Chromebook?

[D_Kostroun]

So I made a thread a couple days ago looking for a decent priced laptop for myself, but then I had another idea and wanted to get some opinions on a chromebook.  What I need is a laptop for taking notes and possibly light browsing while waiting in between classes.  I already have a gaming pc and a nexus 7 and I am on a pretty tight budget right now (college student problems) so a chromebook seemed to be a good fit.  I would just like to hear other peoples opinions on this before I go further.

[flibberdipper]

Get a decent HP or Acer with a Celeron and a nice touchpad. My school got Samsung X303 Chromebooks (I think that's the base model number) and the touchpads are complete shit, as are the keyboards.

[D_Kostroun]

Get a decent HP or Acer with a Celeron and a nice touchpad. My school got Samsung X303 Chromebooks (I think that's the base model number) and the touchpads are complete shit, as are the keyboards.

I was considering the Acer C720

[Judahnator]

chromebooks are great and all, as long as you will NEVER need to run a .exe or anything. I have an Acer c7 and it works great for taking notes and browsing, however unless that is ALL you are going to need to do with it i suggest getting something else.

[flibberdipper]

I was considering the Acer C720

That seems like a good one for the price.

[D_Kostroun]

chromebooks are great and all, as long as you will NEVER need to run a .exe or anything. I have an Acer c7 and it works great for taking notes and browsing, however unless that is ALL you are going to need to do with it i suggest getting something else.

Yeah I pretty much just want something light and portable for class. 

[bacosta1993]

I was considering the Acer C720

Dude I love mine. I highly recommend it for school or just browsing the web. For notes I use office 365(cloud based office suite). I get about 6 to 8 hours of battery life depending on my usage. 

I also recommend this for a nice sleeve.

http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-11-6-inch-Laptop-Chromebook-MacBook/dp/B00CD8ADKO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390631392&sr=8-1&keywords=chromebook+sleeve

 

Edit: Office 365 is $80 for students(4 year membership). This also comes with 2 installs of the official office suite.  

[D_Kostroun]

Dude I love mine. I highly recommend it for school or just browsing the web. For notes I use office 365(cloud based office suite). I get about 6 to 8 hours of battery life depending on my usage. 

I also recommend this for a nice sleeve.

http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-11-6-inch-Laptop-Chromebook-MacBook/dp/B00CD8ADKO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390631392&sr=8-1&keywords=chromebook+sleeve

 

Edit: Office 365 is $80 for students(4 year membership). This also comes with 2 installs of the official office suite.  

Sweet. Thanks for the reply! That's not too bad.

[bacosta1993]

Sweet. Thanks for the reply! That's not too bad.

Also 2gb of ram is enough if you were wondering. I have about 10-20 tabs open at once and everything runs smooth. 

My only gripe is the viewing angles on the screen.

 PS: 1440p video playback on youtube is super smooth.

[D_Kostroun]

Also 2gb of ram is enough if you were wondering. I have about 10-20 tabs open at once and everything runs smooth. 

My only gripe is the viewing angles on the screen.

 PS: 1440p video playback on youtube is super smooth.

Ah yeah they are probably TN panels? But no big deal. I would still think it's worth it for the price.

[bacosta1993]

Ah yeah they are probably TN panels? But no big deal. I would still think it's worth it for the price.

Yeah it is definitely worth it. The hinge opens to about 140 degrees so you should be able to find a suitable angle.    

[flibberdipper]

Also 2gb of ram is enough if you were wondering. I have about 10-20 tabs open at once and everything runs smooth. 

My only gripe is the viewing angles on the screen.

 PS: 1440p video playback on youtube is super smooth.

I've had 30+ tabs open on mine and it does fine. However, 1080p video at 720p TV screen resolution is all mine will do. And it's a 1080p TV.

[D_Kostroun]

What do you all do for storage?  I have a 1 TB portable HDD that I keep at home, but I was also considering getting a nice USB 3.0 flash drive, possibly a 64 GB or higher.  I know it's all cloud storage, but there are somethings I would rather keep out of the cloud.

[bacosta1993]

I've had 30+ tabs open on mine and it does fine. However, 1080p video at 720p TV screen resolution is all mine will do. And it's a 1080p TV.

Yeah the new Haswell chip is really good on battery and video. I can load a couple 1440p Youtube videos and watch a 1080p twitch stream at the same time, no problem. 

[bacosta1993]

What do you all do for storage?  I have a 1 TB portable HDD that I keep at home, but I was also considering getting a nice USB 3.0 flash drive, possibly a 64 GB or higher.  I know it's all cloud storage, but there are somethings I would rather keep out of the cloud.

I use this sd card for storage.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Class-Memory-SDSDU-032G-AFFP/dp/B007M51J3I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1390633439&sr=8-3&keywords=32gb+sdcard

I also carry around this flash drive

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Y8C0H4/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[D_Kostroun]

I use this sd card for storage.

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Class-Memory-SDSDU-032G-AFFP/dp/B007M51J3I/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1390633439&sr=8-3&keywords=32gb+sdcard

I also carry around this flash drive

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Y8C0H4/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ah yeah I forgot it has a SD card.  That's nice.    

[flibberdipper]

What do you all do for storage?  I have a 1 TB portable HDD that I keep at home, but I was also considering getting a nice USB 3.0 flash drive, possibly a 64 GB or higher.  I know it's all cloud storage, but there are somethings I would rather keep out of the cloud.

My school has 30GB of Drive storage for each of us, so I don't really think about it. But an SD card would be good. Just put it in and forget about it.

[D_Kostroun]

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Now I'm not sure whether to go with an acer c720 or wait for newer chromebooks to come out.

[flibberdipper]

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Now I'm not sure whether to go with an acer c720 or wait for newer chromebooks to come out.

There probably won't be much of a speed increase between them, if that's what you're wondering.

[D_Kostroun]

I was also thinking about the HP 14. I think I would just have to go look and see if the 11.6 inch screen is too small or not.

[D_Kostroun]

There probably won't be much of a speed increase between them, if that's what you're wondering.

Yeah but I was also looking in terms of build quality and screen size.

[flibberdipper]

Yeah but I was also looking in terms of build quality and screen size.

They are all pretty much the same size, but that one you found is one of the ones with better build quality.

[D_Kostroun]

Yeah. And I just went and looked at the HP 14 and the Acer c720. And overall I think I like the HP 14 better.