If only I hadn't been handed a "dead" asus laptop last week that I have already restored to fully functional I might have been tempted... for the screen you know.
I would grab this up in addition to my new laptop, if, you know, it was $99.
Asus does make the gorgeous all-metal Chromebook Flip which also has a fantastic screen; it's a little pricier for the 4GB model, though. I'm annoyed I missed it last Cyber Monday.
@radi0j0hn For a deals site, wouldn't it be "junk" to him if it's a computer that doesn't do the computer-stuff he needs a computer to do? Sure, it's subjective, but in virtually any other form we'd be calling a Celeron processor "junk" too.
This is what Consumer Reports has to say about this Chromebook:
Reviews & Recommended - Toshiba Chromebook 2 CB35-B3340 tester image CR's Take This Toshiba Chromebook is lightweight and has a long-lasting battery, making it a great travel companion. It has one of the better screens we've seen on a Chromebook, with a wider viewing angle and superior color reproduction. It has fast 802.11ac Wi-Fi for better throughput while streaming HD videos. That can also be a plus if your family has a lot of devices using your home network at the same time. Its USB 3.0 support lets you get the best performance from compatible peripherals such as external hard drives. This model's fair performance might cause some slowdown if you open a large number of tabs in the browser and stream videos while browsing those tabs. Highs • Has a long battery life • Has USB 3.0 to support faster peripherals • One of the better screens for color reproduction and viewing angle Lows • Battery is not easily removable Detailed test results Performance: Performance was only fair. Speed was slow but adequate for productivity and Web-based tasks such as word processing, Web browsing, and online game play. Sound: The sound on movies, music, and games was acceptable with the built-in speakers, but if you're looking for the best sound you might want to add speakers or use headphones. Portability: This Chromebook is a great choice for traveling. At 9.25 hours battery life was very long, enough for a full day's work and a little more. At 3lbs. weight was typical for a Chromebook this size and light enough to carry for long periods of time. Ergonomics: The keyboard, touchpad, and labeling were all well-designed, making it comfortable and convenient to use.The full-sized keyboard was pleasant to type on.The touchpad supports use of multiple-finger gestures to zoom and scroll.The touchpad is easy to press for clicking.The touchpad is well positioned on the keyboard, so it's easy to reach and not prone to interference from arms or wrists. Display: The display quality was very good overall. Colors were accurately reproduced, realistic, and natural looking. The laptops display was brighter than most, a plus for viewing in bright indoor lighting or outdoors.The display has a wide viewing angle, especially important if more than one person needs to see the screen at a time, say, for a video or presentation.
@mrimdman are there any chromebooks that have "easily removable" batteries? of all the reviews i'd consider for a technology product, consumer reports is not one ...
So... how many chrome tabs can I open up before this thing bogs down? I like to super multi mega browse the interwebs, especially when I'm comparing reviews for something I want to buy but have no use for.
@shrike1201 Well, on mine (the previous version of this one, half the RAM), on a good day, I can open around two dozen before it gets slow/unstable (which is more than I thought it would). I have 19 open now (including Tweetdeck and an SSH session running in separate windows).
Depends on the content and complexity of the pages of course. I have Ghostery and flashblock which help a lot with de-crapification.
Also I use an extension called "Tabs Outliner" which groups tabs and opens/closes them in groups. There are other extensions that do various similar things and help with memory usage.
@shrike1201 I currently have something like 40 open on mine. I've had enough tabs open so it doesn't show even the favicon on any of them without any issue.
Fyi, chromebooks have vpn and remote desktop. When I am away from my office I carry a trusty chromebook. Instant boot up, and a few clicks later I'm remoted into my windows 10 pc back at the office. For me in this situation it works great . No lag, and I can go the whole day without plugging in.
@Squash .. Oh, well that's not too bad for the price then.. Still your pretty limited to installs but then again it wasn't created to be a primary comp.
Already got a chromebook w a gorgeous screen that hardly gets used. For once, i don't want to have at least 2 of whatever costs $, takes up space, is unneeded & unused, and might tend toward being outclassed by next year's version.
'panicky-vanilla-dove' for me - my about-to-turn-6 son is going to flip out when he sees this thing sitting where his Graphite iMac G3 currently sits in his room. Welcome to the future, kid.
@communist thanks, so am I right in assuming that wouldn't be the best gaming experience? I need to buy an inexpensive computer to play minecraft with the kid, I just don't know what to buy. I don't need a true expensive gaming computer, all I want to do is play minecraft without it lagging and being a miserable experience.
