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Chromebook!

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by lawRAWR, Jun 16, 2013.

  1. lawRAWR

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    Hey guys! I have been wanting a laptop/computer for so long, here in my family we don't have that much money so I've been saving up for a while :slight_smile:

    Today, I bought a Samsung Chromebook, which is fairly new, I believe. It cost me only £229! It's keys are really responsive, and it provides all that I need. My main aim was to use it for college work, but I'm not sure if the College format will work with the Google docs etc. instead of Microsoft :eek: Oh well.

    Does anyone else own a Chromebook, and what are your opinions on them? They probably get slandered a lot, but I like mine... So far, anyways :lol:
     
  2. Batman

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    I wouldn't ever get a chrome book, as I abuse my pc's pretty bad, and I know it would break under the stress.

    I think that Chromebooks are great for people who don't need all the fancy bells and whistles. They are designed extremely well for their target audience, but Chromebooks don't stand a chance against the Big Guys. I have faith in Android, and I'm sure that google Docs, and their other products will work well with what you're trying to accomplish.

    I'm glad that you're pleased with your purchase, I hate seeing people buy a computer that's wrong for them. I hope it continues to fulfill your needs :slight_smile:
     
  3. BMC77

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    No experience with Chromebooks. But I will say...they have interested me as an option if I ever buy a portable device.

    Google Docs might or might not work, depending on the requirements. I assume, since you are a student, your main requirement is Microsoft Word compatibility for papers, etc. Google Docs might be good enough. Even if it isn't, it might take care of a large percentage of the work. You could possibly write and edit first drafts on Google Docs, then move it over to a computer with a real copy of Word (or something very word compatible) for final formatting. I do this sort of thing regularly--one project I did around the start of May was done almost entirely using gedit (a plain text editor), and then the final draft (which had to be Word compatible) was generated by importing the final text-only draft into TextMaker (which has very high Word compability). I did what formatting was needed, and then saved as a Word document. That got sent on its merry little way, and fullfilled its little mission in life.
     
  4. lawRAWR

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    Awesome! Yeah, I have worried about the Word/ office requirements; I'm not sure what my college requires to upload work, but I'll hopefully just transfer via. USB stick onto their computers :slight_smile: I hope :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
     
  5. starfish

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    I've been thinking of picking one up. The price is really good, and for the price it is just about disposable. It would be great for taking to coffee shops and on air ports.

    I really like the Chromebook pixel. It is a sweet machine, but it's price makes it far for disposable.
     
  6. Ridiculous

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    You can download stuff from Google Drive in Microsoft Word format (.docx) and it seems to work pretty well. This is what I did when submitted stuff in my final year at uni.
     
  7. starfish

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    I picked up an Acer C7 Chromebook today.

    It has 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD.

    It had a open SO-DIMM slot and I had a 2GB DDR SO-DIMM in my box-o-parts, so I bumped it up to 4GB of RAM.

    The other cool things is that it uses a standard 2.5 SSD, so it will be easy to upgrade if I decide to.

    Not the fastest system around, but for $199 it is pretty good.
     
  8. RainbowMan

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    I was under the impression that you had to be online for it to be useful AT ALL - i.e. you couldn't edit docs offline, etc.

    As for Google Docs MS compatibility, it's actually pretty good. You just save it as .docx, and get it into Word without a problem. Now it probably won't do a ton of the fancy formatting that Word can do, but in reality most people don't need that.
     
  9. Batman

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    I really appreciate the chromebooks. They are priced appropriately, and they don't try to be anymore than they are. They know their audience. They're convenient for note-taking or journalling, and are great for kids who only use computers for internet-access and google products. Not something I would buy into, but I think they're great. :slight_smile:
     
  10. starfish

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    Apparently it has offline docs and mail now, but I haven't tried it.
     
  11. ptacub

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    I think it depends on what you're studying and what kinds of papers you are writing. If you're just using it to take notes and to write simple documents then Google Docs will be fine, I believe. I think the only class I have that requires advanced features of Microsoft Office is Statistics, in which we learn many of the statistical functions that Excel provides. Otherwise, LibreOffice suites my needs quite well (although I use Linux, not Windows).

    If all else fails, just write most of the document in Docs and then transfer it to Office on one of the college computers to add the finishing touches.

    I'm rather indifferent about Chromebooks. If the person's needs are not so exorbitant and doesn't need the full power of an OS like Windows, Mac OSX or a popular Linux distro, then Chrome OS is good for them imo. I can't use Chromebooks because it's too limited for what I need a PC for.
     
  12. starfish

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    Haha today Google announced the new Haswell based chromebooks. They look to have much better batter life, but pricing has yet to be announced.

    Since I opened up the one I have now I can't return it. So I might just wait a year and see what comes with the Broadwell chips.
     
  13. GayNerd

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    I'm using a Chromebook in my science class. It's really cool.

    Too bad I can't take it home. :frowning2:
     
  14. Strathclyder

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    I've owned a Samsung Series 3 Sliver WiFi Chromebook since December 2012. A pretty nifty piece of kit. Only cost £249.
     
  15. Level G

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    I have an Acer Chromebook that I installed Ubuntu on. Pretty nice small laptop, but without a full OS, I would have been frustrated with the lack of functionality I desire from a computer.
     
  16. Inferno

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    I have a chromebook series 5 550, and let me tell you, it is NOT good. Any games that run off of java I can't play, it randomly disconnects you from the interwebz, it has a tendency to not show the web page, and the anti-virus protection does not work.

    However if you are looking for something just to type and do work with, then I recommend it.
     
  17. starfish

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    I'm still thrilled with mine, and it has become my main system.
     
  18. Geek

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    I want to review a chromebook soon and hopefully will. I thought about getting one since i'm already in the Google ecosystem and want something to type notes on, check my email, and YouTube. That's most of what I do. The only thing I can't do on a chromebook that I do all day long is Skype (correct me if i'm wrong) and Photoshop.