Any downsides to Chromebooks?

[98elise]

My daughter's Win10 laptop is slow as hell, and the battery is on its last legs so I want to get her a new one for a Uni.

As battery life and speed are the main requirements I think a Chromebook would be ideal.

Are there any downsides to Chromebooks?

[ATG]

Depends entirely on what it's going to be used for ... I.e. what software it needs to be able to run.

[HantsRat]

I would avoid Chromebooks for education use. They're fine for general home use but you'll need to join it to an enterprise wifi network and no doubt need to install course specific software.

[98elise]

She's doing psychology and the main thing she needs it for taking notes during lectures.

I'm not aware of any software she's needed to install on her laptop. I'll check though as she may well have forgotten.

[98elise]

ATG said:

Depends entirely on what it's going to be used for ... I.e. what software it needs to be able to run.

She has no specific software she needs to run other than normal office stuff, email etc. Other than that it's YouTube and Spotify.

Current Chromebooks are compatible with PlayStore so most of what she wants is available as apps.

[ATG]

98elise said:

ATG said:

Depends entirely on what it's going to be used for ... I.e. what software it needs to be able to run.

She has no specific software she needs to run other than normal office stuff, email etc. Other than that it's YouTube and Spotify.

Current Chromebooks are compatible with PlayStore so most of what she wants is available as apps.

So long as she just needs Excel, Word and PowerPoint from the Msft world, then a Chromebook is likely to be fine, indeed ideal. Cheap if it needs replacing, light to carry, quiet, good battery life, cloudy by nature so hard to avoid having your data backed up. I'd just want to make sure the machine's ergonomics are up to scratch if she's going to be using it for all essays and dissertations. For example switching between reference material and Word on a tiddly screen might become painful.

[ATG]

I wonder if she'll really take notes in lectures on it? Pen and paper still feels quicker, more flexible and expressive to me. I've tried going fully electronic a few times, but I still carry a paper notebook around with me. In all other regards I'm paperless; haven't used the office printer in years. I'm still waiting for a really good electronic scribble/doodle input device and a way of flicking through electronic notes.

[98elise]

ATG said:

98elise said:

ATG said:

Depends entirely on what it's going to be used for ... I.e. what software it needs to be able to run.

She has no specific software she needs to run other than normal office stuff, email etc. Other than that it's YouTube and Spotify.

Current Chromebooks are compatible with PlayStore so most of what she wants is available as apps.

So long as she just needs Excel, Word and PowerPoint from the Msft world, then a Chromebook is likely to be fine, indeed ideal. Cheap if it needs replacing, light to carry, quiet, good battery life, cloudy by nature so hard to avoid having your data backed up. I'd just want to make sure the machine's ergonomics are up to scratch if she's going to be using it for all essays and dissertations. For example switching between reference material and Word on a tiddly screen might become painful.

The one she's looking at is the same size as her current laptop.

I'm currently trying to speed her Win10 laptop up and it's reminding me why I hate windows so much.

I decided to give Defender antivirus a go rather than AVG, and it seems impossible to turn it on. In the settings it simply says it's off!

Sent a couple of hours trying to do it before giving up and installing AVG again.

[Watchman]

98elise said:

ATG said:

98elise said:

ATG said:

Depends entirely on what it's going to be used for ... I.e. what software it needs to be able to run.

She has no specific software she needs to run other than normal office stuff, email etc. Other than that it's YouTube and Spotify.

Current Chromebooks are compatible with PlayStore so most of what she wants is available as apps.

So long as she just needs Excel, Word and PowerPoint from the Msft world, then a Chromebook is likely to be fine, indeed ideal. Cheap if it needs replacing, light to carry, quiet, good battery life, cloudy by nature so hard to avoid having your data backed up. I'd just want to make sure the machine's ergonomics are up to scratch if she's going to be using it for all essays and dissertations. For example switching between reference material and Word on a tiddly screen might become painful.

The one she's looking at is the same size as her current laptop.

I'm currently trying to speed her Win10 laptop up and it's reminding me why I hate windows so much.

I decided to give Defender antivirus a go rather than AVG, and it seems impossible to turn it on. In the settings it simply says it's off!

Sent a couple of hours trying to do it before giving up and installing AVG again.

Chromebooks are great for taking notes - depending on how fast you type I guess. My daughter's also has a touch screen so making quick sketches is equally easy. The software is all set up for this.

She's only 12, not very tech savvy, yet managed to receive and submit work from 3 different school systems during lockdown.

We're looking at MIDI controlling her piano at the moment. You can do a lot with a Chromebook - maybe not yet as much as some Windows machines but since they allowed Linux to be switched on within Chrome OS, the options have increased.

10 hour battery, nice bright touch screen, slim alloy case. Looks expensive but was only £259 originally from John Lewis (now £359 on Amazon though). It's still a good machine but I would wait and watch that one because I've seen its price go up and down a fair bit.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MVWCJLH/ref=cm_sw_r...

[AJB88]

Chromebook sounds good, might be worth getting one that has tablet mode built in. My sister got one for her nursing uni and still uses it now, got my mum one as well as her W10 machine was poor (cheap laptop)

I've actually moved away from ChromeOS again now simply because my ChromeOS all in one came to end of life for updates so have installed Elementary OS (Linux) on it.