@defibrillator Hit up a website like TechReport.com or Anandtech.com and look at some of their system guides. You can build a system for scratch fairly cheap with good integrated graphics, good enough for MC. Probably a better idea would be to figure out the specs you'll need (like the minimum processor) from those guides and wait for a similar pre-built system deal to come along.
Thanks for the deal and the excellent posts. It's $60 over my budget for "Just buying it for kicks", But I'm happy to see an ok deal that didn't sell out in 4 seconds. I'm guessing this would work ok for doing some lightweight photoshopping.
@wew when was the last time we saw a non-Fuku deal sell out in 4 seconds? I recall some of the Monster flash drives selling out pretty quickly, but no where near the seconds range.
I rarely like anything you put up for sale, but I was kind of considering this but the Meh warriors are armed and dangerous on this one. Could be scary if I was mugged while carrying this in my cheesy back pack with a minicopter. Somebody would get hurt. Considering my pugilistic polish it would be me. So I guess that means , no! not today.
@thedefect true, but believe it or not I've actually gone back to M$ (Edge)!
I use all three. But I tend to use Chrome only when I want to open a dialog in another (duplicate) account.
And the google monolith is the primary reason I don't use Android more or a Chromebook at all. I try to spread my efootprint around. Even use all three email providers. And both google and Bing search (that's a tough one tho since google search is so superior). Really hate that Google bought Waze - in addition to merging data it likely means they'll tire of Waze and abandon it like they so often do.
@RedOak I think that's the right approach. I use all three, although not entirely willingly (work computer is locked to Chrome, alas). Edge might win me over when extension support is in a release build. I only use it on my tablet now because it's easier for touch.
And I feel your pain with Google's notorious cycle of buying/developing something to the point that it is functional and then either closing or abandoning all further development on it. It's like everything they have is an alpha proof-of-concept version, and it's worse when they buy something complete and abandon it.
@trisk is right. I installed (dual, 'crouton') Linux and it works fine. I haven't loaded Firefox but it would work fine. I added one of those small SanDisk thumbdrives and made some bind mounts for the space hogs (Borderlands 2, etc). Works great. On a twice-as-expensive 3rd generation as I needed it fast. sniff
@excarnate Which button do I press to make that happen? Can I buy a floppy at the local computer store? And how can you say it works if you haven't done it? That's like saying being invisible is easy. It's not. Unless you're a Republican voter in 2016.
Typing this on a several year old Chromebook that I use constantly. Stunningly great for around the house, excellent for road-warrior communication & mild editing/productivity use so long as you have a connection (see previous comments about VPN/Desktop access above as well).
Here's the reason to not get this Chromebook, though it looks lovely: The absence of a sim card slot in the side.
I don't use this often, but when I do it's absolutely necessary - typically with rural family or the occasional remote jobsite.
"But you have to pay for data" Yeah, duh, but if the only other alternative is to drive miles and miles to a library or coffee shop.....
Good points. . My Chromebook came with complimentary T-Mobile (100Mb/month) data (that's about enough for one sparse day) and the option to buy more which what I usually wind up using. T-Mobile is concentrated in major metropolitan areas, though - and there's a lot of the world they don't cover well if at all, including here. . The problem with most phone/hotspot arrangements (such as my Verizon phone) is that it can get expensive in a hurry whereas you can use any SIM card anywhere and pay-as-you-go. . Price competition is your friend in this one.
@Thinkerer was it easy to find a Verizon SIM card several years ago? And would a current Verizon SIM card work in your several year old TMO Chromebook?
@Thinkerer Verizon is the exception, but you can find prepaid service on other networks (AT&T via Cricket, for example) with data allowances generous enough for a few days of laptop tethering.
There's also the option of a standalone WiFi hotspot, (3G/HSPA for less than $10, though LTE still fetches a premium).
@f00l that wouldn't explain the generally solid coverage of both AT&T and VzW in most of the lower peninsula of Michigan.
In a prior life part of my job was managing mobile services for a national company. I got to know all four carriers and their internal personalities very well since we had contracts with all of them.
T-Mobile generally sucked in every way. Network coverage. Corporate support was a joke. I actually felt a bit bad for the few professional folks there. There was a good reason why they could not charge more for their service. The running joke was if your credit isn't good, TMO will still give you a phone.
@Thinkerer I'm not sure I understand the question?
I just turn on the hotspot and keep an eye on the usage every couple of hours... if I'm tethered to my phone or tablet, the Android devices track that themselves.
Some of the cheapo hotspot devices I've used don't do that, so you may have to check on the carrier's site.
