Chromebook choices

[Rick101]

I'm after a last min cheap Chromebook to us whilst travelling vice my phone.

I see the specs but don't really see how relevant they are considering I'll only use it for online browsing, maps, Netflix etc.
My only though was a reasonable size and quality screen.
Flip screen would be nice.

Ebay has lots at very cheap prices.

Any brands to go for/avoid?
Any spec ram, storage or whatever to focus on?

Thinking
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234252908361?epid=25035...

Thanks

Edited by Rick101 on Sunday 24th October 18:44

[colin79666]

Personally I’d avoid HP due to having seen a big percentage have trackpad failures at work where as the Acer models they replaced were near faultless.

Just beware ChromeOS like any other OS moves on and old models drop out of support/updates so don’t be tempted by the very cheap looking refurbished devices (not all refurb is bad). Support dates can be found here: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366...

Anything with 4gb ram will happily run a few browser tabs and Netflix.

[Rick101]

Cool thanks.

[AJB88]

Make sure the device also has touchscreen/android support not all of them do.

[Rick101]

Thanks Andy.

This is probably one of those things I have the intention of spending £100 and end up at triple that.

[Bearings]

Would be good to know what you end up with (and any initial thoughts on it) as I've been umm-ing and ahh-ing over a cheap Chromebook for a while now.

[FunkyNige]

Rick101 said:

Thanks Andy.

This is probably one of those things I have the intention of spending £100 and end up at triple that.

Yeah that happened with me - went looking for a cheap Chromebook that did basic things and kept adding all those 'nice to have features like the hinged screen that went all the way around, touchscreen, etc. and ended up spending £250 (4 years ago) on an Acer R11.
Personally I wouldn't be without the hinged screen and a touchscreen, it's surprisingly annoying having to scroll down the page using a trackpad and the hinge lets you use it as a tablet, all be it a heavy and bulky one.
I can't help with any specific brands or models, but I'll say my Acer has been used at least weekly for 4 years for basic browsing and watching videos and still works fine. The spec is "Intel Celeron N3060 Dual-core 1.60 GHz,4 GB RAM, LPDDR3 and 32GB eMMC Storage" and I wouldn't want to go below that.

[nikaiyo2]

Got one of these for my mum yesterday.

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-duet-za6f0025gb-c...

Seems great value for a very lightweight option.

[AJB88]

nikaiyo2 said:

Got one of these for my mum yesterday.

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-duet-za6f0025gb-c...

Seems great value for a very lightweight option.

Smart that!

Sisters got the R11 as above, I someties steal it for Sky Go when I'm at mums house rather than watching it on my phone.

[superpp]

How about this little one, very flexible and a great price £194 after cashback.
Lenovo Duet.
Great screen and battery life.

https://ao.com/product/za6f0025gb-lenovo-ideapad-d...

[Rick101]

Thanks all.

Was in contact with someone that was selling flip style of fb for £100+ but on questioning was a 3 year old unit.
I'm not particularly budget limited just didn't want creep on something that will only get occasional use.

That unit looks great. Will prob got for that or something similar.

Also considering this as I think i'll prefer a self supported screen

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 - Out of stock at AO at present annoying as they have the cashback offer on.
https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/lenovo/studen...

Edited by Rick101 on Tuesday 26th October 21:18

[Corso Marche]

You're not going to get much performance at the bottom end of the market, so temper your expectations from the off regarding performance.

Worth considering these options below.

Should get the HP X2 11 for 400 or below with black Friday deals coming soon.
https://www.hp.com/us-en/chrome/chromebook-x2-11-i...

I'd pick this ASUS over the Duet for the extra flexibility.
https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/Chromebook/A...

Neither are overly powerful, but a convenient form factor for portability and multiple uses.

Be sure and check the end of support date for any model you consider, as somebody mentioned above. Too many retailers try to pass off old models at near full price.

[e-honda]

if you look at the HP chromebook 13, they were quite high end when they were in production, so they are a really nice form factor and great screens, but they're only in support till June 2023 so are now selling pretty cheaply.

[Bearings]

e-honda said:

if you look at the HP chromebook 13, they were quite high end when they were in production, so they are a really nice form factor and great screens, but they're only in support till June 2023 so are now selling pretty cheaply.

Thanks for the tip - this looks like a good spec to dip my toe into the world of Chromebook so picked one up for 120 quid (thanks to a 20% discount from eBay).

Even with just over a years support left, I can move over to CloudReady or even Linux later down the road,

Edited by Bearings on Wednesday 27th October 10:53

[AJB88]

I ran Cloudready for a few weeks on my LG Chromebase when it went out of support then ditched it for ElementaryOS.

[e-honda]

Bearings said:

Thanks for the tip this looks like a good spec to dip my toe into the world of Chromebook so picked one up for 120 quid (thanks to a 20% discount from eBay).

Even with just over a years support left, I can move over to CloudReady or even Linux later down the road,

Yeah they won't be pure junk in 18 months time but having to mess with the OS breaks all of what I like about Chromebooks.
If you are interested in using it for other stuff check the specs carefully, there are some with a lot more ram and slightly better CPUs for similar prices.

[Bearings]

e-honda said:

Yeah they won't be pure junk in 18 months time but having to mess with the OS breaks all of what I like about Chromebooks.
If you are interested in using it for other stuff check the specs carefully, there are some with a lot more ram and slightly better CPUs for similar prices.

Cheers - this was partially why I didn't want to drop 300 quid or similar on a brand new one. The 6 yr support lifecycle and 'limitations' of a Chromebook at that price point doesn't work for me especially when I've not had one before. If this works for me, then I probably will spend a bit more next time around.

[Corso Marche]

Bearings said:

Cheers - this was partially why I didn't want to drop 300 quid or similar on a brand new one. The 6 yr support lifecycle and 'limitations' of a Chromebook at that price point ...../snip

There's 8 years support from date of introduction of a new model to it's support EOL. It's been that way for the last 20 months approximately.
So even if you bought a model from last year to save a few quid you should still see 7 years of OS updates remaining.

[Bearings]

Interesting... thanks! Hadn't realised the support lifecycle had increased even further!

[Rick101]

Went with the Flex 3 in the end

https://ao.com/product/82bb000juk-lenovo-ideapad-f...

£229 less £2.29 topcashback and £25 AO cashback = £197.71