@connorbush How micro do you wanna go? I hear good things about the Gigabyte Brix (not quite sub-$100, but come on, $110 after rebate with shipping is close enough, right?), and if you want even smaller there's the HiKey and DragonBoard ARM micro-systems built to the 96Boards spec ($99 and $84 respectively).
@connorbush take a look at the Raspberry Pi perhaps. It's sold as a $35 computer but honestly by the time you add a case, power supply, sd card, wifi dongle, etc it comes out to be about $75. If you already have something to use as a monitor its easy to build something within your price range if not lower.
Newest model is less powerful then the previous one but is also only $5.
@Wazanator if you reserved one at Microcenter in anticipation of the release of the Pi Zero, it did not arrive on the promised date, a week before Christmas. So they gave it to you @ zero cost when it arrived a few days later. Nice customer service.
@unkabob Can't really tell. From what I've seen theres no upgrade from a tear down video and a quick google search shows no upgrade suggestions. I'm assuming the 4gb ram is soldered in just like the ssd chip. Just remember this is a chrome book, so four gb ram is pretty darned good for its Chrome OS.
@unkabob I'd say the "like a tablet in laptop form" statement extends to the RAM... Though they look like PCs, they are more than likely manufactured like a tablet... RAM soldered onboard costs less than a socket and a separate module.
Meh shipped me one of these with defective wireless last time. Toshiba will make you pay for shipping to send it to a repair depot and Mediocre Corp will tell you you're S.O.L. if you have a problem. Problem still hasn't been resolved.
@mehdaf I have been in contact with support but they haven't offered a solution, refund, or a replacement :( A chromebook without working wifi is unusable-- can't even get past the setup screen.
@knauerw1 Have you gotten to this point (from the warranty)?
To start an arbitration, You or we must: (1) Write a Demand for Arbitration (see copy at jamsadr.com). The Demand must include a description of the Claim and the amount of damages sought to be recovered. You may, in arbitration, seek any and all remedies otherwise available to You pursuant to Your state's law, (2) Send three copies of the Demand, plus the appropriate filing fee, to: JAMS, 500 North State College Blvd., Suite 600, Orange, CA 92868 (1-800-352-5267), and (3) Send one copy of the Demand to the other party.
@knauerw1 Yeah don't bother with meh support they won't do shit for, they'll just say deal with manufacturer. Had a problem with that stupid Martian watch, meh was worse than useless.
It's so close to being there for me. I'd love this in a tablet. All that resolution and maybe this ssd is even upgradable. I just haven't mastered lounge surfing on a laptop yet. And I never would have thought a Celeron.
I have one sitting next to me that I haven't opened yet as I've been contemplating a package deal they have at Costco for the 32gb model with a case. It's $30 more (after shipping) than the one above currently.
@cinoclav I knew this post was here! I'm looking into this again cinoclav. I wonder what you ended up doing--if you went with more memory or not, and why. Thanks again for mention of this 10" laptop.
@wew I did order the 32gb model from Costco and returned the other one. It wasn't so much the memory as it also has a Micro SD slot but that it had the Lenovo folio case which sells for about $20 if you can find it. Crappy cases for it range from $10 to $20. Between both extras I figured it was worth the extra money. It's still at that price there, but you do have to have a Costco membership to not incur the surcharge.
@cinoclav I'm looking at it now. Glad you said something about the sd card slot as I just figured they all had them-Wrong!.Seems like Costco has the best deal on that, and although I don't have a membership, the internets giving me helpful tips around that. My last thought is if you use that for anything besides browsing, as I haven't found kit-kat too helpful. Nice resolution at at nice price!
@wew That was one of my pet peeves about my Google Nexus tablet - there is no memory card slot. You're relegated to whatever is built in. I'm really looking forward to having the ability to expand the memory in the Lenovo. Mine is actually due to be delivered tomorrow so I haven't been able to play with it yet. Besides browsing I typically used my other tablet for watching movies or tv shows and playing occasional games. You can really do a lot more with it, especially if you add a bluetooth keyboard (randomly sold here). That certainly makes it easier for word processing, spreadsheets, etc.