I'm buying this because my Google storage is full at 108GB, and I'd have to move to the 1tb storage plan. It turns out that the price of this Chromebook is cheaper than 2 years of Google storage prices. :-)
I have 150mbps up/down on my network and this just clocked in at 154down/158up.
Right now I have 25 tabs open (this isn't normal for me, but I'm buying a lot of Raspberry Pi 3 crap). The tabs have been open for over a week and I see very little lag.
The machine is faster than my 2 ultrabooks, but I gave up on Windows (you can too). I just run Ubuntu on them.
BTW, installed linux on this and it flies.
The display is excellent, the machine is light but doesn't feel flimsy.
When I'm offline, I update docs, which sync to my production cloud once I land and connect OVER VPN>>>>USE VPN and RDP please.
Regarding VPN, I use just use Betternet. For RDP, I change it up as, I connect to many different environments.
You like games....I guess buy a desktop but the cost will add up. Why not buy a PS4 or XBOX One?
Amusing how the concept of "simple computers for simple tasks" gets ramped up by the digerati. Coming from a world of PC-XT clones running DOS, it's amusing. I suppose some of you added special bearings and Teflon to your skateboards just to see if they would perform better. I wonder what percentage of Chromebook users just buy Chromebooks and used them as intended? 98%?
@radi0j0hn Dont think so these get bought en mass by the public. Grandma and Grandad wont get these for themselves, they dont understand them.
Suspect the family techie, sick of house calls, buys these for Grandma and Grandad, or the kids, and gives s few hands on. Then phone support.
Along the way, the techie gets intrigued, if this didnt happen previously. So techie gets 1 or a few personal nice ones that might wind up running Anything But Chrome just for fun.
@elpepe Not if you're keeping up.with your siblings/tech friends/game frienemies/partner/kids....
I'm lying. I priced out, but never ordered, a custom early 386 way back when for many thousands.
Now i have like 10 Kindles and Nooks (love them, no, you can't touch or i'll kill you), 5 desktops (all old, need to be cleaned), 6 tablets, mostly less than 2 years old, 5 laptops, all less than 2 years old, all of which combined cost about what that 386 would have cost way back when.
@elpepe stupid supply and demand economics are seeping their way into meh... but since they haven't sold out perhaps well see the price shrink next week when they are on sale again
@OldCatLady Hah! I have an old laptop running NT4 (when plugged in) and 2 machines in the closet that would boot to Win 2K if i ever allowed them to be switched on. They have enormous hard drives with tons of media that i will pull from them someday.
My Vista desktops are my new ones. They might have to stay in the closet until Vista stops being irritating. So i guess that closet is spoken for.
@f00l Yeah, 'someday' doesn't show up on my calendar either. Maybe if they made it a national holiday? I did repurpose an old file box designed for floppy disks into a holdall for flash drives, memory cards etc. A few microcassette tapes are in there too.
I have this laptop. It's awesome. With the SSD, 4 GB Ram, and lightweight Chrome OS, it boots in like 2 seconds and is fast. Also, less prone to malware since it's not running Windows. Beautiful screen. You can do 99.9% on it what you can with a Windows laptop.
I can't wait until mine is delivered! I've been using the Acer C720-2848 purchased for $199 when it came out over two years ago. I put Hugegreenbug website's Linux Mint Cinnamon OS on the entire SSD without having to flash the bios or anything that involved taking the back of the computer off. With this Toshiba, I may have to. There is an excellent website I bookmarked that gives the procedure, so I'm not too nervous. I never cared for Crouton or dual booting. I do understand that I may need to update to a newer Linux kernel to get the trackpad and screen running properly. I doubt I'll wind up bricking the Toshiba Chromebook. :/
Care to show me the site you bookmarked. This will be my first chromebook. I wanna try out chrome OS, but would be interested in trying out linux on it as well.
Please note that removing the write-protect sticker would most probably void the warranty. It you google "linux on Toshiba Chromebook 2" where are links for the crouton dual-boot method which shouldn't require removing the sticker. Good luck!
@bibzme Ya i did a little more digging and may try that. Apparently this isn't the Gandof one where you can swap out the SSD for a bigger once since it is soldered to the main board. Also not to concerned about warranty since it is only 90 days.
This thing is very nice, esp. the screen as many others have said, and seems new. Came fully charged, and sleeping (turned itself on with opening the lid). First experience with ChromeOS, and it seems quite decent; a partly Mac-like feel to it. This is a steal for $160, and I'm quite happy I bought it.
