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Author Topic: Chromebooks  (Read 3467 times)

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Roadrunner7671

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Chromebooks
« on: July 03, 2016, 02:12:15 pm »
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90-93% of my forum posts have been from an iPod. That could change if I can find a laptop/Chromebook. This forum is full of computer scientists and engineers and witty college students, so I figured I'd ask here. Does anyone know of a laptop that satasfies these requirements:
-Under $250
-Has 6+ hours as a battery life
-Can support games
-Can support Adobe Flash, Illustrator, etc (not a requirement but preferred)
-Keyboard that lights up when it's dark (is that called backlit?)

I've looked at the Asus Chromebook Flip, it seems alright.
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Awaclus

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2016, 02:18:18 pm »
+6

As a CS student, the only thing I really know about this subject is that if you're buying a laptop for less than $250 and hoping for 6+ hours of battery life, you are inevitably going to regret not prioritizing CPU power more some day.
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Roadrunner7671

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2016, 02:21:34 pm »
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As a CS student, the only thing I really know about this subject is that if you're buying a laptop for less than $250 and hoping for 6+ hours of battery life, you are inevitably going to regret not prioritizing CPU power more some day.
I forgot to mention that I'm technologically illiterate. Can you elaborate a bit on that?
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Limetime

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2016, 03:10:33 pm »
+1

Laptop is much better than chrome book.(Used one for school and it was just a Web browser like all the other chrome books)
Windows is much more useful/ flexible than Mac.
Mac costs ten times more than most other companies.
Good luck finding a good one under 250.
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Awaclus

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2016, 03:32:29 pm »
+2

I forgot to mention that I'm technologically illiterate. Can you elaborate a bit on that?

How fast your computer is is largely determined by how powerful your CPU is, because that's almost always the bottle neck. Having a faster hard drive (i.e. a solid state drive) helps with stuff like opening files and opening programs, but you probably only do those things perhaps a few times every time you use your computer, so having to wait a couple of seconds for your browser to load is probably not too bad. There's other stuff as well but you probably don't have to take that into account.

If your CPU sucks though, your computer is going to be slow all the time, and that gets frustrating really easily. A good CPU, however, consumes a lot of battery life, so either you're going to need a good CPU and a kickass battery, which I would imagine to be impossible given your budget, or you're going to have a good enough CPU for basic every day usage (but not good enough for serious gaming, video editing, or other very CPU-intensive tasks) but it will consume the entirety of your battery life way faster than 6+ hours, or you're going to have 6+ hours of battery life on a very slow computer.

If you absolutely need to get it for less than $250 and it absolutely needs to have 6+ hours of battery life, then there isn't much of a choice. However, especially when you don't have a lot of money just lying around, it's really important to not make any purchases that you won't be entirely happy with, so I would recommend at least saving up some more money before buying the computer, and preferably also making a compromise regarding the battery life in favor of a faster computer.

A good way to find out how good each respective CPU is is to look up CPU benchmarks for that model and comparing the numbers with the benchmarks of a CPU in a computer that you know is frustratingly slow and the benchmarks of CPUs in the recommended specs for games that you might want to play.
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Seprix

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2016, 03:35:56 pm »
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Yeah, you're not getting a non-shitty computer with a great CPU for anything under $1000. Chromebooks are good for surfing the web, but you're not really going to be doing much in the way of applications with a Chromebook.
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Awaclus

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2016, 03:39:52 pm »
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Yeah, you're not getting a non-shitty computer with a great CPU for anything under $1000.

That's because you buy Apple computers though.
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Seprix

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #7 on: July 03, 2016, 03:40:27 pm »
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Yeah, you're not getting a non-shitty computer with a great CPU for anything under $1000.

That's because you buy Apple computers though.

Yes, true.

I did find an okay computer here:

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/asus-vivobook-e403sa

It's $400 and it probably blows a Chromebook out of the water.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2016, 03:41:31 pm by Seprix »
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Roadrunner7671

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2016, 03:41:47 pm »
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I guess I should explain that the games I'm playing are stuff like Dominion Online and Cool Math Games.