I got mine from earlier in December, and the goodies (100gb Google drive storage, google Play movie rentals, etc) had not yet been redeemed. It was a nice bonus, but since this is a refurbished unit, it's not guaranteed
i have an older chromebook (hp chromebook 11) that i won in a contest. i must say that it's pretty awesome. i'd say i use it 90% of the time for anything i need to do. it's light and has good battery life. really wish i had $150 laying around to upgrade to this one.
@carl669 I still have the original Chromebook Cr-48 somewhere in my office gathering dust. Loved that it was free but it was so underpowered (Atom N455, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD) it was difficult to do even casual websurfing. Keyboard was mushy too. Made for a very meh experience. Overall, I give it 3 1/2 mehs.
I got this last time. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it's pretty decent. The two best things about it are the screen and the battery life. The worst thing is the keyboard, which is actually perfectly serviceable, just lacks a few things I'm used to like PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys (maybe ChromeOS has key combos for those that I just don't know yet?) and full-size arrow keys.
It also happens that I work for a company that does a lot of meetings over Google Hangouts, uses Google Apps, and most of the rest of our company stuff is done through one or another Y Combinator startup's SaaS product. So this makes a great "crap, I forgot that meeting is in 2 minutes and I just upgraded Fedora again on my main laptop so none of the plugins I need are installed yet" system. It should also be good for presentations, demos, and doing stuff on airplanes where my full-size laptop just simply won't fit.
Will it replace a laptop or a tablet? No, not for me at least. But it fills a niche in my computing needs that neither of those handles entirely well.
For 75% of people who could use ChromeOS, this is the perfect machine. It's a little laptop that's does web browsing/netflixing with great battery life, beautiful screen, surprising good speakers, and does absolutely nothing else. I went with this over a Macbook Air, which is a far better general purpose laptop, but had a vastly inferior screen at a higher price.
The 16gb SSD is more than enough, by the way. If you want to store serious music/videos, get an SD card; otherwise you'd be hard pressed to fill it unless you install Linux.
There are many reviews about the screen failing after a few months of lite use. All say the Toshiba put the blame on the owner and refused to repair under warranty. Thinking twice......many times.
@cahuston For technology that is/was likely high volume, when defects get a lot of attention, I am left wondering, on a percentage of sales basis, how volume-significant were the defects? It is the curse of a high volume seller - 'normal' failure rates garner more noise.
Of course manufacturer refurbs by definition concentrate defects (hopefully successfully repaired).
We've always had better luck with our Toshiba's vs HP's and have never had to use Toshiba's customer service.
And when complaints are posted online one wonders how two-sided the report is.
I bought this the first time it was offered. Definitely worth it. I'm an IT professional, so you should just trust me on my word, no need to verify my credentials. No really, this thing is absolutely worth $150.
@gallogj Not quite. For most people, they don't need all the bullshit that comes with a laptop -- antivirus, bloatware, and all the preloaded programs they'll never use. The Chromebook does away with that and allows them to browse the web and use Facebook. That doesn't say that it fits the bill for everyone, but for the casual web-browser, it's great.
Can't comment about this particular one but I got a similar Asus model (C300MA-EDU) and it has been by far my favorite laptop to date.
First off the local storage is small for a reason. You're not meant to store things on it locally it's meant to be used with Google drive so it's all stored online. If you find that you need more local storage for some reason just put an SD card or flash drive in, you can get a 64gb sd card for less then $25 now.
Because everything is stored online it also makes a good entry-level linux device. Installing a linux distro along side it is really easy and it is even easier to reset it back to factory default and get it back to how you had it if you find you don't like linux or maybe want to try a different distro.
If you need a computer that only really needs a Web browser and a word processor you should consider a chromebook. If you need a light portable linux based computer you should consider it. If you need something to stream youtube, Netflix, twitch, prime video, etc you should consider it.
If you are heavily dependent on Windows/OSX programs this is probably not the computer for you.
