The Book On Chromebooks

Let’s start off general and work our way into more specifics. Every laptop manufacturer calls their product something different, but a Chromebook isn’t just a cool name. It’s actually a different kind of computer. Laptop Magazine sums it up nicely:

Instead of Windows 10 or macOS, Chromebooks run Google’s Chrome OS. These machines are designed to be used primarily while connected to the Internet, with most applications and documents living in the cloud.

In other words, if you live in a cabin somewhere in the mountains, and you have to hike and ski many miles back to civilization to grab a solitary bar of wi-fi, this might not be your best bet. Nor would it be a good option if you’re looking for a machine that can support your career cutting movie trailers and playing the latest computer games. These things are pretty sparse, in terms of power.

But for the rest of us, who pretty much never stray far from the router and who mostly use our computers for checking email, keeping track of things, writing, and organizing: a Chromebook is actually a pretty great, pretty cheap option.

And this one is actually both of those things: we’re selling it for just under $150, and on Amazon it has four stars on over 1,000 reviews.

Yes, if you want to be cynical, you could say: but wait, Meh, this thing came back out who-knows-when, and many of those reviews were written a while ago. And that’s true. BUT 1) there were still five star reviews coming in as recently as August of 2018; and 2) never underestimate the online reviewer. Like, these people self-identify as arbiters of all that is good (and not good) to buy; do you really think they wouldn’t rush to update their review the minute anything goes wrong?

Besides, let’s be totally honest: as much as we like to talk about the forward march of tech, most of us are still using our computers for the exact same things as we did five years ago. New apps come and go, but we’ll always need to make spreadsheets and type up documents and check our email.

Who knows? Maybe it’s a blessing it’s a little older: it might mean it was unaffected by the Gmail redesign. That’d be worth the price alone, if you ask us!