Have you used a chromebook?

I was chatting with a tech support guy just yesterday about Chromebooks and he told me his room-mate bought one and discovered quickly that the keyboard was buckling due to the heat of the components. I myself bought one a few years ago and wound up returning it the same day. Cheaper than a regular laptop, yes, but poorly made and very limited in function. Having owned a GREAT laptop, the MacBook, I guarantee you’ll hate a Chomebook!

You could get a cheap Chromebook or other computer from a pawn shop for $200.

Chromebooks are amazing. We have two of them and will be getting a third before the fall. If you’re use of a computer is to access the web, it’s perfect. Fast, lightweight, no heat, silent, no need for antivirus, instant on, and cheap. I paid $179 and $199. Just make sure you know what a Chromebook is, however. If you have a need for installing pc or Mac software, this won’t do. This is a device for accessing the web.

Look at today’s WOOT.COM. Cheap Chromebook.

I’ve used one casually. It’s good for web browsing, writing and spreadsheets. Great with Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office.

If you need/want a full-powered laptop, another alternative is an off-lease business laptop. They’re no-nonsense machines and durable.

A particular model I can recommend is the Lenovo Thinkpad T420. They’re less than $200 on eBay.

It might seem like a step down from a Macbook, you are saving $100s for an equivalent machine.

I forgot to explain “off-lease”.

When a company gets dozens or hundreds or thousands of computers, they often lease them and upgrade every few years.

So resellers buy them up in big lots, refurbish them, and sell them as used.

I’ve bought a few and they were very clean, about 80% to 90% of new condition.

I don’t use any special software – just doing paperwork for my internships and general web surfing.

My son has one for carrying to school. Loves, it, finds it a lot easier to use than his big gaming laptop, lighter than his old macBook.

I got a nice relatively strong and very lightweight laptop recently, for $230. It had Win8 on it but I use Linux on it. $200—$250 seems like a lot for a Chromebook, to me.

Screen Size 11.60 inches
Processor 2.16 GHz Pentium
RAM 4 GB
Hard Drive 500 GB
Item Weight 5 pounds
Item Dimensions L x W x H 13.75×11 x 3.56 inches
Processor Brand Intel
Processor Count 4
Computer Memory Type DDR3 SDRAM

There are quite a few Chromebooks and they run the range from crap to great, slow to fast, so you may want to look around a little bit at various models.

I got a Acer C720 from Groupon for 130 bucks. It is probably the best bang for the buck I have ever gotten from a tech purchase. However, I never used Chrome OS except from booting into developer mode to install Ubuntu. It runs great and the battery seems to last forever.

Not sure how much having a laptop is a requirement. I have one of these too that I use as a HTPC and it is also pretty great. It was 80 when I bought it but 99 now. Even at 99 a pretty good deal if you have a monitor and keyboard and mouse.

some chromebooks are great, some are not, you have to test them out at the store to see which one you like the best..

all chromebooks have their pros and cons but overall, i would say toshiba has the best ones going.. speakers are good, long battery life, the keyboard is comparable to a macbook air, and they are fast.