I've been using mine for taking notes in class, doing my CS/IT assignments and watching Netflix on the weekends. So far my only complaint is that there are some older routers it has trouble connecting to but that's nothing tethering to my phone hasn't solved.
There are reported problems with this particular model but if you are looking for compareable cheap chromebooks take a look at amazons refurbished ones. I picked mine up for about 50% off listed price because the box had a gouge in it but the laptop itself was fine.
If this thing had a Standard Windows Keyboard... I may consider it... I'd use it as a Citrix client... for work. But My mac works, albeit with some Functional key differences (pun was intended) But... it also logs in 1/2 the time that the PC does (I have an app whereas the PC needs the web portal.) So... no I won't pay $150 for this.... I don't think I'd pay $100 either... But I may consider it at some point if I upgrade the mac air to a mac pro and give the air away... Also... one of the nice things about the newer windows tablet/pc's is the touch screen options... Makes Citrix so smooth on windows... Mac seems to not have the same issues I wonder why...
Has anyone else unboxed theirs and had green smudges on the screen?
Do they go away or am I doomed to suffer through the hellish dance of customer service? I don't wanna! I've got too much going on right now! :(
I haven't even logged in to my chrome account or filled out the registration info yet! Considering how the screen was one of the main selling points, I'm sad.
I called Toshiba and sent in pics and they were quite helpful and the pics are being evaluated. So, so far so good. Let me state for the record though that if I have pay shipping to send a "brand new" messed up out of the box chromebook anywhere I'm going to be cheesed off. Ehh, it is what it is. I'll post results.
Specs
Condition: Refurbished
Warranty: 90 Day Toshiba
Estimated Delivery: 1/6 - 1/8
Shipping: $5 or free with VMP
What’s in the Box?
1x Toshiba Chromebook 2
1x AC power adapter
Pictures
1/4 view
Front view
Top/keyboard view
3/4 view
Back view
Price Comparison
$299.99 List, $289.91 (New) at Amazon (1,260 reviews, sold by Amazon)
Find a relevant price comparison? Please share it in a comment in this thread
Estimated Delivery
Monday, January 28th - Monday, February 4th
this deal computes- figures :)
What happened to quad-copter Monday?
bedtime.
mrewp
My mom once told me that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
Goodnight everyone!
meh
Good deal for a 13" Chromebook!
Tempting. I'm really hunting for a sub $100 micro pc desktop. If anything good comes up please summon me.
@connorbush How micro do you wanna go? I hear good things about the Gigabyte Brix (not quite sub-$100, but come on, $110 after rebate with shipping is close enough, right?), and if you want even smaller there's the HiKey and DragonBoard ARM micro-systems built to the 96Boards spec ($99 and $84 respectively).
@connorbush take a look at the Raspberry Pi perhaps. It's sold as a $35 computer but honestly by the time you add a case, power supply, sd card, wifi dongle, etc it comes out to be about $75. If you already have something to use as a monitor its easy to build something within your price range if not lower.
Newest model is less powerful then the previous one but is also only $5.
@connorbush Newegg is offering the lesser of the ECS Liva X models for $75 after rebate. (Psst - are you a demon? I don't want to summon a demon...)
Thanks for the tips peeps.
@Wazanator if you reserved one at Microcenter in anticipation of the release of the Pi Zero, it did not arrive on the promised date, a week before Christmas. So they gave it to you @ zero cost when it arrived a few days later. Nice customer service.
@connorbush http://www.jide.com/en/mini
@Saffer49 sold
@Saffer49 'tis on its way. used my chase/amazon points !! It will be my "Meh Machine" to lurk the forums.
@connorbush $22 for a micro SD, $21 for a mouse and keyboard $70 for the Remix Mini: $113 not bad
Not bad for 4GB memory
previously on meh
2015-12-28 Toshiba 13.3" Chromebook 2 (Refurbished) $150
2015-12-10 Toshiba 13.3 Inch Chromebook 2 (Refurbished) $150
https://meh.com/deals/toshiba-13-3-inch-chromebook--refurbished-
Awesome! We're getting Woot seconds now!
j/k. I hope. lol
Trying to process tonight's deal
I always thought it was "calling birds."
