My sons school had a raffle for its ROTC program and I won a new Chromebook. Seems like for a Chromebook it’s decent. I have never had one before but shoot it’s free may as well keep it. My son and wife have no interest in it. The description they sent of what I won was this.
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Won a Chromebook….
- Thread starter AdamNC
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I picked up a Chromebook for my main machine a while back, so I've acquired a little bit of experience (and understanding of the thought process that would inspire someone to buy or use one). I'm not sure how much help any of this will be to you, but perhaps this overview will interest someone.
Since it has a larger screen than an iPad (or your Macbook, for that matter), you might find it useful for a portable video player. Drawing apps (with a stylus) or touchscreen games would also seem to be a natural fit. It'd also be good for video chat, although that depends on what app you use (obviously FaceTime isn't an option).
New Chromebooks can come with 'perks', promo offers from first or third parties. Check the Explore applet to see what's available on that machine. Some of them, like Google or Dropbox's 100 gigs for a year, are pretty impressive (especially if you got the computer for free!)
Although there's nothing wrong with occasionally charging up to 100% and/or using it as a largely stationary device, if you move it around very often, HP recommends that you keep the charge between 40%-80%, and say that by not charging it up past 80%, you can greatly extend the battery life over fully charging it each time.
It is trivially easy to switch ctrl-alt in Chrome OS, making the most common keyboard shortcuts virtually the same as on a Mac; to do this or other minor key swaps, simply go to "Keyboard" in Settings.
Offline support isn't one of a Chromebook's strong suits (although I'm not sure it is actually much worse than other modern computers in that regard - we live in an internet-oriented world), but you can set up Google's office suite for local use.
For regifting, your ideal targets include anyone who might be interested in the Mac/iPad combo but can't afford them, people who are not tech-savvy or who spend most of their time on only a few websites, minimalists who like having as few devices as possible, writers, and low-spec tech enthusiasts who can tolerate Google. It's a plus if the person already has an Android phone.
Pros:
A Chromebook (especially a 2-in-1 like you have) is a very viable alternative to most tablets, including iPads, as well as less expensive laptops. With a real keyboard, large display, and sufficient ports, it offers many of a laptop's advantages without sharing the higher price point. The battery life is likely as advertised, and Chrome OS has gone from being a glorified browser to, in my opinion, a genuine contender. (It is also plausibly the most Mac-like experience I've ever had 'out of the box' without actually using a Mac.) Besides first-class support for so-called "web apps", they seem to run Android apps pretty well (although I confess I haven't tested it out as much as I might have). They also support Linux programs in a container. Outside of Chrome OS, some people have reported success booting in different Linux distros. These are all legitimate and strong advantages that shouldn't be underrated.
Cons:
At this price point, you have to skimp on something, and the processor here relatively suffers. Your smartphone probably has more pep in it than this Chromebook. Of course, even low-end computers are so powerful now that this probably isn't as important as it sounds like it should be, but it does matter to some people with legitimate high-CPU or GPU demands.
I can vouch that local storage and file management are one area here that is more like a mobile device than a laptop. "Files" is good for simple tasks but falters on jobs that would be easy on a Mac or PC, like complex file searches, or copying large numbers of files.
Besides, Google doesn't offer any guarantees about your data's safety when it's local, and might periodically do something like release an update that wipes your storage. (This also means anything you have in your Linux environment is vulnerable, probably more so than it would be on a device running a mainstream distribution.)
A Chromebook (especially a 2-in-1 like you have) is a very viable alternative to most tablets, including iPads, as well as less expensive laptops. With a real keyboard, large display, and sufficient ports, it offers many of a laptop's advantages without sharing the higher price point. The battery life is likely as advertised, and Chrome OS has gone from being a glorified browser to, in my opinion, a genuine contender. (It is also plausibly the most Mac-like experience I've ever had 'out of the box' without actually using a Mac.) Besides first-class support for so-called "web apps", they seem to run Android apps pretty well (although I confess I haven't tested it out as much as I might have). They also support Linux programs in a container. Outside of Chrome OS, some people have reported success booting in different Linux distros. These are all legitimate and strong advantages that shouldn't be underrated.
