Another Chromebook Thread: The Basic Differences vs a Regular Laptop?

[Charmed Life Picks]

Hi, All. I've been reading about Chromebooks, and it looks like one of these might fit several needs I have. What are the basic differences between a Chromebook and, say, a small laptop with a 14" screen? I need something with at least two USB ports, but don't need a lot of memory or a fast CPU.

Thanks,
Scott

[hubcapsc]

My perception of chromebooks is that they have a Linux based os
And they are most usable when they have access to a good
Internet connection - they use the cloud for a lot of stuff.

-Mike

[imwjl]

A Chromebook is not a general purpose operating system and personal computer in the way you might know you can install a wide array of programs and work on things all your own. Think of how a smart phone has a cloud ID and gets apps from a curated store. It's more like that. You don't just install traditional desktop programs.

Most are made to be inexpensive. In some cases that means cheap as in simple and minimal features and in other cases cheap as in a craptactular product. There are premium models with higher quality display and/or build quality to be distributed in a school or business.

Regular laptop can also mean a lot. Beyond being a general purpose computer they can be targeted for a low price point with low quality or enterprise/professional grade.

A decent Chromebook can be sort of like an Android tablet more in the format of a traditional laptop. A decent traditional or more general purpose laptop will usually cost more. I loathe cheap versions of both. We give a lot of support to our nearly 1000 employees in and outside of work. The price points typically in business and education and that grade of stuff is usually well worth the small premium. Look at models also sold in business and eduction.

Edit:

Chromebook are not as tied to having an Internet connection as once was the case but that's an element you have to remember.

If you want a really nice personal computer in a laptop format these days nothing we provision or advice for staff beats the MacBook Air with M chips or Surface Laptop 4 family. Within that nothing beats the MacBook battery life, durability and they are less expensive than the very good Surface and Dell XPS people like. Many get great modestly priced laptops with the HP business tier models.

Base model iPads with keyboards are also very good.

We measure "good" by tracking life span, repairs, purchase cost, training and security incident costs for company stuff, and the help we give staff for their personal access to the HR, scheduling and payroll systems.

[Chipotle]

I posted this on the other thread, but here it is again:

The difference is ease of use vs. ability to run non-cloud/offline software.

ChromeOS takes very little setup, boots up almost immediately, updates are simple when they happen. On the flip side, you are limited to web-based stuff and Chrome apps, and as noted not a lot of local storage. If you do most of your stuff online (email, browsing, web apps), and particularly if you are already in the Google ecosystem with Docs, Drive etc., a Chromebook may suit you well. You need an internet connection to do much with a Chromebook, although also as noted there is limited capability do work offline.

If you need other sorts of apps, e.g a DAW or scoring software, utilize the Microsoft Office, Apple or Adobe ecosystems, or create large files you want to store locally, a Chromebook won't work as well. You can access web-based versions of, say, Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop, but they won't be as full-featured as the installed versions. If that describes your usage, a small Windows laptop might be a better choice.

[robj144]

I think the simplest way to put it is if you need something for mostly browsing the web with some light productivity (word processing and spreadsheet), get a Chromebook. They are cheaper and do that as well as a laptop... arguably better as the experience is more streamlined.

If you need to do more than that (heavy photo editing, video editing, DAW, etc...), then get a laptop or desktop computer.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Thanks, everyone. A chromebook won't work for my application. Appreciate you filling me in.

scott memmer