@payote there have been many variations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)
Four pounds of back bacon.
@nadroj Three French toast
@wootcat 2 bowls of oatmeal
@carl669 - And a beer.
@KDemo in a treeeeee!
Can't upgrade. SSD is a chip in the motherboard. So the only way to expand storage is to use the card slot.
@JunoZXV .. What about Hz.. is 4GB the max on this DDR3..? (no one reveals this)
@unkabob Can't really tell. From what I've seen theres no upgrade from a tear down video and a quick google search shows no upgrade suggestions. I'm assuming the 4gb ram is soldered in just like the ssd chip. Just remember this is a chrome book, so four gb ram is pretty darned good for its Chrome OS.
@unkabob I'd say the "like a tablet in laptop form" statement extends to the RAM... Though they look like PCs, they are more than likely manufactured like a tablet... RAM soldered onboard costs less than a socket and a separate module.
@JunoZXV Yeah, okay.. just asking. Thanks.
@djslack .. Thanks neighbor.
Meh shipped me one of these with defective wireless last time. Toshiba will make you pay for shipping to send it to a repair depot and Mediocre Corp will tell you you're S.O.L. if you have a problem. Problem still hasn't been resolved.
@knauerw1 others might tell you
to contact halp@meh.com
But I'm just going to say thanks for the heads up!
@mehdaf I have been in contact with support but they haven't offered a solution, refund, or a replacement :(
A chromebook without working wifi is unusable-- can't even get past the setup screen.
@knauerw1 Have you gotten to this point (from the warranty)?
To start an arbitration, You or we must: (1) Write a Demand for Arbitration (see copy at jamsadr.com). The Demand must include a description of the Claim and the amount of damages sought to be recovered. You may, in arbitration, seek any and all remedies otherwise available to You pursuant to Your state's law, (2) Send three copies of the Demand, plus the appropriate filing fee, to: JAMS, 500 North State College Blvd., Suite 600, Orange, CA 92868 (1-800-352-5267), and (3) Send one copy of the Demand to the other party.
@knauerw1 Yeah don't bother with meh support they won't do shit for, they'll just say deal with manufacturer. Had a problem with that stupid Martian watch, meh was worse than useless.
@robson They just got back to me with a real solution. I'll stop complaining now.
It's so close to being there for me. I'd love this in a tablet. All that resolution and maybe this ssd is even upgradable. I just haven't mastered lounge surfing on a laptop yet. And I never would have thought a Celeron.
@wew The "SSD" is not a real SSD and is not upgradable. It's a 16GB eMMC flash chip soldered onto the motherboard.
@wew Probably as close as you're going to get for the price (which just dropped to the lowest I've seen before any possible discounts): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TR05L9Y/ref=s9_hps_bw_g147_i1
I have one sitting next to me that I haven't opened yet as I've been contemplating a package deal they have at Costco for the 32gb model with a case. It's $30 more (after shipping) than the one above currently.
@cinoclav I knew this post was here! I'm looking into this again cinoclav. I wonder what you ended up doing--if you went with more memory or not, and why. Thanks again for mention of this 10" laptop.
@wew I did order the 32gb model from Costco and returned the other one. It wasn't so much the memory as it also has a Micro SD slot but that it had the Lenovo folio case which sells for about $20 if you can find it. Crappy cases for it range from $10 to $20. Between both extras I figured it was worth the extra money. It's still at that price there, but you do have to have a Costco membership to not incur the surcharge.
@cinoclav I'm looking at it now. Glad you said something about the sd card slot as I just figured they all had them-Wrong!.Seems like Costco has the best deal on that, and although I don't have a membership, the internets giving me helpful tips around that. My last thought is if you use that for anything besides browsing, as I haven't found kit-kat too helpful. Nice resolution at at nice price!
