Chromebook Questions

I notice on amazon they have these chromebooks that are either 16gb or 32gb. Are these mainly for web surfing, email and browsing? Thus if you ever plan to download music/movies, then these are no good at all? I believe you cannot upgrade the storage right? However, could you connect an external hard drive? Thus imagine you download a few movies... then move it to external hard drive? Then do this many times etc and that way you could view movies on it by connecting to external hard drive?

Also how many gb are even available in these 16gb or 32gb when you get it?

 

Chromebooks as they are now are essentially Android tablets with built-in keyboards.

 

Almost all chromebooks are either 16 or 32gb, some now have 64gb (or more). Originally yes, they were just meant for web / email. Now with android support you need a little more room. I would stay away from the 16gb models, but the 32gb are fine. I would also recommend at least 4gb ram. 4gb is fine, but the 2gb models are just a little too limiting. A lot of chromebooks have sd or micro-sd card slots. Caveat emptor though, a lot of android apps cannot access external or SD storage at this time. That will hopefully change as that is one of the things currently being worked on.

Most chromebooks have non-upgradable storage, but some do have replaceable SSD drives like my Dell 7310 which has an upgradeable M.2 SSD.

Chromebooks can access external hdd's and USB drives. For movies you may want to use an android app to play downloaded media as the built in media app does not handle large files that well (imo).

I'm not sure but I think chrome OS itself uses around 5gb of storage for the OS and swap.

 

Chromebooks have come a long way and in my opinion can't be overlooked anymore. If storage is something you really care about, make sure to get one with an SD card slot. Most have it and its a must if you plan to bring movies/music with you on the go. As someone who uses an android phone, I like how I can buy an app on my phone and have it available for both. I also like that you get the same experience and if there is an app you use on your phone, you get the same one in chrome. With that said though, most chromebooks aren't power houses so you have to keep that in mind. You may see <$200 chromebooks but they aren't going to run well. They will certainly run better than a windows machine with the same specs but a celeron is still a celeron. I have used several chromebooks and usually travel with one as the battery life is really good and I can get just about everything I need to done.

 

We've been using a Toshiba Chromebook 2 for several years as a web browser, Gmail device, and YouTube device. It's been great in that role. If that's how you use it, minimal onboard storage is okay.

As for downloading movies, remember that the web interfaces of Amazon and Netflix don't allow downloads via their web interfaces, only their apps, and Android apps are very new to ChromeOS. If you use it as an around-the-house device and have wifi at your house, you may never need to download a movie. It's not right for every workflow, but for some it works just fine for an extremely low price.

 

I started using a Chromebook Pro a month ago and every day I find something new to love about it and something new to wish it wasn't limited-by. The good news is that it appears to have only positive trajectory and the one thing I can say - at least about my "high end" CB - is that it is the fastest, smoothest, most "buttery" laptop-like device I have ever used, by good measure. For anything you access via the Web and, increasingly, many things you can do with an Android app, it is a greatly preferable device to use over even the fastest, smoothest, newest laptops or convertibles I have owned or used. There is simply zero overhead to delay anything you do so the response is instantaneous. This goes for everything from boot-up (one second) to app or file download/install, to scrolling through content to launching new content, whether via a browser tab or Android app. The only limiting factor is your Internet connection and admittedly I have a gigabit service. As for video content, you can download many Amazon and Netflix videos via the Android apps and you can download videos on any pc onto an SD card and run them on the CB with any of several excellent Android video players. Plus, no malware worries, no update hassles (happens all in background) no drivers, etc. Not a replacement for a Windows computer, but increasingly the one I grab for when I need, well, a computer for something.

I'd say I'm up to about 80% of my usage being on my Chromebook. I recently did a trial of a Google Pixelbook and, while it's quite an extravagance at $900, I'm seriously considering upgrading to it because the one thing about the Samsung Chromebook + is that it doesn't feel like premium kit and the Pixelbook is by far and away the finest design and hardware I have ever used. It's a total extravagance, but if I'm doing 80% of my work on it why should I have a $1,300 windows flagship for the 20% and a so-so piece of gear with a marginal keyboard (though the same superb screen as on the Pixelbook) with no backlight and tiny keys? Seems to make more sense for my uses to sell my HP Spectre x360, get a nice refurb 6th gen Thinkpad Yoga for $600 and spend the money on the thing I use the most. Anyway, I'm way into TMI here, but take it for what it's worth. The Chromebook *is* a thing and you would do yourself a favor to try one out.

 

The pixelbook is super. case closed!