Chromebook Recommendations

lolliedog

Anyone recommend a good Chromebook?

Anyone see any early BF deals.

I was looking at the acer 15. Any thoughts..

Thanks.

few decent chromebooks being produced anymore really except more expensive ones like those from Google.
so the ok reasonably priced ones are generally older models.

the acer 15 is the best of the bunch probably and the n4200 cpu is better than the old celerons.

it doesn't go for that cheap tho - 400 euro on amazon.de

https://www.amazon.de/Acer-Chromebook-CB515-1HT-P58C-Notebook-Quad-Core/dp/B075CZ4NKN/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1542561720&sr=8-2&keywords=acer+15

not sure if there will be any discounts - keep an eye on it for black friday but not everything is reduced.

that price is not bad when you consider that you're getting 8gb ram, a better cpu than most chromebooks and a full hd screen. also 64gb is a decent storage amount for a chromebook.

lolliedog

glasso wrote: »

few decent chromebooks being produced anymore really except more expensive ones like those from Google.
so the ok reasonably priced ones are generally older models.

the acer 15 is the best of the bunch probably and the n4200 cpu is better than the old celerons.

it doesn't go for that cheap tho - 400 euro on amazon.de

https://www.amazon.de/Acer-Chromebook-CB515-1HT-P58C-Notebook-Quad-Core/dp/B075CZ4NKN/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1542561720&sr=8-2&keywords=acer+15

not sure if there will be any discounts - keep an eye on it for black friday but not everything is reduced.

that price is not bad when you consider that you're getting 8gb ram, a better cpu than most chromebooks and a full hd screen. also 64gb is a decent storage amount for a chromebook.

Thanks.

As a matter of interest would it be better to put the money towards a windows based laptop?

What would your uses be (browsing, office, media watching etc) and Max budget?

lolliedog

glasso wrote: »

What would your uses be (browsing, office, media watching etc) and Max budget?

All of the above but nothing heavy. Max €700 ish.

lolliedog

lolliedog wrote: »

All of the above but nothing heavy. Max €700 ish.

The Acer swift 1 in pc world in for 430 is a nice machine. Premium metal build , decent cpu. Light. Long battery life. Nice full hd screen. Fast SSD drive.. Not super Powerful but enough for your needs.

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


Here's a comprehensive review

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Swift-1-SF114-32-N5000-SSD-FHD-Laptop-Review.303606.0.html

lolliedog

lolliedog wrote: »

All of the above but nothing heavy. Max €700 ish.

I'd be inclined to go for that for the extra flexibility of windows.

Really nicely built unit.

Only 4 GB ram but that would be ok once you don't have 20 tabs in Chrome open at the same time.

lolliedog

If I went mad and pushed the boat out and also have something the kids could play games on. Would this be a good option.

https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/laptops/laptops/acer-predator-helios-300-15-6-intel-core-i5-gtx-1050-ti-gaming-laptop-1-tb-hdd-128-gb-ssd-10180726-pdt.html

I can't seem to find much better value than this for the spec it offers. Thoughts.

I posted this in a gaming laptop ask there recently. much better and cheaper than the one you looked at. going from a chromebook to a gaming laptop lol

for better performance and future proofing I'd go for a laptop with an nvidia 1060 card
inside. it's a good bit more powerful than a 1050 or 1050ti.
the version in this laptop is the 3gb card but that is fine as the 6gb card is only needed for 4k gaming and the screen on the laptop is 1080p.
a 1060 card allows for the option of vr gaming down the line also. it will run most games at 1080p high settings.

750£ on amazon. that's about 850 euro at current rates. use revolut to buy to get best exchange rate. if you don't have it just get the app for a free virtual card, load up money on it and buy with the revolut card number. will save you 2.5 to 3% compared to using an irish bank card

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-FX503VM-EN184T-15-6-inch-Screen-Gaming/dp/B07CHH1481/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1542291312&sr=8-2&keywords=1060+laptop

that's a good price for that setup.

last year/ earlier this year laptops with 1060 cards were £1000

worth the extra for the 1060. here's a framerate comparasion of the cards at ultra high settings at 1080p on 3 different games. more fps (frames per second) is obviously better. you can see how much better the 1060 card is by the results.

GTX 1050 GTX 1050Ti GTX 1060
GTA V (fps) 23 27 48
Hitman (fps) 30 39 58
Metro Last Light 23 28 45
__________________

you'd save on the extra irish vat buying from here I think as amazon would apply it

https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/FX503VM-EN184T-ASUS-FX503VM-EN184T_2315679.html


good reliable site

here's a comprehensive review -same model but with a slightly higher cpu (which won't make a huge difference as gaming is primarily about the graphics card)

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-FX503VM-7700HQ-GTX-1060-FHD-Laptop-Review.289582.0.html

lolliedog

Thanks glasso

The Price of a good Chromebook in my opinion doesn't stack up. The more I look at it a windows based laptop makes more sense. The more i look into it the more the specs take over lol.

Thanks again for all the advice.

lolliedog

@glasso

Is the spec of the processor on the Curry's site better or would it not make much difference?

yes the cpu on the curry's one is better but the 1060 card is far ahead of the 1050 ti card in the currys pc.

the graphics card makes all the difference for gaming and the cpu is fine to support it and general windows stuff when not gaming.

the asus with the nvidia 1060 graphics card is a far more powerful gaming machine.

the 1060 runs at a higher speed and has over 50% more graphics computing units.

the curry machine quotes a 3d mark time spy score of 2467

the asus one in the notebookcheck.net article got 3621 - so that's pretty much 50% more powerful graphically.

(that's using a combination of the gpu and cpu to achieve that)

that laptop with a £150 free game bundle for same price. may need to use parcel motel etc

https://www.box.co.uk/FX503VM-EN184T-ASUS-FX503VM-EN184T_2315679.html?wgu=13045_116019_15428042453434_6eaeccf131&wgexpiry=1550580245&source=webgains&siteid=116019#promotions

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lolliedog wrote: »

The Price of a good Chromebook in my opinion doesn't stack up. The more I look at it a windows based laptop makes more sense. The more i look into it the more the specs take over lol.

It all depends what you're looking for in a laptop, because looking at specs alone can be a red herring.

Chromebooks are very highly regarded by security experts. Among all the mainstream OSes, it's seen as the most immune to viruses, malware, and remote hacks. Google recently offered $100,000 to anyone who could hack a Chromebook and nobody succeeded.

Other benefits of a Chromebook include significantly longer battery life, which goes up to 12 hours on some models. They do not slow down over time, as Windows machines are prone to do. And the process of updating a Chromebook is simple, quick, and easy. No more of the frustration that Windows updates can cause.

Newer Chromebooks can run Android apps from the Google Play Store, and some can even run Linux apps, which gives more flexibility to the platform.

If you're still in the market for a Chromebook, the Acer 14-inch models are highly regarded. Look for the one with 4 GB RAM and HD screen.