Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
waffle iron
Jan 16, 2004
Yeah most of the smaller laptops are very low budget/educational market focused. Plastic, under resourced, and can be thrown around by kids.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

waffle iron posted:

Yeah most of the smaller laptops are very low budget/educational market focused. Plastic, under resourced, and can be thrown around by kids.

Hmm, kinda sounds (and looks) like my best option is the HP Chromebook x2 I already have, then. Heh.

Xiphas
Nov 5, 2004

cruft posted:

I think it's finally time to replace my OG Pixelbook.

I've been using my daughter's HP Chromebook X2. I love the size and weight of it, and I love that the pen is always charged, but the keyboard kinda blows. Also the hard drive is kinda small: I use Linux heavily.

Are there any options today that are small, lightweight, work as a tablet, can use some sort of pen, and have a flip-around keyboard instead of a tear-off keyboard? I probably don't give two poops about CPU speed, since the Pixelbook was meeting my needs just fine.

I have a Pixelbook, and it is hands down my favorite laptop ever. I keep trying to find something to replace it, and I can't find anything that is a 1-to-1 match for it. Nothing has the same feature set. The Dragonfly comes the closest, but it is not fanless. I would also like something with more memory just to future proof it.

When my daughter dropped my Pixelbook and the trackpad went out, the replacement I went for was....another Pixelbook. I went from a i5 Pixelbook to a i7 one. I didn't think the extra memory and processor bump would do anything, but it seems snappier than my old Pixelbook when I do a side-by-side comparison. I don't recommend anyone else do this unless you are crazy like me.

Since you say that you are happy with the performance of your Pixelbook, why not try to ride it out until AUE? Google granted the Pixelbook another 3 years of support, so I would say ride it out until the end. That's what I am going to do - and pray that Google reconsiders making a true in-house successor.

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

Xiphas posted:

I have a Pixelbook, and it is hands down my favorite laptop ever. I keep trying to find something to replace it, and I can't find anything that is a 1-to-1 match for it. Nothing has the same feature set. The Dragonfly comes the closest, but it is not fanless. I would also like something with more memory just to future proof it.

When my daughter dropped my Pixelbook and the trackpad went out, the replacement I went for was....another Pixelbook. I went from a i5 Pixelbook to a i7 one. I didn't think the extra memory and processor bump would do anything, but it seems snappier than my old Pixelbook when I do a side-by-side comparison. I don't recommend anyone else do this unless you are crazy like me.

Since you say that you are happy with the performance of your Pixelbook, why not try to ride it out until AUE? Google granted the Pixelbook another 3 years of support, so I would say ride it out until the end. That's what I am going to do - and pray that Google reconsiders making a true in-house successor.

yeah that's a thought. I would have to replace the battery, but that appears to be documented and doesn't look more difficult than a cell phone... Hmmm...

It feels so gigantic compared to this x2 though. And the camera is crap by comparison. I guess I already have my ideal Chromebook right here.

cruft fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Mar 26, 2024

Xiphas
Nov 5, 2004

cruft posted:

yeah that's a thought. I would have to replace the battery, but that appears to be documented and doesn't look more difficult than a cell phone... Hmmm...

It feels so gigantic compared to this x2 though. And the camera is crap by comparison. I guess I already have my ideal Chromebook right here.

Yes, the Pixelbook camera is crap. If you use it regularly, then I would consider another device.

I've never replaced the Pixelbook battery, but one thing I've heard is that the silicone pads on the bottom will not go back nicely no matter what technique you used to get them off since they were glued on. If you care about aesthetics, that's something to keep in mind. It was definitely not designed to be repairable.

I was tempted by the Framework Chromebook because of its repairability a few years ago, but like every device that tries to come close to the Pixelbook, it is missing a critical feature. In the case of the Framework, it's not fanless, it is not a 2-in-1, and is missing a touchscreen.

Atomizer
Jun 24, 2007



Xiphas posted:

I was tempted by the Framework Chromebook because of its repairability a few years ago, but like every device that tries to come close to the Pixelbook, it is missing a critical feature. In the case of the Framework, it's not fanless, it is not a 2-in-1, and is missing a touchscreen.

