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I'm looking at Chromebooks at the moment, I know there's a few advocates on here and wondered if there was a general consensus of what the go-to model is.
Main usage would be for Mini V's homework (with monitor/keyboard/mouse), Netflix, YouTube, etc - ideally under £300.
I've seen this one, but it looks to be a model that's a few years old - is it still worth going for or is it outdated now?
I really like this one, but can't help thinking I could get a half-decent Windows laptop for that price;
Any advice/pointers much appreciated.
Don't know if this will be any help at all....... bit like someone on a Halfords Carrera offering advice on top end MTB's..... but I bought a basic one (Asus C200-ish??) second hand on here because people were saying how great chromebooks were and i thought I'd give it a go.
That was nearly three years ago, and it's still going strong despite being dropped, had tea and coffee regularly spat over it, and so on. I use google docs for household budgeting and the like, word processing (OK, mainly my CV and letters to my MP about access to the Pirbright military lands) and the rest of the time it's web based stuff. Like the Carrera, I'm sure there are better but you can still do a heck of a load on it so i wouldn't race to spend £400 when I suspect you'll be able to do everything you need for half that price or less.
I've had two £200 chromebooks. Both do the job despite having been dropped, stepped on, dropped down the stairs etc. The current one is a bit slow if you have 10+ demanding tabs open but otherwise is fine.
For the things you described op, pretty much any of them will be fine though £400 seems like a lot for one imo
I've got one of the Acer R11's. Had it about 15 months. I use it for web, email, reading mags, watching films and tv, and the odd bit of writing and spreadsheets.
The only frustration i have is that google still haven't got android apps working with the SD cards, so i have to transfer the maps/vids etc to the internal memory before viewing them. Some people on the dev forums are getting all flustered about this, but this is the only real flaw. Otherwise it is a great, simple, robust, inexpensive bit of kit.
I'd buy another.
Thanks for the comments, I think my next plan of action is to go and play with some in store.
I'm on an old Toshiba CB30, must be about four years old now, as above its been well abused/dropped/drowned, after one of the screen hinges started to seize and cracked I upgraded to a £700 Ideapad. I say upgraded...yes the screen was a fantastic improvement, but the horrendous battery life was not. After a few months I dropped it, bending the ally back panel, cracking a mount from the palmrest, and a few days later the screen stopped working, so it can only be used with a monitor now.
So the Toshiba got dragged out of retirement, I literally araldited an M6 bolt in the chassis, lined a metal P clip with some rubber tube, and then drilled through the bezel and bolted the lid/screen back on. Its fairly tired now but for a sub £200 machine to still be going with several hours battery life, thats pretty impressive.
Check that the Chromebook can install Android apps. Not all can..Google has a list somewhere. Apps are needed for downloading content for offline viewing Which is helpful when travelling.
I have bought over seven chromebooks and a chromebox over the years. We run two companies on them. Currently typing this on my favourite, an ASUS C100P flip. Small, long battery life, fantastic keyboard for the size. Flip screen and capable of running Android.
Touchscreen is an unexpectedly useful feature when in laptop mode for quick finger flicking and clicking.
While 2Gb RAM will more than suffice if you want spare firepower in reserve a 4Gb is a good idea. Other than that specs are substantially less important than for traditional computer buying.
As above, get an up to date device with Android runtime for the ability to download, say, iPlayer or Google Play Movies content for watching on the go.
That c302 looks excellent spec and based on its older brother that I have (the 10" C100 4Gb that cost me £250) will be a great computer although I wouldnt normally pay that much for a Chromebook. £250 is the most Ive paid and £100 the least. Even the oldest ones I have are still going 7 or 8yrs old as fast as new. How many PCs can do that?
More or less the same as other users. I run everything from a chromebook. Sheets and docs are equally good replicas of excel and word (certainly for school use). Battery life, updates, lack of viruses, complete replication if yours gets stolen or damaged as everything is cloud based are the obvious pluses, but make them ideal for kids.