General Question

elbanditoroso's avatar

Do any of you own Chromebooks? Are you happy with it?

Asked by elbanditoroso (33145points) November 16th, 2015

Woot.com (today – 11/16) has one of last year’s models on sale as a refurbished model, at what appears to be a pretty good price.

I realize that Chromebooks are not desktops or laptops – they reply on wifi connections to do anything – but they might be just the thing for certain situations.

If you own a Chromebook, what’s your experience? Advice appreciated.

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5 Answers

Pachy's avatar

Tried one, returned it a day later. Didn’t like lack of features or poor quality build. Suggest you go PC for a full-featured laptop (prices are comparable) or Apple if you’ve got the $$.

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

I have secondhand knowledge. I good friend had one. He loved it. If you are completely immersed in the world of Google, then there’s nothing wrong with them, assuming you have WiFi connectivity easily available.

I bought a new PC earlier this year, and I studied Chromebooks based on my friend’s experience. I use Google for a lot, and I have an Android phone and tablet. It seemed almost perfect. My biggest hang up was not having Microsoft Office. I have a lot of Word documents, and I want to keep them in that format. I do not want to translate them into Google Docs. I want to maintain them in the original format.

Apart from that issue, I was very seriously considering a Chromebook. They are very simple to use.

elbanditoroso's avatar

@Hawaii_Jake – thanks, very useful information. I have a desktop computer for most things, so the Chromebook, if I were to buy one, would not be for inside the house, but rather as something to take when I am out, traveling, or similar.

I think that wifi is now available almost anywhere. So that’s not a big stumbling block.

You have gone a long way towards convincing me. Thanks

Hawaii_Jake's avatar

I just wrote a long reply that was lost. Grr!

@elbanditoroso I’m glad to help.

I have a question. If you’re getting it to take with you on the road, would a tablet suffice?

I moved recently. I was at home all the time before and used my desktop throughout the day. Now, I have no desk and no desktop. I replaced it with a laptop. I bought a New Dell XPS 13, and it does everything I want it to.

I surprised myself after my move. I’m at home much less now, and when I’m there, I use my tablet for everything except banking and writing lengthy things that require a proper keyboard. If you’ve never used a tablet, you really can do almost everything on them that you can do on a computer. I’m happy with mine. I will be traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday and taking my tablet with me and not my laptop.

zenvelo's avatar

My son has one. He has a fully powered “laptop” (I call it a laptop but it is big and heavy) and he has a Chromebook to carry to classes at the College. He likes its portability, and that it is fully functional using Google docs.

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