Living with a chromebook

[gio_v]

Hi,

This is my first post to the LTT forum and the subject I want to discuss is chrome os and chromebooks (that's a first). The main reason being that I recently purchased the Dell chromebook 13 (the cheap celeron one) and I would like to share my impressions and frustrations on the subject.

First of all I would like to point out that I had my old laptop (the one I replaced with the Chromebook) for three years. It was my only computer for most of its life. As for its specs it was an i7 3630QM with a gtx 660m, 8gb of ddr3, an 256 gb ssd and 1tb HDD. This machine was not a laptop per say, it was heavy and bulky and on battery, it could browse the internets for around an hour before its next recharge. Performance wise it was not great either. Sure it could play whatever I threw at it but the experience was never satisfying (low res, low detail, low fps). So the day it died I decided to upgrade and the upgrade path would be 1000 euros the best thing I could buy for gaming, light cad applications, local data storage and backup.

Now I searched a lot on this subject and I mean a lot, the only solution that makes sense at this price point is desktop pc for the heavy lifting and a cheap laptop with good display (combined with steam in home streaming, windows parity for NAS functionality and chrome remote desktop for everything else). Now for my needs I also purchased an android TV box but that is not relevant. The desktop pc specs are here if anyone is interested and the laptop of choice is this. 

Now I was ready to send the chromebook back the first ten days of living with it. First major problem was the installation of ubuntu via crouton. Due to dependency problems I couldn't install steam or KODI to it so no media and game streaming for me. VLC player was an option for videos and firefox for browsing in ubuntu but not much else I could do, I thought I might as well stick to the chrome os to get rid of the annoying developer mode ''welcome screen''. Another issue I encountered was every time I did a sudo apt-get update on linux, It destroyed my crouton setup and the only thing I could do was to reinstall everything. So because of these issues, I was very disappointed on my purchase at first. I was ready to break the seal and format the thing to a full linux (GalliumOs) machine but I reconsidered and gave chrome os another chance.

I started by browsing for game stream solutions and I came across Moonlight for chrome os, (more on that here). Great overall solution for 1080p game streaming but it only works on nVidia cards. Input lag is low, graphics are great and 60 fps stream totally doable even on wifi. So I do play games smoother and at better quality than my previous laptop but only at home.

Second problem is KODI. I use it a lot for media sharing in the house and I would like to have that function on my chromebook. The alternative for this is of course Plex. Chrome has a native Plex plugin that works pretty good on light weight hardware so problem solved. I do miss some KODI features but I hope that I get it with future android compatibility. The last thing I needed was to use autocad lt and sketchup for work on the move (trust me I am an engineer) and for that I ended up using my.sketchup and the good old chrome remote desktop for autocad. I know that online solutions are never the answer but I found that these are surprisingly not at all data hungry so my 5 gb mobile data plan is sufficient for my needs.

So overall am I satisfied? Not completely but now I am better than my previous setup. To start with the pros the Dell chromebook 13 features one of the best 1080p IPS screens I have ever seen, the build quality is great with magnesium alloy body, carbon fiber screen cover and glass track-pad. It can also last from 6-10 hours with a single charge that takes around 45 minutes to complete and all that for around 400 euros. The cons are that chrome os lacks features and the machine lacks power and it shows at certain points. Would I recommend a chromebook as a daily driver? Surely but after android store compatibility becomes a thing.

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

 

 

[MaxBunny]

3 minutes ago, gio_v said:

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

It's fine. Thanks for sharing your story! I didn't know that living with Chromebook was comparable to life with herpes, AIDS, or ebola. But at least it's manageable. Hopefully they find a cure soon.

[Ronda]

I would have went ahead and installed Linux on the hardware, not in a chroot. I'm pretty sure your Steam dependency problems arose from the fact that Crouton is a kind of virtualization.

[don_svetlio]

Wow, 600-700$ for such a mess? I'm deeply sorry for you friend. Next time, look at the XPS 13/UX305 or XPS 15/UX501 - more cash but dramatically better devices

[gio_v]

1 minute ago, Ronda said:

I would have went ahead and installed Linux on the hardware, not in a chroot. I'm pretty sure your Steam dependency problems arose from the fact that Crouton is a kind of virtualization.

I was ready to do what you are proposing at some point but I plan to upgrade the internal storage first and then I will be doing a dual boot config.

[don_svetlio]

Just now, gio_v said:

I was ready to do what you are proposing at some point but I plan to upgrade the internal storage first and then I will be doing a dual boot config.