Bad , Bad, Bad, refurbished condition, Heavily scuffed marked and scratched laptop chrombook. Abysmal product control. Look elsewhere. Trying to pass off an inferior product to the unwary public
@garytvshow That was definitely not intentional. Please contact meh.com/support to let them know what happened. It may be helpful to link them to photos of the product you received, so they can see the condition.
You are liars.
I bought a laptop which has specified 4Gb of RAM. Actually it 2GB…
The biggest problem that I can’t even contact the service center of Toshiba. Because I’m from Russia. Even the shipping cost me so many nerves and money.
I am very upset. Very disappointed.
Specs
Condition: Refurbished
Warranty: 90 Day Toshiba
Estimated Delivery: 4/5 - 4/7
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, $269.99 (New) at Amazon (1444 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
What an incredible deal on an awesome screen.
If only I hadn't been handed a "dead" asus laptop last week that I have already restored to fully functional I might have been tempted... for the screen you know.
I would grab this up in addition to my new laptop, if, you know, it was $99.
Maybe for $90.
Not bad for email, web, and google docs
Thats a really expensive bluetooth speaker.
Surprised they didn't raise it another 10.
Make it under $100 and I'm in...
They should make this $5 more expensive.
Agghhhhhhh meh chrome book -- this deal does not compute for me..maybe one day not today though :)
@AttyVette This deal be savin ye enough pieces of eight to book passage from here to chromebook 2. Yar, mateys.
I'm good with this bad boy that I bought for the same price
http://www.amazon.com/Chromebook-Intel-Celeron-Black-Silver/dp/B00KGI4XBI?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00
@thekenya Did you link the right one? 11.6" w/1366x768 vs 13.3" w/1920x1080 for the same price sounds like you got ripped off
@thekenya oh but that beautiful 1920x1080 full HD screen on this Meh deal.
Asus does make the gorgeous all-metal Chromebook Flip which also has a fantastic screen; it's a little pricier for the 4GB model, though. I'm annoyed I missed it last Cyber Monday.
@thekenya rhe 32 gb ssd drive is the only reason I'm calling it a bad boy
Mehtastic
I wish that these pieces of junk stopped being sold here and we got some cheap Windows ultrabooks instead
@Froggy ...junk because they don't do what you need to do? Because they don't do Windows?
@radi0j0hn For a deals site, wouldn't it be "junk" to him if it's a computer that doesn't do the computer-stuff he needs a computer to do? Sure, it's subjective, but in virtually any other form we'd be calling a Celeron processor "junk" too.
I wanted this last time because my dad coopted my old HP Chromebook, but now Pokken Tournament is out so I'm saving for a Wii u. :/
@andrewpatrick and as soon as you buy it, they will announce the NX.
"I have no words to tell you how lucky I feel."
I like mine. It suffers from a really pedestrian design, but the brilliant screen makes up for it.
@trisk i really hope i agree ;)
This is what Consumer Reports has to say about this Chromebook:
Reviews & Recommended - Toshiba Chromebook 2 CB35-B3340
tester image
CR's Take
This Toshiba Chromebook is lightweight and has a long-lasting battery, making it a great travel companion. It has one of the better screens we've seen on a Chromebook, with a wider viewing angle and superior color reproduction. It has fast 802.11ac Wi-Fi for better throughput while streaming HD videos. That can also be a plus if your family has a lot of devices using your home network at the same time. Its USB 3.0 support lets you get the best performance from compatible peripherals such as external hard drives. This model's fair performance might cause some slowdown if you open a large number of tabs in the browser and stream videos while browsing those tabs.
Highs
• Has a long battery life
• Has USB 3.0 to support faster peripherals
• One of the better screens for color reproduction and viewing angle
Lows
• Battery is not easily removable
Detailed test results
Performance: Performance was only fair. Speed was slow but adequate for productivity and Web-based tasks such as word processing, Web browsing, and online game play.
Sound: The sound on movies, music, and games was acceptable with the built-in speakers, but if you're looking for the best sound you might want to add speakers or use headphones.
Portability: This Chromebook is a great choice for traveling. At 9.25 hours battery life was very long, enough for a full day's work and a little more. At 3lbs. weight was typical for a Chromebook this size and light enough to carry for long periods of time.
Ergonomics: The keyboard, touchpad, and labeling were all well-designed, making it comfortable and convenient to use.The full-sized keyboard was pleasant to type on.The touchpad supports use of multiple-finger gestures to zoom and scroll.The touchpad is easy to press for clicking.The touchpad is well positioned on the keyboard, so it's easy to reach and not prone to interference from arms or wrists.
