebook, bearing in mind the strict rule that this laptop is only for work, and that (i'm assuming) cloud storage solutions like google drive come as standard with chromebooks.
Are there any stand out recommendations?
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