@wew That was one of my pet peeves about my Google Nexus tablet - there is no memory card slot. You're relegated to whatever is built in. I'm really looking forward to having the ability to expand the memory in the Lenovo. Mine is actually due to be delivered tomorrow so I haven't been able to play with it yet. Besides browsing I typically used my other tablet for watching movies or tv shows and playing occasional games. You can really do a lot more with it, especially if you add a bluetooth keyboard (randomly sold here). That certainly makes it easier for word processing, spreadsheets, etc.
I got mine from earlier in December, and the goodies (100gb Google drive storage, google Play movie rentals, etc) had not yet been redeemed. It was a nice bonus, but since this is a refurbished unit, it's not guaranteed
@capguncowboy The movie choices were a little well, meh for me. I ended up with Forrest Gump, Mission: Impossible, and I forget the third.
Warning If you do the research you might* get one.
I know cause I debated it for 25 minutes and pulled the trigger last time.
Blah Blah Blah $99 Blah Blah Blah $125 Blah Blah Blah all sold out.
@thismyusername accurate.
16gb? That's next to useless on my phone.
@ThatsHeadly most of the time you don't keep anything on the device itself, be it photos or files they'll be in the corresponding Google apps.
i have an older chromebook (hp chromebook 11) that i won in a contest. i must say that it's pretty awesome. i'd say i use it 90% of the time for anything i need to do. it's light and has good battery life. really wish i had $150 laying around to upgrade to this one.
@carl669 My dad stole my HP chromebook 14* (first gen), so I'm considering this one. 1080p Facebook/Google docs/YouTube machine is pretty useful.
@carl669 I still have the original Chromebook Cr-48 somewhere in my office gathering dust. Loved that it was free but it was so underpowered (Atom N455, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD) it was difficult to do even casual websurfing. Keyboard was mushy too. Made for a very meh experience. Overall, I give it 3 1/2 mehs.
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/795730-how-to-easily-install-ubuntu-on-chromebook-with-crouton
One day it will be available for 99$. Make it happen meh.
I got this last time. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it's pretty decent. The two best things about it are the screen and the battery life. The worst thing is the keyboard, which is actually perfectly serviceable, just lacks a few things I'm used to like PgUp/PgDn/Home/End keys (maybe ChromeOS has key combos for those that I just don't know yet?) and full-size arrow keys.
It also happens that I work for a company that does a lot of meetings over Google Hangouts, uses Google Apps, and most of the rest of our company stuff is done through one or another Y Combinator startup's SaaS product. So this makes a great "crap, I forgot that meeting is in 2 minutes and I just upgraded Fedora again on my main laptop so none of the plugins I need are installed yet" system. It should also be good for presentations, demos, and doing stuff on airplanes where my full-size laptop just simply won't fit.
Will it replace a laptop or a tablet? No, not for me at least. But it fills a niche in my computing needs that neither of those handles entirely well.
For 75% of people who could use ChromeOS, this is the perfect machine. It's a little laptop that's does web browsing/netflixing with great battery life, beautiful screen, surprising good speakers, and does absolutely nothing else. I went with this over a Macbook Air, which is a far better general purpose laptop, but had a vastly inferior screen at a higher price.
The 16gb SSD is more than enough, by the way. If you want to store serious music/videos, get an SD card; otherwise you'd be hard pressed to fill it unless you install Linux.
Hint: Try Alt + arrows for pgup & pgdn.
Add shift for home and end.
There are many reviews about the screen failing after a few months of lite use. All say the Toshiba put the blame on the owner and refused to repair under warranty. Thinking twice......many times.
@cahuston For technology that is/was likely high volume, when defects get a lot of attention, I am left wondering, on a percentage of sales basis, how volume-significant were the defects? It is the curse of a high volume seller - 'normal' failure rates garner more noise.
Of course manufacturer refurbs by definition concentrate defects (hopefully successfully repaired).
We've always had better luck with our Toshiba's vs HP's and have never had to use Toshiba's customer service.
And when complaints are posted online one wonders how two-sided the report is.
Gahhh, $14.25 in tax.
I will never buy another refurbished computer, unless I can test it out, first. The only one I ever bought wouldn't even boot up.