Display: The display quality was very good overall. Colors were accurately reproduced, realistic, and natural looking. The laptops display was brighter than most, a plus for viewing in bright indoor lighting or outdoors.The display has a wide viewing angle, especially important if more than one person needs to see the screen at a time, say, for a video or presentation.
@mrimdman are there any chromebooks that have "easily removable" batteries? of all the reviews i'd consider for a technology product, consumer reports is not one ...
@mrimdman if I were looking for a Chromebook, I'd buy this deal in spite of Consumer Reports' opinion of it. Most ironic .org name ever.
huh.. and here i was, about to doodle in my sketchbook and pass out
likeable-complex lunch
So... how many chrome tabs can I open up before this thing bogs down? I like to super multi mega browse the interwebs, especially when I'm comparing reviews for something I want to buy but have no use for.
@shrike1201 3.7
@shrike1201 ordou?
@shrike1201 Well, on mine (the previous version of this one, half the RAM), on a good day, I can open around two dozen before it gets slow/unstable (which is more than I thought it would). I have 19 open now (including Tweetdeck and an SSH session running in separate windows).
Depends on the content and complexity of the pages of course. I have Ghostery and flashblock which help a lot with de-crapification.
Also I use an extension called "Tabs Outliner" which groups tabs and opens/closes them in groups. There are other extensions that do various similar things and help with memory usage.
@shrike1201 I currently have something like 40 open on mine. I've had enough tabs open so it doesn't show even the favicon on any of them without any issue.
Update: I counted and opened a new one to post this: this is tab #62.
ChroMEHbook amirite
@armchair beat meh to it.
Fyi, chromebooks have vpn and remote desktop. When I am away from my office I carry a trusty chromebook. Instant boot up, and a few clicks later I'm remoted into my windows 10 pc back at the office. For me in this situation it works great . No lag, and I can go the whole day without plugging in.
@derek17j Yes , I also use VNC Viewer on mine. I can even set up a secure SSH tunnel to the target machine.
@derek17j what VPN do you use? I have PIA so I don't think I can set it up on mine :(
@Squash i use tunnelbear which has a chrome extension so even an idiot like me can use the vpn easily . and for vnc i just use chrome remote desktop
@Squash I just use the built in VPN settings. My co provided all the specifics for using a chromebook.
Liked the memory size.. HDD size? meh! Gonna pass this time.
@unkabob you get 100gb of free Google Drive storage when you buy it.
@Squash
I might get one if it came w 100tb.
@Squash .. Oh, well that's not too bad for the price then.. Still your pretty limited to installs but then again it wasn't created to be a primary comp.
awe shit, what did i do?
@DMlivezey dizzy-dangling-expert
@DMlivezey this is like buying tesla @ $112.50 :0, i shud have bought more
3rd times a charm. This is gonna look great in my filson bag!!
Goodnight.
Already got a chromebook w a gorgeous screen that hardly gets used. For once, i don't want to have at least 2 of whatever costs $, takes up space, is unneeded & unused, and might tend toward being outclassed by next year's version.
@f00l how about at $99?
@thismyusername
;)
"CB35 is what Toshiba calls all their Chromebooks, for some reason. Seems like it could just as easily be CB3..."
Sweet, I know what the next generation holds in store...
'panicky-vanilla-dove' for me - my about-to-turn-6 son is going to flip out when he sees this thing sitting where his Graphite iMac G3 currently sits in his room. Welcome to the future, kid.
If I bought this, rooted it, and installed linux on it, would it run minecraft without lagging?
@defibrillator according to this guy
if you run a tweak , you could get 45fps on minecraft with this processor
@communist thanks, so am I right in assuming that wouldn't be the best gaming experience? I need to buy an inexpensive computer to play minecraft with the kid, I just don't know what to buy. I don't need a true expensive gaming computer, all I want to do is play minecraft without it lagging and being a miserable experience.
Can anyone else chime in, telling me I should avoid this for a good minecraft experience? 45 fps, is that playable for minecraft?
Maybe I should just get a desktop computer for a couple hundred bucks with better processing and graphics power.
@defibrillator Hit up a website like TechReport.com or Anandtech.com and look at some of their system guides. You can build a system for scratch fairly cheap with good integrated graphics, good enough for MC. Probably a better idea would be to figure out the specs you'll need (like the minimum processor) from those guides and wait for a similar pre-built system deal to come along.
