Hey all.
I’m a current third year and my PC is getting worse and worse every semester. I’m considering buying a Chromebook before midterms and finals so I can actually get some efficient work done.
I’m majoring in Political Science so I usually write papers, research, and take online quizzes for classes. For these past five years I’ve only used my PC to write papers, research, and to check out Facebook. I’m not into online gaming and I don’t like watching TV shows or movies online. The only program I use on my current laptop is Microsoft.
Would a Chromebook be a good fit? Or would you not recommend one at all?
Any advice is deeply appreciated!
My daughter’s high school has chromebooks. When she is at home she uses her laptop even though they take their chromebooks home… The chromebook is limited to google products so you can use google docs to write a paper but I don’t think you can use say open office.
It sounds like a Chromebook would be fine for you if you are okay with using only Google Docs. Keep in mind, you have to be connected to internet for most of the usefulness, or have to make sure you sync your documents to edit offline. Something to consider if you work on papers in places without wifi.
Chromebooks are good in a pinch. If you’re only planning on using them for school and busines work (that means NO video games or movies), then they’re pretty good. On a college campus in 2017-2018, Wi-Fi is everywhere; it is rare for you to be anywhere it doesn’t exist. But if you go off-campus to work at a friend’s house, then you’re at the mercy of whether or not there’s wireless internet. Again, this is usually not a problem, but it can be. Just remember that you’re tied down to places with internet to get much real work done.
My D wore her Chromebook out in HS, because her teachers all used Google docs. She had to use our desktop Mac for graphics projects. Her graduation gift was a MacBook Air, because we knew she’d need the flexibility. Many colleges furnish students with access to software (MS Office, Adobe, etc.) as part of the tuition cost. You would not be able to use those with a Chromebook. While you may be able to use Google docs for your own papers and note taking, etc., you may be faced with having to use software outside of a Chromebook’s access. Also @cameraphone has a good point: no wifi, no good.
I love my chromebook, it’s small, lightweight, and fast. However…if there’s no wifi, I can’t use it! I also can’t download any programs. I love it for on the go work, but I still have my older laptop in case I need to use a program, or do something without wifi.
We investigated chromebooks but went with inexpensive laptops instead.
I do not understand what the Chromebook is if
- You need the internet/wifi for it to be of any real use. (Maybe this means you cannot actually store anything in the “hard” memory of the computer itself?
2)Kids use this all the time, and it is much touted, but they don’t have access to videos/movies/game-playing? Is that right?
I’d pass on it. It really can’t do a whole lot and is basically useless without the internet. A decent laptop is not much more expensive, and there are plenty of good deals out there on them for students.
It might be because my dd has an old model chromebook by this point but I seem to recall she can’t easily print from it. It doesn’t matter for high school since they turn papers in electronically and if needed she can open the google docs on a laptop but for college it would be a nuisance for printing.