Clan Piper is going to need a second laptop to help us get through the self-isolation thing.
Our local Staples has Chromebooks on sale, staring at C$200 : Chromebooks - HP, Acer, Asus & More | staples.ca
Don’t need it for gaming, but for internet (banking, SDMB etc) and documents, and able to connect to a wireless printer. Would want to have MS Word (or equivalent).
Would the AcerChromebook 11, the cheapest one, meet those specs?
Any comments would be most welcome.
Any Chromebook can use Google Docs. Is that good enough for you? I use a Chromebook for basic web surfing, Straight Dope access, and document processing. They can all print to my printer. They all run the same OS and have pretty much the same capabilities. The only real differences between them are display size/resolution, processor speed and storage.
The Acer model you mention would do all those things, if you are OK with Google docs. It does have a small screen, and relatively slow graphics though.
Never used Googke Docs -what’s that?
Click on the Chrome waffle. Look for the Docs icon. It’s Chrome’s built in free word processor. You can save your documents to Google Drive.
The point being that it won’t be running any Microsoft product. Some Chromebooks can run Android apps, but IMHO, they don’t do it very well. If either Google docs, or the web version of Microsoft 365 is OK for you then a Chromebook is great.
It’s basically Google’s answer to Microsoft Office, designed for online use but also works offline. Thus it has a replacement for MS Word.
That said, you could also just use Microsoft Word directly. Looking it up, it appears that the Acer Chromebook 11 can install Android apps, meaning you could install the Android version of Microsoft Word from the Google Play store after setting an option.
If your Chromebook doesn’t support Android apps, then you could just install the Word Online extension instead. This is because Microsoft has an online version of Word. This is available on any Internet connected device, but the extension add some features for Chrome books.
In short, everything you said you wanted to do is possible on the Chromebook you mentioned.
I use my chromebook for 99% of my home requirements. Works fine, never any grief with lock-ups or shutdowns or security issues.
We have an office 365 account from microsoft and it runs the suite of applications well enough for a non-power user.
Some notes:
The “disk drive” (eMMC) is only 16GB. That’s not a lot. While common on Chromebooks, I find that it is too limiting. E.g., I like to travel with some movies on mine. That’s not a lot of room. And watching a movie off a thumb drive can be a pain.
(Of course, traveling might not be your thing right now, but still using it as a portable video even locally might be an nice feature.)
Other stuff you store on it can quickly add up.
It came out 2 years ago. While not technically ancient, that’s something to consider. (And may explain the discount.)
Touchscreen? I got one without. Regretted it. Now working on fixing one that has it. (I buy ~non-working stuff and fix them for fun.)
One thing to keep in mind: You might get a lemon. Thoroughly test it and make sure there’s no problem. Any hint of an issue then return it.
Thanks for the comments, everyone. Work got real busy (from home) so I just now have got around to ordering one. The Acer was out of stock, so ordered the Asus. Should be delivered to my doorstep on Monday.
A touch late but potential issue. There is always the option of a return if it is an issue for you.
Chromebooks have an expiration date. More specifically an Auto Update Expiration. At that point no more updates of the operating system and built in applications are made available. It is based on when the first device was sold not on when you bought it. The biggest issue with AUE is you don’t get security updates after that date. You also won’t be receiving application updates so you might see issues like your browser not being able to handle new web standards introduced after AUE.
Now it possible on many to install either a linux distribution or non Google related Chrome based operating system (which is itself linux based) on most. I will leave looking at whether that is possible to your searching.
There were three ASUS models on the link you gave. You can look up your AUE on the list Google provides here. If it is the CA202SA, which was the cheapest, the AUE is June 2022. To me that seems like an issue if you see any kind of long term use after the current crisis ends.
True, but the first one I bought was a c720 in 2013 and it just recently got notification of that expiration date for later this year. Still works now though and I don’t know what will happen after that but 7 years of pretty trouble-free usage isn’t to be sniffed at.
Or just go to docs.google.com (or sheets.google.com, or slides.google.com) in any browser. It’s not tied to Chrome in particular.
Thanks for the additional comments, everyone! I really appreciate your help.
I think I’ll keep with it. Cheaper than a new Mac, and needed as a back-up/alternative, so I’ll give it a whirl.
Chrome waffle?
Waffle, waffle, waffle …
Oh, you mean the dots! I just click on that to switch to Google News. Hadn’t realised how much other stuff is there.
Maybe I should have gone back to update my bottom line up front when I actually looked up the potential system in question. We are looking at maybe 27 months of pretty trouble free usage not 7 years. Most people do not get as much time before expiration as you did.
I suppose the big qestion will be what sort of problems appear after the expiration date, regardless of when that is.
At the moment my daughter is using it for school work and video-chat with her friends under lockdown so it’ll be interesting to track that and see what happens post-expiration.
Just out of interest, do Chromebooks still rely on Google Cloud Print to be able to print anything? I like Chromebooks, but that always seemed like one weak spot to me.
you can get an external monitor if you want a bigger screen. I’ve done that with windows laptops for about 10 years.
Nope.
Thanks for the link, ftg.