Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Chromebook needed for HS classes

Hi All,

My daughter is a freshman in high school and is in need of a Chromebook for class assignments - all web based software; no photo editing or gaming. Looking for good to really good, not exceptional or cheap either.

Go.

Scott

I haven't looked at Chromebooks in a while, but aren't they all pretty much "middle of the road" in specs outside of the obvious super cheap ones?

Just wait until college. My youngest just went off to college a week ago. We hunted for laptops (like her older sister, she had to use her own money for a laptop and protection plan, we provided the case, external hard drive for automatic backups, and mouse). I gave her 2 options. Something "mid-level" that she should plan on replacing in 2 years with a new, mid-level computer that will be a little better, or get a very nicely powered one now and don't plan to need to upgrade.

She opted to spend the big bucks on a fast Intel i7 processor with all sorts of bells and whistles that should last through college.

So what's my point? Just saying that there are 2 camps of thought here. Pay less and maybe replace in a couple of years, or buy more and have it last longer.

So that being said, there are a number of companies that do all sorts of computer comparisons just in time for school.

Here is one from 2 weeks ago.. Gives makes, models, specs, prices, reviews, etc side-by-side with others.

Might be worth looking at to get a starting point.

The Best Chromebooks of 2017 - PCmag

Here is another list.
Top 7 Chromebooks of 2017 - TechRadar


Good luck.

Nick, once again you are correct; they are all pretty much middle of the road. The choice for college is easy: MacBook Pro. Both my boys have one, the oldest one going on 8 years and still ticking.

Thanks for the links. Had already look at PC Mag and CNet, but hadn't seen TechRadar.
Each seems to rate them al a little different, owing to your point that they really are all middle of the road.

Thanks again,

Scott

Yeah, my daughter's roommate has been on campus with her MacBook Pro and I guess she complains about something every day (so my daughter says, but I think it is mainly weak wifi).

Her parents paid $1900 (which includes tax, 3 years of AppleCare and accidental protection) for it, it is brand new, and she actually likes my daughter's $1050 (also includes tax, 3 year onsite warranty and accidental protection) Lenovo which out-specs the $850 more expensive MacBook. It would have been another $300 for the processor upgrade to match the Lenovo spec, so maybe it is a price thing that has her less than thrilled about her MacBook.

Maybe she never wanted a Mac due to lack of Mac experience.

Maybe she doesn't get along with technology (my wife is like this).

Maybe my daughter's roommate is just grumpy.

Then again, I have no idea if her family is "all Apple" or if she even really used a computer much outside of school, so your kids may just be more used to the MacBook or computers in general.

I'm just hoping that since it is my daughter's money that she takes care of it better than if we just handed her a computer. I guess time will tell.

I was just really happy when my daughter decided NOT to get a Dell. The Lenovos are probably one of the best (overall) built Windows based PCs out there, and definitely have the largest laptop market share globally, so they build and ship a lot of product. They aren't as cheap as a Dell, but they also aren't made as "cheap" as a Dell, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I've totally derailed this topic. Note that this wasn't a iOS vs Windows response. I never slammed anything. Just an observation.

I do follow Nicks point, but would weigh in with my past experience. I was working at a software company and basically needed the job. They moved to us working odd hours and requiring me to have a laptop for work. The one that they gave me was so pathetic slow and cumbersome that it was about impossible to use. (Cheep older laptop). In order to even do my job I ended up having to purchase my own and was stuck with the delema. Buy middle or go more top end with the idea it would last me a bit longer.

I went more top end splashing down the $1300 where I could have gotten a middle quality on sale for $5-600. It was great for about a year, but then Intel decided to bring out a new line of chips that simply blew my premium out of the water. By year 2 that same chip line was down in the $5-600 range and my expensive premium laptop didn't seem like such a great deal anymore. Since then I have always bought into the buy middle and replace when the next great deal comes around.

I know of many people who have the older MacBook Pro's and love them as say they just keep on working great. But you will also find that those older MacBooks are stuck with 5 years old mac os.

One thing to keep in mind as well, those older macs are from when Steve Jobs was around. I have one of the newer post Steve iMac and will say it is a total dog. It has issues ever 3-4 months where sections of the OS just stop working. I have apple care that is a total joke as the the professionals at Apple know little about how it works and everything gets refered back to Engineering who is responsible to no-one. Most of the time the only solution is to wipe everything and start from blank. IE, not even restore your old data as sometimes that is what is causing the issues. I've had it that they blamed my Apple ID icloud settings and suggest that I just make myself a new Apple ID. (hang on a sec, isn't that something that Apple is control of putting right?).