@defibrillator http://m.ebay.com/itm/131759946191
This should be more than enough power to run Minecraft at 60 frames per second and it as a bonus it already has Linux install
@defibrillator http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-discussion/discussion/138896-how-good-is-this-laptop-for-minecraft#c11 this guy gets over 100 frames for second with i7 m620 processor.
@communist Thanks, I ordered this! After checking out the specs further.
Thanks for the deal and the excellent posts. It's $60 over my budget for "Just buying it for kicks", But I'm happy to see an ok deal that didn't sell out in 4 seconds.
I'm guessing this would work ok for doing some lightweight photoshopping.
@wew when was the last time we saw a non-Fuku deal sell out in 4 seconds? I recall some of the Monster flash drives selling out pretty quickly, but no where near the seconds range.
I rarely like anything you put up for sale, but I was kind of considering this but the Meh warriors are armed and dangerous on this one. Could be scary if I was mugged while carrying this in my cheesy back pack with a minicopter. Somebody would get hurt. Considering my pugilistic polish it would be me. So I guess that means , no! not today.
@Bkmack
Carry a kangaroo w you to handle the mini-copter.
I'm a die hard Firefox user. There's no way I'm buying this. Will you be offering a Firefoxbook?
@Not_Ken_M As soon as someone builds an entire operating system around Firefox.
@Not_Ken_M
Hack it to linux.
@Not_Ken_M Firefox has become top-heavy and boggy. And they enjoy getting into their employees' private lives too much.
@RedOak True about Firefox. Though I'm not sure criticism of a company's view on personal privacy plays out in Google's favor...
@thedefect true, but believe it or not I've actually gone back to M$ (Edge)!
I use all three. But I tend to use Chrome only when I want to open a dialog in another (duplicate) account.
And the google monolith is the primary reason I don't use Android more or a Chromebook at all. I try to spread my efootprint around. Even use all three email providers. And both google and Bing search (that's a tough one tho since google search is so superior). Really hate that Google bought Waze - in addition to merging data it likely means they'll tire of Waze and abandon it like they so often do.
@RedOak I think that's the right approach. I use all three, although not entirely willingly (work computer is locked to Chrome, alas). Edge might win me over when extension support is in a release build. I only use it on my tablet now because it's easier for touch.
And I feel your pain with Google's notorious cycle of buying/developing something to the point that it is functional and then either closing or abandoning all further development on it. It's like everything they have is an alpha proof-of-concept version, and it's worse when they buy something complete and abandon it.
@RedOak
I so hope they dont do that w waze. I hope they decide it's just such a huge winner, and the PR would be too bad, if nothing else.
@f00l yep - love Waze. And not that I blame them since it is a free app, but the advertising definitely has multiplied since Google took over.
Waze + Gasbuddy = solid road tools.
@RedOak
Yep. Use em both every day.
Tho sometimes just use google maps for the traffic, it'll do for that.
@Not_Ken_M You can run Firefox on this, as part of a regular Linux install.
@trisk is right. I installed (dual, 'crouton') Linux and it works fine. I haven't loaded Firefox but it would work fine. I added one of those small SanDisk thumbdrives and made some bind mounts for the space hogs (Borderlands 2, etc). Works great. On a twice-as-expensive 3rd generation as I needed it fast. sniff
@excarnate Which button do I press to make that happen? Can I buy a floppy at the local computer store? And how can you say it works if you haven't done it? That's like saying being invisible is easy. It's not. Unless you're a Republican voter in 2016.
@Not_Ken_M Don't be obtuse.
@excarnate Hi me. Firefox installed and working. I installed 'trusty' since it was required for Borderlands 2.
Typing this on a several year old Chromebook that I use constantly. Stunningly great for around the house, excellent for road-warrior communication & mild editing/productivity use so long as you have a connection (see previous comments about VPN/Desktop access above as well).
Here's the reason to not get this Chromebook, though it looks lovely: The absence of a sim card slot in the side.
I don't use this often, but when I do it's absolutely necessary - typically with rural family or the occasional remote jobsite.
"But you have to pay for data" Yeah, duh, but if the only other alternative is to drive miles and miles to a library or coffee shop.....
@Thinkerer Not a bad point, but there is always the option of turning on the hot spot on your phone and connecting through that!
@defibrillator
Yeah, T-mobile has nice policies if you get their service wherever.
Good points.
.
My Chromebook came with complimentary T-Mobile (100Mb/month) data (that's about enough for one sparse day) and the option to buy more which what I usually wind up using. T-Mobile is concentrated in major metropolitan areas, though - and there's a lot of the world they don't cover well if at all, including here.
.
