Any thoughts on a <£300 touchscreen Chromebook to buy? Would be nice to get my hands on one first but JL and Curry’s have little in stock compared to what’s online.

Just get a proper laptop.

I brought an acer something or other for about £200. Generally quite happy with it but there are quirks. Some apps like amazon video run terribly. Really juttery. Others are totally fine. I think it is something to do with this particular chromebook being based in an Intel chipset whereas android apps (which run on chromebooks) are generally optimised for Arm(?). This maybe nonsense but sure someone with a bit more technical knowledge to me will be along soon.

Matty why? You don’t know my use do you?

Garmin Express doesn’t exist for Chromebook, just in case you have a Garmin

Garmin Express doesn’t exist for Chromebook, just in case you have a Garmin

I didn’t use Garmin Express when I had a laptop so I didn’t miss it when I got a Chromebook.

I went for an Acer CB-431 about a year ago and have been very happy with it. Does everything I need. Hasn’t got a touchscreen though (I didn’t want one)

Chromebook user for 5years, 3 kids on Chrome books for school, Chromebase at work and work uses chrome. I meet people like Matty all the time which is a shame but this is about your usage.

We have 2 Acer r11 in the house. Touch screen, in budget and the newer 4gb version is good. If you understand the concept and stop listening to the negative usually uneducated outdated opinions then very little is an issue.

Matty why? You don’t know my use do you?

Because they are limited, basically just an online Web browser.
You’re tied onto the whole Google bullshit aswell.

Matty, you are just wrong, but even the guy in PC World told me they don’t work so I guess they are misunderstood.

What do you work with Matty?

@mechanicaldope

It probably may not help, but the chrome books that google itself makes run on x86 not ARM, so you would imagine that the support for non arm devices is there.

You can get fast and slow processors of all types. At sub 200 pounds I would suggest that your machine is underpowered. Also available ram makes a big difference. Most reviews for chrome books I have read all suggest 8gb as a workable minimum.

You can get fast and slow processors of all types. At sub 200 pounds I would suggest that your machine is underpowered. Also available ram makes a big difference. Most reviews for chrome books I have read all suggest 8gb as a workable minimum.

You could very well be right. Think mine has 4gb. Not looked but would be supprised if you could get an 8gb machine for <300

Garmin Express doesn’t exist for Chromebook, just in case you have a Garmin

Can you use the Garmin Connect Android app on a Chromebook?
Or just plug in the Garmin with a USB cable, and do a manual upload. Or just sync the Garmin with your phone instead.

Matty, you are just wrong, but even the guy in PC World told me they don’t work so I guess they are misunderstood.

What do you work with Matty?

You just don’t have the freedom to do what you want with a chrome book.
And you’re tied into the Google marketing machine.
I use Windows and Linux for operating systems.

You just don’t have the freedom to do what you want with a chrome book.

I can do everything I want to with mine 🙂

Crack on then..

Al, my Mrs has an Asus Flipbook thing. She is about the most un-techy person I know and manages to use it without constantly asking me how it works. Never known any problems with it since we got it last year.

At sub 200 pounds I would suggest that your machine is underpowered

We’ve got a slightly underpowered one, didn’t want to spend too much before we knew if it would work for us. 90% of the time it’s excellent but occasionally slows up a bit. When it’s time to replace it I’ll go for a better spec because they are perfect for a lot of what we use a computer for.

Also have a proper desktop for anything the chromebook can’t do and for when I want to sit at a desk with a proper screen.

I like them, but it is easy to get one then realise down the line you need to run program X and there’s no way of doing so. Which is why mine dual boots chrome os and Linux.
Cost about 180eur 4 years ago and works fine.

Put mine in to developer mode and run ubuntu linux in a chroot.

Anything you can do in ubuntu, you can then do on a chromebook too, which is fine for me since I’ve used Linux nearly exclusively since god knows when (before ubuntu was a thing).

Swap between chromebook and ubuntu modes with a key-combo since both are running simultaneously, rather than reboot a dual boot machine.

Sure you probably won’t want to be editing vlogs and go-pro footage for youtube, or anything power hungry, or playing call of duty, but then you don’t buy either a chromebook nor a £200 laptop for that.

Depends what you want to run on it and use it for.  Other people seem to know more about what I need than I do 😉

Quite happily use mine for non-google stuff, although the Polar GPS watch app I run on the phone instead (mine’s too old to support Android apps).  Runs redbull tv quite happily. And it’s an ancient Acer one with a whopping 2Gig RAM and not very much SSD space. Battery lasted way longer than my old MacBook too.

Thanks all, even Matty for his useless comments 😀

Can you use the Garmin Connect Android app on a Chromebook?
Or just plug in the Garmin with a USB cable, and do a manual upload. Or just sync the Garmin with your phone instead.

IIRC you can manual upload, but updates are a bit more complicated, if at all possible. Having said that, the newer models may be able to download updates via a mobile connection like a phone does, but it’s not something I’ve looked into

I really like mine. It is just a browser, but that’s the beauty of it. Browsers do everything now. Just pick it up and it’s ready to use, battery lasts ages, nothing to install or maintain. Great. I don’t have a touchscreen one, but I don’t really have any interest in the android apps (especially as many of them seem to be just web portals anyway). Mines a 4gb ram, i3 model and it flies along, though it’s operating behind a “pi-hole” which speeds up all the browsers operating on my home network

Update: £128 on a 4gB 11″ Acer from the bay and I am v happy, battery is sound and the only annoyance is no right-click.

Right click functions on mine is a two finger tap on the touch pad, as opposed to just one finger. Does that work at all?

or ctrl & click (maybe alt & click)

Both of these work, cheers

I have a really old Chromebook, its over 5 years old and is basically a glorified web browser, it cannot install apps like the newer models.

Its amazing…does everything I originally needed, the only reason I still have a PC is that I wanted to do basic photo correction, and edit video. I bought a fairly expensive laptop last year and the Chromebook is so much more satisfy to use with its total lack of annoying popups, prompts, invasive software updates and bongs, chimes.

The battery life used to do 2-3 days of fairly heavy use and still gives the windoze laptop a run for its money, and it is as quick as the day I had it, which you can’t say for any budget windows laptop which will be dead on its feet after a couple of years.

Google knows all about you anyway unless you make a special effort to avoid android, youtube, facebook, whatapp and all that, its no different.

My laptop will eventually die but it will be the budget case that gives up, the case is cracked, screen bezel puckered up and one hinge is reconstructed using a bar, araldite, some pvc tubing, metal P clip and a nut and bolt straight through the screen bezel.