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I have two Chromebooks, both over 8 years old. The eldest, an ASUS, I gave to my dad and he uses it everyday. Aside from the odd security issue (he'll install a
by dazc 3y ago
I have two Chromebooks, both over 8 years old. The eldest, an ASUS, I gave to my dad and he uses it everyday. Aside from the odd security issue (he'll install any extension he's told to) it works just as well as it when it was new.
The other, a Toshiba, I've dragged around the world with me, has had one repair, a battery replacement, and, again, works fine.
Chromebooks are cheap but reliable devices that ought not to, in all honesty, last as long as they do.
I've had two ThinkPads in the same time, one was stolen and the other I use daily without issue. I buy reconditioned so the cost scale is comparable, as is the utility and reliability.
Non-story!
- carlivar 3y agoSo you have a data point of 2 Chromebooks versus the school I.T. admins in the article that manage thousands, and you think your sample size wins? How about the pointless bezel changes illustrated in the article? Drop your Chromebooks on the floor to crack the bezel, try to replace them, and get back to us for further data in your sample.
- dazc 3y agoObviously, I'm not a school admin but I would wager replacing a fleet of cheap Chromebooks with Macbooks (or any big brand Windows machines) would not work out cheaper, or less burdensome, or anywhere close.
- Retric 3y agoThe issue is they where marketed and sold for an environment where they don’t work.
- dazc 3y agoThe original laptop for kids in a school environment was the Intel Classmate and that was a serious piece of crap. Then came the iPad, less said about that the better. Chromebooks are many times better than this and have the added benefit of being cheap and, dare I say it, disposable.
- Retric 3y agoNeeding expensive parts or being forced to replace a Chromebook early means it’s no longer cheap. US schools have spent over a billion dollars on Chromebook's, it’s a significant expenditure that isn’t lasting as long as expected.
- makeitdouble 3y agoFTIW iPad in school seem to survive better. There's a lot more limitations (screen size in particular, and keyboards being an accessory), but looking at the number of school working with fleets of them, from a sheer price/durability ratio they're probably doing well.
- youngtaff 3y agoOur teenager had an iPad when he started secondary school aged 11 and it was still useable when her left five years later
- carlivar 3y agoThe point is that it shouldn't have to be binary like this. Why can't there be less pointless parts changes and thus more parts availability?
- mardifoufs 3y agoConsidering how bad and dubiously sourced the article is... yes, actually, anecdotes might very well be just as good.
- makeitdouble 3y agoI think this illustrate pretty well the gap between how adults use their devices and see as "normal" use, and what the same devices go through in the hand of kids using them day in day out and shuffling them around like they do for their books. My kid also destroyed the plastic around the hinge of an HP chromebook, and there was no way to find replacements part anywhere, locally, Amazon or AliExpress. That's where it really hurts that there are so many variations and models of chromebooks, as even the most popular ones will be a small fraction of the market and third-party support is just non existent.