Honestly, seems like a hell of a lot of work for not much reward. I honestly believe a refurbished XPS 13 would have cost the same (when you factor in the upgrades) and provided MUCH better functionality.

[gio_v]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

Honestly, seems like a hell of a lot of work for not much reward. I honestly believe a refurbished XPS 13 would have cost the same (when you factor in the upgrades) and provided MUCH better functionality.

Honestly I bought the used chromebook from amazon.co.uk for 240 £ and the desktop pc set me back around 500 euros so I do think that I got a better deal for 700-800 euros than only a dual core laptop. Needless to say that I will never spend more than 500 euro on a laptop ever again (my previous laptop set me back 2000 euros three years ago). I tell you what though if you can find me a refurbished dell xps 13 for my spare 300 euro I will go for it...

[don_svetlio]

9 hours ago, gio_v said:

Honestly I bought the used chromebook from amazon.co.uk for 240 £ and the desktop pc set me back around 500 euros so I do think that I got a better deal for 700-800 euros than only a dual core laptop. Needless to say that I will never spend more than 500 euro on a laptop ever again (my previous laptop set me back 2000 euros three years ago). I tell you what though if you can find me a refurbished dell xps 13 for my spare 300 euro I will go for it...

Laptops have come a long way since you last bought a behemoth gaming one. The GL502VT only costs about 1250 Euros and delivers performance on par with a 800-900 euro desktop AND it comes with a very color accurate matte display.

[Pendragon]

25 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

The GL502VT only costs about 1250 Euros and delivers performance on par with a 800-900 euro desktop AND it comes with a very color accurate matte display.

Agreed. It's even better in the US. Laptops v Desktops have been a topic discussed till death. But recently the value proposition for a desktop is getting poor. 1300 is enough to get you a 1060 in a laptop. You can build a 1060 build now for what? 1k-1.2k? And you still need a laptop, screen, speakers, webcam, keyboard, mouse. Yes you can upgrade it later down the path, but your laptop experience is still going to be poor without paying extra for nice things like a XPS13. 

[gio_v]

3 hours ago, Pendragon said:

1300 is enough to get you a 1060 in a laptop.

 You can go ahead and do that 1060 in a laptop thing but it will then sound like a jet engine every one minute and it will never perform like its desktop counterpart because of thermal throttling. But still you will have a 1060 in a mobile gaming machine which is nice if you are that guy.

[don_svetlio]

1 hour ago, gio_v said:

 You can go ahead and do that 1060 in a laptop thing but it will then sound like a jet engine every one minute and it will never perform like its desktop counterpart because of thermal throttling. But still you will have a 1060 in a mobile gaming machine which is nice if you are that guy.

IF you buy cheap garbage from Acer yes. If you buy a good Clevo/Asus/Alienware 17' machine then your 1060 will run around 70-80*C at full speed and be relatively quiet

[gio_v]

17 inch machines weigh around 4 kg so there goes portability the battery life on these things is practically non existent (1-4 hours max) they also run hot and NOISY most of the time (at least by my standards). That said I do recognise that gaming laptops are progressing far better than their desktop counterparts. I see that nvidia is selling full desktop gpus with low TDP that are used in laptops. Furthermore with thunderbolt compatibility one can connect almost anything he can think to a laptop and get decent performance for reasonable money. But all these new technologies and innovations are trying to tackle problems that desktops never had. In a desktop as long as you have pci-e slots available you could do anything you like. Right now I have a 6 TB parity setup (raid5) that I share all over my network, I stream my pc games to four different machines that run various OSes (including chrome os) with decent frame rates and good quality and I use one instance of windows to my entire house (yes I can use one instance with multiple users simultaneously). If you claim that I can do all that with only a laptop I would say that is not possible...

[don_svetlio]

2 minutes ago, gio_v said:

17 inch machines weigh around 4 kg so there goes portability the battery life on these things is practically non existent (1-4 hours max) they also run hot and NOISY most of the time (at least by my standards). That said I do recognise that gaming laptops are progressing far better than their desktop counterparts. I see that nvidia is selling full desktop gpus with low TDP that are used in laptops. Furthermore with thunderbolt compatibility one can connect almost anything he can think to a laptop and get decent performance for reasonable money. But all these new technologies and innovations are trying to tackle problems that desktops never had. In a desktop as long as you have pci-e slots available you could do anything you like. Right now I have a 6 TB parity setup (raid5) that I share all over my network, I stream my pc games to four different machines that run various OSes (including chrome os) with decent frame rates and good quality and I use one instance of windows to my entire house (yes I can use one instance with multiple users simultaneously). If you claim that I can do all that with only a laptop I would say that is not possible...