The Framework CB is my current device, and of course I'm typing on it right now. The only thing I'd agree that's missing from it is the touchscreen, which I've previously used on occasion, but it's not a huge omission. Other than that, the display itself is great, despite the funky resolution.

I specifically like that it is actively cooled however: I've used fanless devices like the HP CB 13, and they just get hot (i.e. uncomfortably so) and throttle their performance. I would never go back to a fanless device, especially considering this thing is capable of gaming now.

Other than that, the customizable ports, user-replaceable RAM, SSD, and especially the battery (which now has a higher-capacity option) are exactly what I want in any laptop. No ragerts!

(I like this thing so much, I even recently bought one of those $500 "factory seconds" laptops of the first gen version, so now my CB has a Windows-based twin!)

Lord Bob
Jun 1, 2000
I'm in the same trap. Pixelbook was kinda dying so I started hunting replacements, and last year ended up grabbing an Acer CP713. Same rough feature set as the pixelbook, but yeah not fanless.

The first one that turned up had some kind of faulty connector, if I tried to rotate the screen past a certain point it would cut out. Had to send it back (stupid acer store didn't do replacements). Still was set on getting it so ordered another one, which arrived in working condition.

The fans on this thing.. are so irritating, and go off completely at random it feels like. It's nice being able to run heavier workloads on this that the pixelbook would throttle all to hell, but I'm not sure if I ever want to take the trade again of having this thing whistling away at me. I'm torn on whether to try and go fanless again next time (though options are slim on the ground).

Also, I've only had it for a year and a half and the thing is absolutely falling apart already. Over the course of a year the two little rubber bits that act to lift the screen off of a surface when you are in "laptop" mode both came loose and fell off, and now the casing on the screen side has started coming loose near the hinge. Doesn't seem to be breaking the operation of anything exactly, but makes some horrible crunchy noises if I move the screen from one of the corners.

So now I'm idly looking for a replacement for this before it falls all the way apart, and just can't seem to find anything that matches what I want - and is actually available to purchase in the UK (and preferably comes with the UK layout keyboard, but that's often hard to tell cos everyone just uses stock photography of these things which all feature the US keyboard even when you're actually buying something with a UK keyboard). Really wish I'd jumped on the framework CB, cos it too seems to be discontinued now? Or just never launched in the UK.

Half considering just going back to my old shelved pixelbook. It was still working, just a bit slow.

RatHat
Dec 31, 2007

A tiny behatted rat👒🐀!
How is the Acer Chromebook 315 for my mom for internet/facebook browsing and a bit of streaming? It'll always be plugged in so battery life isn't an issue. I know there's probably more powerful non-Chromebook options for around the same price but she's been using a Chromebook for the last ~5 years and is pretty used to the OS

EDIT: location is Canada

RatHat fucked around with this message at 15:07 on Apr 8, 2024

Inept
Jul 8, 2003


That looks like it has really bad specs (dual core and 4GB ram) and a bad screen. If you're ok with refurbished, something like this Acer Plus 515 has better specs, is cheaper, and will get Chrome updates for 3 years longer.

RatHat
Dec 31, 2007

A tiny behatted rat👒🐀!

Inept posted:

That looks like it has really bad specs (dual core and 4GB ram) and a bad screen. If you're ok with refurbished, something like this Acer Plus 515 has better specs, is cheaper, and will get Chrome updates for 3 years longer.

Note I’m Canadian so that’s actually around the same price when converted to CAD, and sadly they don’t ship to Canada

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

Really looking forward to the next release of ChromeOS, so I don't have to open crosh and run "vmc stop arcvm" after every resume from sleep.

DACK FAYDEN
Feb 25, 2013

Bear Witness
Crossposting from the tablet thread - My wife wants a device to replace her existing old laptop. We were thinking tablet plus a peripheral keyboard because she honestly doesn't do much:
-watch streams (both from websites and via apps)
-web surfing (reddit etc, nothing that requires exceptional processing power but you know how the internet is in 2024)
-document writing/the occasional spreadsheet (google docs is sufficient, no need for Actual Excel or whatever, think cover letters and to-do lists and such)
-built-in camera for job interviews/virtual doctor appointments (headphone jack nice but not mandatory, especially if it takes usb-c headphones already)

and verbatim from her: "I don't like change, so I want something that will be similar in layout and functionality to what I already have"