Cons:
At this price point, you have to skimp on something, and the processor here relatively suffers. Your smartphone probably has more pep in it than this Chromebook. Of course, even low-end computers are so powerful now that this probably isn't as important as it sounds like it should be, but it does matter to some people with legitimate high-CPU or GPU demands.
I can vouch that local storage and file management are one area here that is more like a mobile device than a laptop. "Files" is good for simple tasks but falters on jobs that would be easy on a Mac or PC, like complex file searches, or copying large numbers of files.
Besides, Google doesn't offer any guarantees about your data's safety when it's local, and might periodically do something like release an update that wipes your storage. (This also means anything you have in your Linux environment is vulnerable, probably more so than it would be on a device running a mainstream distribution.)
Since it has a larger screen than an iPad (or your Macbook, for that matter), you might find it useful for a portable video player. Drawing apps (with a stylus) or touchscreen games would also seem to be a natural fit. It'd also be good for video chat, although that depends on what app you use (obviously FaceTime isn't an option).
New Chromebooks can come with 'perks', promo offers from first or third parties. Check the Explore applet to see what's available on that machine. Some of them, like Google or Dropbox's 100 gigs for a year, are pretty impressive (especially if you got the computer for free!)
Although there's nothing wrong with occasionally charging up to 100% and/or using it as a largely stationary device, if you move it around very often, HP recommends that you keep the charge between 40%-80%, and say that by not charging it up past 80%, you can greatly extend the battery life over fully charging it each time.
It is trivially easy to switch ctrl-alt in Chrome OS, making the most common keyboard shortcuts virtually the same as on a Mac; to do this or other minor key swaps, simply go to "Keyboard" in Settings.
Offline support isn't one of a Chromebook's strong suits (although I'm not sure it is actually much worse than other modern computers in that regard - we live in an internet-oriented world), but you can set up Google's office suite for local use.
For regifting, your ideal targets include anyone who might be interested in the Mac/iPad combo but can't afford them, people who are not tech-savvy or who spend most of their time on only a few websites, minimalists who like having as few devices as possible, writers, and low-spec tech enthusiasts who can tolerate Google. It's a plus if the person already has an Android phone.
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Awesome write up. I have been messing around with it and what we have done is made it the family Google machine. Basically all 3 us of have put our accounts on it. And removed them from our Apple devices. Only have access to our gmail through Mac mail app. So our devices are degoggled so to speak. And I swear things seem smoother on both ends. I am impressed with Chrome OS. Simple logically designed. If it were not for the data mining issues I would be tempted to get a higher end Chromebook. I do think the are a bit underrated and Google really should put a bit more in the PR department of promoting them. But maybe that’s why it’s good. It’s not a big thing. So far it’s been a steady machine. My sons school does everything on Chromebooks. His school supplied Chromebook is beyond its ELS. Ended in 2020. He comes homes grabs ours and is amazed at how fast it is. Again thanks for the write up. Agree 100%.
What good would putting a bit more in the PR department to promote chromebooks do if people will reject them in the end due to the data mining (non-) issue?
I won't get into all of the technical details, but suffice it to say that all companies mine data... even companies that a person doesn't have any interaction with has personal data... Facebook has data on people who never had a Facebook login.
I own a ton of devices and my chromebooks are always the choice to just pick-up-and-use. Not only do I have seamless access to data that is in the cloud, but I often use them to remotely connect to my iMac and Windows systems. With a fairly decent network connection, using that HP chromebook to remote into a MacOS system would feel like MacOS is running natively on it.
It's great that you are using it with multiple logins. That's one of the great things about chromebooks... the ease of multi-user. That, and the fact that if you move to a different chromebook you can log into that new one and all of your apps and settings will be picked up there. The only thing that would be lost is any data that is locally stored on the device.
There is a thread here on MR where we discussed some of the tips and tricks for chromebooks. Do a search for Pixelbook in the thread title and you should find it.