My son’s old school provided each student with a Chromebook, but his new one doesn’t. Teachers hand them out in classes when they need them in school, but if they have homework, they either need to have access to a computer at home or go to the school library.
Can anyone recommend a good one? It looks like they aren’t very expensive except for the Google one.
Costco has them, if you have a membership I would just grab one there. The specific hardware hardly matters given what you do with it.
Are Intel Celeron Processor N4000 based ones too whimpy to be work while? Should I at least get a Core i3? I don’t want to spend a ton of money, but I don’t want buy junk either. It will be mostly for schoolwork. He likes to make videos or maybe art project.
They’re all junk so get the cheapest one with the least horrible screen.
Can Chromebooks be used to edit videos? I mean is there video editing software?
He edits videos on his phone, so I’d guess so - but I’m not sure.
Any opinions on these? The Lenovo has probably a better processor, but only a 13 inch screen. The Samsung only has an Intel Celeron N4000 while the Lenovo has a Core I3. Samsung has a little more Ram too.
Vs This one?
I think the important feature for a school Chromebook that we typically ignore is durability. Many of the Chromebooks are built like typically shitty laptops and thus don’t stand up well to the wear and tear from being in book bags thrown around by high school age kids. My kids have (school-issued) Lenovo Chromebooks with the fold back screens for tablet use; apparently those hinges are better than the regular laptop hinges in terms of durability. I’ll try to find the model when they get home from school.
Also, CPU hasn’t been a huge bottleneck for my kids, but the memory on these devices makes a huge difference if you have a ton of stuff open, as my kids always do. I have to get them to close everything and reboot on a regular basis when performance becomes too painful.
One thing I didn’t mention is that he wouldn’t need to take it to school because they have ones to use there. This is just so he can do homework at home when needed, or other uses he finds for it.
This! My opinion on chrome books for school work is to just get the minimum that is required to accomplish the school work without problems. However, durability is very important because the device will travel every day and you’re not going to want to pay to repair it.
The Lenovo looks great with respect to everything except RAM. 4GB will be fine if your kid isn’t doing a lot on it, but as noted above that hasn’t been my experience with my kids.
I’m thinking about this one now. Better specs at 8GB RAM and an Core i3.A little more expensive, but it may be worth it.
That looks like a great machine!
That looks like a nice one to me. I like that it has 3 USB ports. That could be mouse, full size keyboard, and one other device. The touchscreen is nice too.
Since he’s using it at home you can even set it up so it’s plugged into a larger monitor if he has a desk in his room.
The 8 gigs of RAM and the 128 gig SSD are good too. Most Chromebooks have 4 gigs of RAM and 32 or 64 gig SSDs.
You are paying more for it, though. You can find Chromebooks for $200 or less.
I really like Chromebooks. They are light, have good battery life, and start up fast. They’re great for web-browsing and Google Docs, which covers 90% of my PC use these days.
Well, I went to Costco and picked up the Lenovo. Thanks for everyone’s input!
Good choice!
If anyone is still in the market, Best Buy has the 2020 version of the Acer Spin 713 on sale today:
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/acer-chromebook-spin-713-2-in-1-13-5-2k-vertiview-32-touch-intel-i5-10210u-8gb-memory-128gb-ssd-steel-gray/6416477.p?skuId=6416477
We got these for our kids and they have been great. The 2021 version comes with a newer processor and more storage but is more expensive and shorter battery life - so for school use the 2020 version is ideal.
Does Costco still do the double-length warranty on electronics? that was always a really nice feature to get from buying there.