Video editing isn't something I'd probably do. So I don't really think a strong CPU is a must, but I will keep CPU in mind.

But 'basic everyday tasks' sounds like me.
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sudgy

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2016, 03:48:11 pm »
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Yeah, you're not getting a non-shitty computer with a great CPU for anything under $1000.

I have a pretty good laptop that is probably average in many areas for $400.  A few hours of battery life (there is a noticeable difference depending on what you're doing though), pretty fast at normal things (like web browsing or messing with files), and alright with games (probably not crazy CPU/RAM intensive ones though).
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Awaclus

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2016, 03:51:47 pm »
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I guess I should explain that the games I'm playing are stuff like Dominion Online and Cool Math Games.

Video editing isn't something I'd probably do. So I don't really think a strong CPU is a must, but I will keep CPU in mind.

But 'basic everyday tasks' sounds like me.

So it would sound pretty reasonable to me to buy something like the Asus that Seprix linked to (but you should definitely do more research before just buying that one — you might be able to get similar performance at a cheaper price or better performance at a similar price if you go through lots and lots of different models, but the differences are probably not very big). I would be fairly comfortable browsing the web and playing Dominion Online with those specs, but it's certainly not suitable for video editing.
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Roadrunner7671

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #11 on: July 09, 2016, 12:31:47 pm »
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I have found three that have all gotten good reviews on the surface.

The Toshiba CB35-B3340
The Toshiba CB35-A3120
The HP Chromebook 11-2110nr
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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2016, 04:43:02 pm »
+3

So I'm making this post from a brand new Acer Chromebook 14. It's great. It has 4 GB of RAM and is noticeably faster than my iPod. Browser games have been great, the 1080p screen is a step up from even our TV. The keyboard is a tiny bit cramped for me and I have small fingers, so if you have thick fingers I might not recommend it. It's fabulous for me though.
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gkrieg13

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #13 on: August 15, 2016, 04:45:52 pm »
+1

So I'm making this post from a brand new Acer Chromebook 14. It's great. It has 4 GB of RAM and is noticeably faster than my iPod. Browser games have been great, the 1080p screen is a step up from even our TV. The keyboard is a tiny bit cramped for me and I have small fingers, so if you have thick fingers I might not recommend it. It's fabulous for me though.

I have heard that that chromebook in particular is a great one to own!
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Roadrunner7671

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #14 on: August 15, 2016, 04:49:06 pm »
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So I'm making this post from a brand new Acer Chromebook 14. It's great. It has 4 GB of RAM and is noticeably faster than my iPod. Browser games have been great, the 1080p screen is a step up from even our TV. The keyboard is a tiny bit cramped for me and I have small fingers, so if you have thick fingers I might not recommend it. It's fabulous for me though.

I have heard that that chromebook in particular is a great one to own!
I have a cheap mouse with it as well which (in my opinion) makes it so much easier. So I'm pretty excited. The power at my fingertips will take some getting used to, but it's a worthwhile purchase for me.
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Roadrunner7671

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #15 on: August 15, 2016, 04:58:23 pm »
+1

Update: You can play Dominion Online on it, and that's all that matters.
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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #16 on: August 16, 2016, 03:34:25 am »
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I'm actually on my Chromebook right now. If all you really want is portable internet, its a good buy.
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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #17 on: August 16, 2016, 05:43:01 pm »
+2

I'm actually on my Chromebook right now. If all you really want is portable internet, its a good buy.

You got the whole internet on there?!
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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #18 on: August 16, 2016, 05:45:11 pm »
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I'm actually on my Chromebook right now. If all you really want is portable internet, its a good buy.

You got the whole internet on there?!

Yeah! I've even got a whole meadow on mine!

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Re: Chromebooks
« Reply #19 on: August 16, 2016, 06:01:19 pm »
+1

I'm actually on my Chromebook right now. If all you really want is portable internet, its a good buy.

You got the whole internet on there?!

« Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 06:09:32 pm by singletee »
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