4 ms·

Chromebooks are $250 new, with a haswell proc.

scholia 11y ago
Though you can get real Windows laptops for less than that.... EDIT: for whoever downvotes simple statements of fact... Lenovo - Ideapad 100s 11.6" Laptop $199.99; HP - Stream 11.6" Laptop $199.99; New! Dell - Inspiron 11.6" Laptop $199.99. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=laptops%20under%20$200&cp=1&qp=currentprice_facet%3DPrice~%24150%20-%20%24199.99^operatingsystem_facet%3DOperating%20System~Windows%2010 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=l...
- creshal 11y ago
  Those "real" Windows laptops have smartphone CPUs (and less RAM than recent smartphones, to add insult to injury); and run in the same price spectrum as Chromebooks – there's $200 ARM Chromebooks, too. Actually useful versions cost around $250+ in both cases.
  - sccxy 11y ago
    Which laptop & smartphone CPUs are you talking about? I haven't kept up with news lately. Could you post some links
  - Retric 11y ago
    Some smartphones surprisingly decent specs. 1440 x 2560 pixels Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 3 GB RAM 32/128 GB SSD And 2 cameras / other smartphone features. But, they cost 2-3x what a netbook does.
  - scholia 11y ago
    New Atom chips are actually quite fast -- certainly they're much faster than the ones in netbooks. Also, Windows 10 runs quite well in 2GB of RAM, for most ordinary purposes. In my experience, these machines browse faster than Chromebooks, support more tabs (in Firefox), let you use non-Google browsers (eg Vivaldi), and run lots of stuff that Chromebooks don't (eg Microsoft Office, iTunes, etc). They also work much better offline. You can save a trivial amount of money by buying a cheap Chromebook, but you lose a lot of performance and capability. I'm not saying that Chromebooks don't have advantages for some use cases, because clearly they do. However, they're not significantly cheaper than comparable Windows 10 laptops, which is where we came in....
- jdietrich 11y ago
  Entry level Windows laptops and Chromebooks are competitive on price and specification. OEM Windows licensing is essentially free on these machines. The very cheapest Chromebooks (~$150) undercut the cheapest Windows laptops by using a Rockchip ARM processor, although this limits performance. Users understand the value proposition of ChromeOS - it is more limited than Windows, but it is more reliable and secure. For many users, this is a very worthwhile tradeoff. Two of the ten best selling laptops on Amazon are Chromebooks. http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Laptop/zgbs/pc/565108 http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Lap...

Though you can get real Windows laptops for less than that.... EDIT: for whoever downvotes simple statements of fact... Lenovo - Ideapad 100s 11.6" Laptop $199.99; HP - Stream 11.6" Laptop $199.99; New! Dell - Inspiron 11.6" Laptop $199.99. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=laptops%20under%20$200&cp=1&qp=currentprice_facet%3DPrice~%24150%20-%20%24199.99^operatingsystem_facet%3DOperating%20System~Windows%2010 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=l...

creshal 11y ago
Those "real" Windows laptops have smartphone CPUs (and less RAM than recent smartphones, to add insult to injury); and run in the same price spectrum as Chromebooks – there's $200 ARM Chromebooks, too. Actually useful versions cost around $250+ in both cases.
- sccxy 11y ago
  Which laptop & smartphone CPUs are you talking about? I haven't kept up with news lately. Could you post some links
- Retric 11y ago
  Some smartphones surprisingly decent specs. 1440 x 2560 pixels Quad-core 2.1 GHz Cortex-A57 3 GB RAM 32/128 GB SSD And 2 cameras / other smartphone features. But, they cost 2-3x what a netbook does.
- scholia 11y ago
  New Atom chips are actually quite fast -- certainly they're much faster than the ones in netbooks. Also, Windows 10 runs quite well in 2GB of RAM, for most ordinary purposes. In my experience, these machines browse faster than Chromebooks, support more tabs (in Firefox), let you use non-Google browsers (eg Vivaldi), and run lots of stuff that Chromebooks don't (eg Microsoft Office, iTunes, etc). They also work much better offline. You can save a trivial amount of money by buying a cheap Chromebook, but you lose a lot of performance and capability. I'm not saying that Chromebooks don't have advantages for some use cases, because clearly they do. However, they're not significantly cheaper than comparable Windows 10 laptops, which is where we came in....
jdietrich 11y ago
Entry level Windows laptops and Chromebooks are competitive on price and specification. OEM Windows licensing is essentially free on these machines. The very cheapest Chromebooks (~$150) undercut the cheapest Windows laptops by using a Rockchip ARM processor, although this limits performance. Users understand the value proposition of ChromeOS - it is more limited than Windows, but it is more reliable and secure. For many users, this is a very worthwhile tradeoff. Two of the ten best selling laptops on Amazon are Chromebooks. http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Laptop/zgbs/pc/565108 http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Computers-Accessories-Lap...