Chromebook ? Yea or Neigh ?

Chromebooks ?

Anyone got one or have experience with one ?

I thinking about getting one for my lad (13) for school. He has his PS4, his Xbox and his phone for games, so this is strictly intended to be a "work" machine. His school provide Office 365 online accounts for the students and this works without problems in the Chrome browser. The prices here are about half of a comparable windows laptop, so it seems a no brainer, but I'm just wondering if anyone has had any bad experiences with them.

Ta.

https://3dinsider.com/chromebook-pros-and-cons/

You'll probably end up buying a laptop in a couple of months

Bought one two years ago. Complete piece of shit and smashed it about three months later.

Get what you pay for, etc.

I have a few of them. Cheap ones are really shit, more expensive ones (300 and over) do what they are made to do effortlessly. They're all android compatible now so he can get up to all sorts of dodgy shenanigans too.

Originally Posted by Albert Tatlock

Chromebooks ?

Anyone got one or have experience with one ?

I thinking about getting one for my lad (13) for school. He has his PS4, his Xbox and his phone for games, so this is strictly intended to be a "work" machine. His school provide Office 365 online accounts for the students and this works without problems in the Chrome browser. The prices here are about half of a comparable windows laptop, so it seems a no brainer, but I'm just wondering if anyone has had any bad experiences with them.

Ta.

I've got a chrome book and it is an excellent bit of kit, so long as your use case is one it is suited to. My lad tried using it at uni instead of taking a full sized laptop but found the WiFi coverage so patchy it was no use. If your kid's school is already using the Office 365 stuff entirely online then WiFi is obviously not a problem. I have used the 365 online stuff on a windows laptop and it is almost as good as having it installed locally.

I would say if he wants it ONLY for Office and web browsing then it will be fine. There are online tools for almost anything he is likely to need for school work etc.

What's the second-hand availability like where you are? My lad bought our chromebook from CEX (games/phone/PC buy and selling place) three or four years ago for less than £100 I think (only 11" screen I think) and it is still as good now as it was then. might be worth a punt on a cheap 2nd hand one and splash out on a new one if it works for him.

Originally Posted by Poop

I have a few of them. Cheap ones are really shit, more expensive ones (300 and over) do what they are made to do effortlessly. They're all android compatible now so he can get up to all sorts of dodgy shenanigans too.

I'm sure that said 250 before i started writing my post.

That's inflation for you

Originally Posted by red red robbo

I've got a chrome book and it is an excellent bit of kit, so long as your use case is one it is suited to. My lad tried using it at uni instead of taking a full sized laptop but found the WiFi coverage so patchy it was no use. If your kid's school is already using the Office 365 stuff entirely online then WiFi is obviously not a problem. I have used the 365 online stuff on a windows laptop and it is almost as good as having it installed locally.

I would say if he wants it ONLY for Office and web browsing then it will be fine. There are online tools for almost anything he is likely to need for school work etc.

What's the second-hand availability like where you are? My lad bought our chromebook from CEX (games/phone/PC buy and selling place) three or four years ago for less than £100 I think (only 11" screen I think) and it is still as good now as it was then. might be worth a punt on a cheap 2nd hand one and splash out on a new one if it works for him.



I'm sure that said 250 before i started writing my post.

That's inflation for you

That's not his choice, that's mine... he has other toys for playing.

I was concerned initially by the MS office compatibility issue. I'm not office fan, but the school use it and having tried once or twice submitting his homework in libraoffice (via my laptop), it's obvious that the school want to standardise on ms office. If they're providing the licenses then I can't argue with that.

Looks like I'd have to pay for a mid range and not a cheap one though, judging by other fredster's experiences... or opt for a low price range windows machine...

Thanks to all.

Originally Posted by Albert Tatlock

That's not his choice, that's mine... he has other toys for playing.

I was concerned initially by the MS office compatibility issue. I'm not office fan, but the school use it and having tried once or twice submitting his homework in libraoffice (via my laptop), it's obvious that the school want to standardise on ms office. If they're providing the licenses then I can't argue with that.

Looks like I'd have to pay for a mid range and not a cheap one though, judging by other fredster's experiences... or opt for a low price range windows machine...

Thanks to all.

On no account do that. Cheap windows laptops are absolute dog shit.

I too used to make my kids do their homework using LibreOffice, even the computer science teachers couldn't manage to read it most of the time. The school didn't have office licenses at the time though so I was f***ed if I was going to pay for a license because the school were technically inept.

I like them, have just bought my third one (HP, previously ASUS and Acer) and use it for most (though not all) of my online stuff.

If he's going to run Office via a browser, then I'd get him a cheap-ish laptop & stick Linux on it. Get the right distro & it'll run nice and fast.

However, if he's got a license for Office 365, he should* be able to install it on up to 5 devices. So, I'd grab a second hand Macbook. I picked up one for £200 about a year ago - runs Office 365 with no problems at all.
If you're going to get a Windows laptop, get a decent spec one.


(The licence I got when I started this course at Uni allows that).

Originally Posted by red in cumbria

use it for most (though not all) of my online stuff.

.