Had been thinking just get an iPad and a dock to plug usb keyboard/mouse into, is there a reason to go full Chromebook ("cheaper" is definitely a reason, mind you) or any pitfalls that she - a lifetime Windows/Chrome user - would have to worry about? I assume not but I have to ask.

cruft
Oct 25, 2007

DACK FAYDEN posted:

Crossposting from the tablet thread - My wife wants a device to replace her existing old laptop. We were thinking tablet plus a peripheral keyboard because she honestly doesn't do much:
-watch streams (both from websites and via apps)
-web surfing (reddit etc, nothing that requires exceptional processing power but you know how the internet is in 2024)
-document writing/the occasional spreadsheet (google docs is sufficient, no need for Actual Excel or whatever, think cover letters and to-do lists and such)
-built-in camera for job interviews/virtual doctor appointments (headphone jack nice but not mandatory, especially if it takes usb-c headphones already)

and verbatim from her: "I don't like change, so I want something that will be similar in layout and functionality to what I already have"

Had been thinking just get an iPad and a dock to plug usb keyboard/mouse into, is there a reason to go full Chromebook ("cheaper" is definitely a reason, mind you) or any pitfalls that she - a lifetime Windows/Chrome user - would have to worry about? I assume not but I have to ask.

A Chromebook will get software updates for longer than an Android tablet, and if your needs are limited to what you stated, will save you a fair chunk of change over an iPad. It also has the advantage of self-updating, and those updates are seriously no big deal: no waiting around for things to happen or scheduled reboots, you just get a little notice saying there's a new version ready, and next time you reboot, you're on the new version. No having to wait for updates before you can use your stuff, it's instant.

Ms Cruft moved from Windows to ChromeOS about 10 years ago and the adjustment period was maybe 30 minutes.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Xiphas
Nov 5, 2004

DACK FAYDEN posted:

Crossposting from the tablet thread - My wife wants a device to replace her existing old laptop. We were thinking tablet plus a peripheral keyboard because she honestly doesn't do much:
-watch streams (both from websites and via apps)
-web surfing (reddit etc, nothing that requires exceptional processing power but you know how the internet is in 2024)
-document writing/the occasional spreadsheet (google docs is sufficient, no need for Actual Excel or whatever, think cover letters and to-do lists and such)
-built-in camera for job interviews/virtual doctor appointments (headphone jack nice but not mandatory, especially if it takes usb-c headphones already)

and verbatim from her: "I don't like change, so I want something that will be similar in layout and functionality to what I already have"

Had been thinking just get an iPad and a dock to plug usb keyboard/mouse into, is there a reason to go full Chromebook ("cheaper" is definitely a reason, mind you) or any pitfalls that she - a lifetime Windows/Chrome user - would have to worry about? I assume not but I have to ask.

If this list is ordered by priority, she'll be fine.

The web browsing experience on a Chromebook is better than an Android\iOS tablet by miles. You can't really compare stripped down mobile browsers with full, fat Chrome.

Video streaming on the web is great, but I would double check that any critical mobile apps she uses for streaming are supported on Chromebooks. I've found that some Android streaming apps have more limitations when run on Chrome OS compared to real Android, and the developer might have disabled Chrome OS support completely for...reasons? Always go for the web app version over the Android version if it exists. It is always a better experience on Chrome OS.

Google Docs is Google Docs, and is obviously a great experience on Chromebooks. You'll be fine there. If she is doing a lot of typing on her lap, I would consider a 2-in-1 instead of a tablet. You can fold it back when you don't need the keyboard, and the 2-in-1 keyboards are always better than a tablet keyboard. The Chrome OS tablet keyboards I have used are really cramped and you can't type very fast on them.

One thing to keep in mind about Chromebooks and video conferencing is that a lot of the cameras you find on the tablet Chromebooks are truly terrible in my experience. With Chromebook Plus, they are getting better, but I don't think there is a Chromebook Plus tablet yet? Also, if you are using more obscure video conferencing software there might not be a Chromebook application for that service. Common stuff like Zoom and MS Teams are covered on Chromebooks if that's what you mainly use. If you dock the device to a hub, then you can use a USB webcam to mitigate a crappy built-in camera.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply