Can anyone recommend a good Chromebook?

Mantis Toboggan

Ideally would have to be a 14"screen as its for me folks. 4 GB of ram. Decent performance, would just be used for light Internet usage.

Mantis Toboggan

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Ideally would have to be a 14"screen as its for me folks. 4 GB of ram. Decent performance, would just be used for light Internet usage.

What's your max budget?

to be honest these days there isn't much of a saving if any compared to win 10 machines.

Mantis Toboggan

Was hoping for not much more that €300.

Would go with a laptop also but presumed Chromebook would be cheaper and for light Internet use would be ideal.

here's a nice light win 10 laptop with ssd and full hd screen. all metal body. the new n5000 cpu is plenty fast for the needs described.

430

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-swift-1-sf114-32-14-intel-pentium-laptop-128-gb-ssd-silver-10184906-pdt.html

Mantis Toboggan

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Was hoping for not much more that €300.

Would go with a laptop also but presumed Chromebook would be cheaper and for light Internet use would be ideal.

used to be the case but a decent chromebook is now about 400 euro and that's with tiny storage of 16, 32 or maybe 64gb but the 64gb is usually more expensive as are ones with 4gb ram. less of them are being made and the price has gone up.

there is this one at 280 sterling / 320 euro

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Chromebook-14-CB3-431-Celeron/dp/B01J3UVWKO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541013359&sr=8-1&keywords=chromebook+4gb+ram+14+inch

but the win 10 one that I linked has a cpu that is 50% more powerful and with an ssd drive of 128gb as opposed to slower 32gb emc storage

plus the other one has a nice build. even if your parents needs are limited the extra flexibility of win 10 is a plus I would say.

Mantis Toboggan

glasso wrote: »

here's a nice light win 10 laptop with ssd and full hd screen. all metal body. the new n5000 cpu is plenty fast for the needs described.

430

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-swift-1-sf114-32-14-intel-pentium-laptop-128-gb-ssd-silver-10184906-pdt.html

Cheers, a little more than I wanted to pay tbh but something I'll consider.

I had seen a number of Chromebooks on amazon around 200-300 with good ratings so was considering those.

Storage space isn't an issue as they won't be saving anything really and use Google photos/drive for anything they need.

Eric Cartman

tesco have some deal on at the moment for a nice looking Lenovo solid state machine for 200 , would be Chromebook form factor.

Eric Cartman

Eric Cartman wrote: »

tesco have some deal on at the moment for a nice looking Lenovo solid state machine for 200 , would be Chromebook form factor.

do you have the specs?

most of the tesco laptops that I've seen are not good value, even though the price may be cheap.

Mantis Toboggan

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Cheers, a little more than I wanted to pay tbh but something I'll consider.

I had seen a number of Chromebooks on amazon around 200-300 with good ratings so was considering those.

Storage space isn't an issue as they won't be saving anything really and use Google photos/drive for anything they need.

a lot of them seem to be ones that have been around for a long time - e.g. old machines with old cpus. the chromebook that I linked for 320 seems decent

Eric Cartman

glasso wrote: »

do you have the specs?

most of the tesco laptops that I've seen are not good value, even though the price may be cheap.

sadly not, only saw it at a cursory glance last night in maynooth, somebody may be able to confirm.

I'd still go for the windows 10 machine though - much more modern cpu along with the other benefits.

Mantis Toboggan

glasso wrote: »

I'd still go for the windows 10 machine though - much more modern cpu along with the other benefits.

My experience with windows is that after a few years they slow down to a snails pace that's why I was leaning towards the Chromebook eg. back in 2013 I bought a Samsung Chromebook for 180, same year I bought a laptop for the folks for around 550 years euro. Fast forward to now and my Chromebook is like new yet their laptop could take 3 minutes just to fully turn on. It's in bad health hence why I'm looking to replace it.

Mantis Toboggan

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

My experience with windows is that after a few years they slow down to a snails pace that's why I was leaning towards the Chromebook eg. back in 2013 I bought a Samsung Chromebook for 180, same year I bought a laptop for the folks for around 550 years euro. Fast forward to now and my Chromebook is like new yet their laptop could take 3 minutes just to fully turn on. It's in bad health hence why I'm looking to replace it.

ssd drives have improved things a lot and if you reinstall windows every 2 years or so that can also make a big difference.

OldMrBrennan83

If it's just for browsing I'd definitely get the Chromebook, so much less clunky to use and less to go wrong.

if you're going for a chromebook I'd try to find one or wait for one with either the n4200 or n5000 cpu.
all the older celerons are pretty slow.

dell have one with a full core i3 cpu and 4gb ram with non full hd screen for 319. that would make it pretty powerful as far as chromebooks go.

only 16gb storage but if it's really only for browsing etc as you say should be ok. add sd card if necessary.

https://www.dell.com/en-ie/work/shop/laptops/chromebook-3380-education/spd/chromebook-13-3380-laptop?view=configurations

edit -> unfortunately that price is Ex Vat

Mantis Toboggan

Just to update on this, I went with the acer chromebook 15. Lovely device, perfect for their needs, Internet, email, YouTube, Netflix. Seems quick, powers up in seconds, lovely full HD screen. Touchscreen is an added bonus. Got it for e340 on black Friday.