The problem with most phone/hotspot arrangements (such as my Verizon phone) is that it can get expensive in a hurry whereas you can use any SIM card anywhere and pay-as-you-go.
.
Price competition is your friend in this one.
@Thinkerer was it easy to find a Verizon SIM card several years ago? And would a current Verizon SIM card work in your several year old TMO Chromebook?
@f00l
My first chromebook had a TM sim i think 200mb free/day?
I dont use that. Gave to friend. My TM phone gives me 14gb hotspot/month. I use that.
PS the rural/suburban TM coverage in N TX has improved considerably over last 2 years.
@f00l the TMO coverage is nearly non existent in the part of Northwestern MI where we have property. Both AT&T and VzW have 4-5 bar LTE there.
@RedOak
I wonder if your region is a victim of colder-region discrimination? If the cellco's upgrade the warmer, "high-growth" places first? Huh.
@Thinkerer
Verizon is the exception, but you can find prepaid service on other networks (AT&T via Cricket, for example) with data allowances generous enough for a few days of laptop tethering.
There's also the option of a standalone WiFi hotspot, (3G/HSPA for less than $10, though LTE still fetches a premium).
@f00l that wouldn't explain the generally solid coverage of both AT&T and VzW in most of the lower peninsula of Michigan.
In a prior life part of my job was managing mobile services for a national company. I got to know all four carriers and their internal personalities very well since we had contracts with all of them.
T-Mobile generally sucked in every way. Network coverage. Corporate support was a joke. I actually felt a bit bad for the few professional folks there. There was a good reason why they could not charge more for their service. The running joke was if your credit isn't good, TMO will still give you a phone.
@trisk
How do you manage the data plan using the hotspot function with those?
@Thinkerer i dont pkay the Sims anymore so i should be OK.
@Thinkerer I'm not sure I understand the question?
I just turn on the hotspot and keep an eye on the usage every couple of hours... if I'm tethered to my phone or tablet, the Android devices track that themselves.
Some of the cheapo hotspot devices I've used don't do that, so you may have to check on the carrier's site.
A meh deal that I can use to check meh with every day.
I'm buying this because my Google storage is full at 108GB, and I'd have to move to the 1tb storage plan. It turns out that the price of this Chromebook is cheaper than 2 years of Google storage prices. :-)
@cpav after you redeem the Google storage, can I keep the laptop then?
@communist You can fight my 5 year old daughter for it. But be warned; she fights dirty.
reclusive-thunderous-name
Interested to see how this performs against the Gen 1 I had a while back with 2GB RAM and a 760p screen. Replacing my iPad with this.
I've had this model for over a year.
I have 150mbps up/down on my network and this just clocked in at 154down/158up.
Right now I have 25 tabs open (this isn't normal for me, but I'm buying a lot of Raspberry Pi 3 crap). The tabs have been open for over a week and I see very little lag.
The machine is faster than my 2 ultrabooks, but I gave up on Windows (you can too). I just run Ubuntu on them.
BTW, installed linux on this and it flies.
The display is excellent, the machine is light but doesn't feel flimsy.
When I'm offline, I update docs, which sync to my production cloud once I land and connect OVER VPN>>>>USE VPN and RDP please.
Regarding VPN, I use just use Betternet. For RDP, I change it up as, I connect to many different environments.
You like games....I guess buy a desktop but the cost will add up. Why not buy a PS4 or XBOX One?
In for the "awesome screen", and a laptop my kids can do their homework on without bogarting my Windows machine.
permissible-appalling-tortellini
appalling = Grapes on pasta...
@SColburn I'm crying right now. Thanks. Poor pasta, how dare they do this
Amusing how the concept of "simple computers for simple tasks" gets ramped up by the digerati. Coming from a world of PC-XT clones running DOS, it's amusing. I suppose some of you added special bearings and Teflon to your skateboards just to see if they would perform better. I wonder what percentage of Chromebook users just buy Chromebooks and used them as intended? 98%?
@radi0j0hn
And back in time the mind goes.
Was there green glowing text once?
By 98% you meant 02%?
@f00l ah yes, still remember the joy of getting away from green screens when I got an amber screen Amdek.
I believe 98% just buy them, use them as-in and don't know Celeron from celery, as it does not matter to them.
@radi0j0hn
Dont think so these get bought en mass by the public. Grandma and Grandad wont get these for themselves, they dont understand them.
Suspect the family techie, sick of house calls, buys these for Grandma and Grandad, or the kids, and gives s few hands on. Then phone support.