@festercluck quit posting pictures with porn in the background. or, at least move your hand out of the way.
I bought this the first time it was offered. Definitely worth it. I'm an IT professional, so you should just trust me on my word, no need to verify my credentials. No really, this thing is absolutely worth $150.
Chrome book is to laptops what Blackberry is to cell phones. Meh
@gallogj Not quite. For most people, they don't need all the bullshit that comes with a laptop -- antivirus, bloatware, and all the preloaded programs they'll never use. The Chromebook does away with that and allows them to browse the web and use Facebook. That doesn't say that it fits the bill for everyone, but for the casual web-browser, it's great.
Blackberry? People still use Blackberry?
@capguncowboy Guess some will jump on the new Priv since it has an Android OS and a physical keyboard. http://www.digitaltrends.com/cell-phone-reviews/blackberry-priv-review/
Just keep debating until it sells out. That's my winning strategy from last time, played again successfully this time.
This one has the slower Intel Celeron N2840 processor. The newer model is CB35-C3300 with the substantially faster 3215U processor.
If this had been an i3, I would have had a difficult time saying no. If it had a touch screen in addition to an i3, no hesitation.
Can't comment about this particular one but I got a similar Asus model (C300MA-EDU) and it has been by far my favorite laptop to date.
First off the local storage is small for a reason. You're not meant to store things on it locally it's meant to be used with Google drive so it's all stored online. If you find that you need more local storage for some reason just put an SD card or flash drive in, you can get a 64gb sd card for less then $25 now.
Because everything is stored online it also makes a good entry-level linux device. Installing a linux distro along side it is really easy and it is even easier to reset it back to factory default and get it back to how you had it if you find you don't like linux or maybe want to try a different distro.
If you need a computer that only really needs a Web browser and a word processor you should consider a chromebook. If you need a light portable linux based computer you should consider it. If you need something to stream youtube, Netflix, twitch, prime video, etc you should consider it.
If you are heavily dependent on Windows/OSX programs this is probably not the computer for you.
I've been using mine for taking notes in class, doing my CS/IT assignments and watching Netflix on the weekends. So far my only complaint is that there are some older routers it has trouble connecting to but that's nothing tethering to my phone hasn't solved.
There are reported problems with this particular model but if you are looking for compareable cheap chromebooks take a look at amazons refurbished ones. I picked mine up for about 50% off listed price because the box had a gouge in it but the laptop itself was fine.
If this thing had a Standard Windows Keyboard... I may consider it... I'd use it as a Citrix client... for work. But My mac works, albeit with some Functional key differences (pun was intended) But... it also logs in 1/2 the time that the PC does (I have an app whereas the PC needs the web portal.) So... no I won't pay $150 for this.... I don't think I'd pay $100 either... But I may consider it at some point if I upgrade the mac air to a mac pro and give the air away... Also... one of the nice things about the newer windows tablet/pc's is the touch screen options... Makes Citrix so smooth on windows... Mac seems to not have the same issues I wonder why...
FYI. Day 4 is 4 CALLING birds... not Collie. Meh.
@bjvangundy it could be Collie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song)
@carl669 RESEARCH AND FACTS ARE FOR SUCKERS
@Lotsofgoats
impressed by spectacular reference to Guy Debord's birthday....that's my kinda retailer...
Written from said Chromebook. Eat my shorts :-)
Has anyone else unboxed theirs and had green smudges on the screen?
Do they go away or am I doomed to suffer through the hellish dance of customer service? I don't wanna! I've got too much going on right now! :(
I haven't even logged in to my chrome account or filled out the registration info yet! Considering how the screen was one of the main selling points, I'm sad.
Here's pics.
@SHOVAR oooh, not good. I'd contact Toshiba and see what they say about it.
I called Toshiba and sent in pics and they were quite helpful and the pics are being evaluated. So, so far so good. Let me state for the record though that if I have pay shipping to send a "brand new" messed up out of the box chromebook anywhere I'm going to be cheesed off. Ehh, it is what it is. I'll post results.