You do realize that 17' gaming laptops run the coolest and quietest out of all? Not to mention Alienware machines get 6-8 hours of battery life? I should also mention that mobile Pascal is a colossal mess causing so many issues with thermals on a lot of laptops and eGPU is wonky and doesn't work properly on 99% of devices even with TB3?

Please do the following, pick up your desktop with 1 hand and walk for 1km then we can talk.

[gio_v]

5 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Alienware machines get 6-8 hours of battery life

According to this these machines get 6 hours of of battery life max ONLY when web browsing at full screen brightness.

 

10 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

You do realize that 17' gaming laptops run the coolest and quietest out of all?

They don't run cool and quiet enough, at least by my standards. 

 

21 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

should also mention that mobile Pascal is a colossal mess causing so many issues with thermals on a lot of laptops and eGPU is wonky and doesn't work properly on 99% of devices even with TB3?

As if it is possible to cool down a 150+ W TDP chip efficiently with a blower style cooler that is based on a sub-100mm fan... e gpus on the other hand have some future ahead IMO

47 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

Please do the following, pick up your desktop with 1 hand and walk for 1km then we can talk

If I can suggest a challenge for you to, please put your laptops close to your bed and close your bedroom door, then run GTA5 at 1080p on ultra for... ohhh

[don_svetlio]

6 minutes ago, gio_v said:

According to this these machines get 6 hours of of battery life max ONLY when web browsing at full screen brightness.

 

They don't run cool and quiet enough, at least by my standards. 

 

As if it is possible to cool down a 150+ W TDP chip efficiently with a blower style cooler that is based on a sub-100mm fan... e gpus on the other hand have some future ahead IMO

If I can suggest a challenge for you to, please put your laptops close to your bed and close your bedroom door, then run GTA5 at 1080p on ultra for... ohhh

By your standards? G751 would run quiter than a desktop at 30dB max. What are your standards exactly? Passive?

As for battery life - if you want gaming at max load, then you won't get it - not to mention gaming on the go was NEVER a thing.

[gio_v]

15 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

By your standards? G751 would run quiter than a desktop at 30dB max. What are your standards exactly? Passive?

This is my desktop cooler so yeah passive is one way to put it... I also have the pc locked to a ventilated cabinet so again my noise standards are not average... But what if i fold you that I can stream my games 1080p@30 fps on my 50 inch TV using my android phone as a client (with xbox controller and ethernet adaptor connected to it) and its battery would still last more than an Alienware.

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, gio_v said:

This is my desktop cooler so yeah passive is one way to put it... I also have the pc locked to a ventilated cabinet sooo again my standards are not average... But what if i fold you that I can stream my games 1080p@30 fps on my 50 inch TV using my android phone as a client (with xbox controller and ethernet adaptor connected to it) and its battery would still last more than an Alienware.

What about the G501VW? 96Wh battery + 1080p screen gives you 9 hours.

[gio_v]

96 Wh battery divided by 9 hours means 10.6 watts power draw, that numbers can be achieved by a laptop but only at idle and/or very light load state... After all this machine comes with a 120W power brick for a reason...

[don_svetlio]

6 minutes ago, gio_v said:

96 Wh battery divided by 9 hours means 10.5 watts of power draw that numbers can be achieved only at idle or very light load state... After all this machine comes with a 120W power brick for a reason...

That's for web browsing - for gaming it's around 3 hours.

[gio_v]

1 minute ago, don_svetlio said:

That's for web browsing - for gaming it's around 3 hours.

 

No for intensive gaming is less than an hour...

[don_svetlio]

Just now, gio_v said:

 

No for intensive gaming is less than an hour...

Not exactly - 7559 has a 74Wh battery which gets 2 hours of gaming - the CPU is throttled to 10-15W and the GPU to about 15-20W. 960M + Skylake is a very efficient combo

[gio_v]

18 minutes ago, gio_v said:

That's for web browsing - for gaming it's around 3 hours.

 

if you check this review (talking about the G501VW) you will notice that power consumption under load reaches 94 watts, dividing 96 Wh with that number will give you your answer...

[don_svetlio]

8 minutes ago, gio_v said:

 

if you check this review (talking about the G501VW) you will notice that power consumption under load reaches 94 watts, dividing 96 Wh with that number will give you your answer...

I should've pointed out - I was referencing a local reviewer.

[gio_v]

Meanwhile in chrome os land...

[don_svetlio]

20 minutes ago, gio_v said:

Meanwhile in chrome os land...

Do you have a quad-core HT CPU and 750 Ti GPU?