Along the way, the techie gets intrigued, if this didnt happen previously. So techie gets 1 or a few personal nice ones that might wind up running Anything But Chrome just for fun.
Will this work with my Mac?
@KenEsq Yes, for varying degrees of 'work with'.
@excarnate
No foodfights?
isn't the price of old computers supposed to, you know, decrease over time?
@elpepe
Not if you're keeping up.with your siblings/tech friends/game frienemies/partner/kids....
I'm lying. I priced out, but never ordered, a custom early 386 way back when for many thousands.
Now i have like 10 Kindles and Nooks (love them, no, you can't touch or i'll kill you), 5 desktops (all old, need to be cleaned), 6 tablets, mostly less than 2 years old, 5 laptops, all less than 2 years old, all of which combined cost about what that 386 would have cost way back when.
@elpepe stupid supply and demand economics are seeping their way into meh... but since they haven't sold out perhaps well see the price shrink next week when they are on sale again
@f00l We need a support group. I'll be right in there with you. Raise you a Vista laptop and an XP netbook.
@OldCatLady
Hah! I have an old laptop running NT4 (when plugged in) and 2 machines in the closet that would boot to Win 2K if i ever allowed them to be switched on. They have enormous hard drives with tons of media that i will pull from them someday.
My Vista desktops are my new ones. They might have to stay in the closet until Vista stops being irritating. So i guess that closet is spoken for.
@f00l Yeah, 'someday' doesn't show up on my calendar either. Maybe if they made it a national holiday? I did repurpose an old file box designed for floppy disks into a holdall for flash drives, memory cards etc. A few microcassette tapes are in there too.
There is nothing the wonderful copywriter(s?) at Meh could compose that would make me buy a Chromebook.
Finally, a way for me to facebook on the couch that doesn't have me squinting at a phone screen.
I have this laptop. It's awesome. With the SSD, 4 GB Ram, and lightweight Chrome OS, it boots in like 2 seconds and is fast. Also, less prone to malware since it's not running Windows. Beautiful screen. You can do 99.9% on it what you can with a Windows laptop.
I can't wait until mine is delivered! I've been using the Acer C720-2848 purchased for $199 when it came out over two years ago. I put Hugegreenbug website's Linux Mint Cinnamon OS on the entire SSD without having to flash the bios or anything that involved taking the back of the computer off. With this Toshiba, I may have to. There is an excellent website I bookmarked that gives the procedure, so I'm not too nervous. I never cared for Crouton or dual booting. I do understand that I may need to update to a newer Linux kernel to get the trackpad and screen running properly. I doubt I'll wind up bricking the Toshiba Chromebook. :/
Care to show me the site you bookmarked. This will be my first chromebook. I wanna try out chrome OS, but would be interested in trying out linux on it as well.
When will they ship? I'm waiting.....
@wordwhiz The top post in every product thread has a ton of handy information - like the estimated shipping time. For this product:
aknapp, link is:
fascinatingcaptain.com/howto/install-ubuntu-on-the-toshiba-chromebook-2-in-5-steps/
Please note that removing the write-protect sticker would most probably void the warranty. It you google "linux on Toshiba Chromebook 2" where are links for the crouton dual-boot method which shouldn't require removing the sticker. Good luck!
@bibzme Ya i did a little more digging and may try that. Apparently this isn't the Gandof one where you can swap out the SSD for a bigger once since it is soldered to the main board. Also not to concerned about warranty since it is only 90 days.
This thing is very nice, esp. the screen as many others have said, and seems new. Came fully charged, and sleeping (turned itself on with opening the lid). First experience with ChromeOS, and it seems quite decent; a partly Mac-like feel to it. This is a steal for $160, and I'm quite happy I bought it.
Bad , Bad, Bad, refurbished condition, Heavily scuffed marked and scratched laptop chrombook. Abysmal product control. Look elsewhere. Trying to pass off an inferior product to the unwary public
@garytvshow That was definitely not intentional. Please contact meh.com/support to let them know what happened. It may be helpful to link them to photos of the product you received, so they can see the condition.
You are liars.
I bought a laptop which has specified 4Gb of RAM. Actually it 2GB…
The biggest problem that I can’t even contact the service center of Toshiba. Because I’m from Russia. Even the shipping cost me so many nerves and money.
I am very upset. Very disappointed.
@Veter9 you should definitely contact meh.com/support and let them know the product you received was not what you ordered.
@Thumperchick thanks i’ll write them
Love this, so convenient for a lightweight laptop to travel with to check email etc. Works great, feels brand new. Would buy again as a gift.