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Quite unfortunate, but I’m not surprised sub-$200 don’t last terribly long. Especially with the kind of treatment they’re likely to get from school kids. Even

by MBCook 4y ago

Quite unfortunate, but I’m not surprised sub-$200 don’t last terribly long. Especially with the kind of treatment they’re likely to get from school kids. Even if they’re just as hard to repair, a more expensive and more ruggedized model might have been a better choice. If such a thing exists, which I kind of doubt.

nazgulsenpai 4y ago
I know for sure Lenovo and Dell have more ruggedized Chromebooks just for schools. The one my kid has was a Dell that had an metal frame. The Lenovo 11e (iirc) was also mostly metal and quite rugged.
- intelVISA 4y ago
  [flagged]
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > I know for sure Lenovo and Dell have more ruggedized Chromebooks just for schools. Many of the makers of Chromebooks have ruggedized models, and they aren’t just for schools.
908B64B197 4y ago
I was under the impression this was by design with Chromebooks, designed to be cheap and not last very long in the field.
mc32 4y ago
I recall a sales gig from Google demoing Chromebooks and part of his dog and pony show was tossing it to the ground. It was an attempt to impress disposability. They’re so cheap you don’t have to care if they break. I got the opposite impression. Why would I buy a piece of trash? Contrast that with a decade later and this attitude of disposability is a no-go. But they were selling that as an advantage.
djaychela 4y ago
True, but I think some of the demise of them is down to bad design. My partner is a tech at a first school here in the UK, and they have Chromebooks - pretty much one per child. Most of them have needed to be put back together because the hinge attachment to the case is not strong enough. The screws are not well fitted from the factory, and as soon as it comes loose, the mounting can get damaged because where the brass inserts are set in the plastic is pretty flimsy, and will crack. So they end up with a chromebook which can be 'kind of' repaired if you put the screws back in really tight, but it's only so long that it will last as that area has no real strength to it. If this part of these was made better (these are Asus C201, but there are others that are similar), then they would never have been a problem aside from the obvious actual abuse that about 10% of them get from children who have behavioural issues. Others mentioned here (such as Dell) are better, but have other issues - the Dell ones have glass in front of the screens, which can break, and leaves razor-sharp splinters when it does. It's also a nightmare to replace as parts are difficult to get (we had to order them from the US, and paid quite a bit for each one), and they are macbook-like in the difficulty of repair here. Making these much stronger (like many times stronger) would not have cost a lot. They just skimped on plastic in a few places, leading them to be weak in the field. Another £1 spent per unit would have meant almost none of them would have suffered this. The later model (C202) were better, but still broke in the same place, with the same failure mode for the most part.
toastedwedge 4y ago
Not a good source of input, but I've had a Chromebook for the last ~8 years that has no cracks or broken anything. I've only had to replace the SSD once in the entire time it's been running near 24/7 as a home server and auxillary PC with GalliumOS. Then again, it stays on a shelf, but it hasn't had any mystery developments in play. Maybe the screen has washed out a little but that's it.
- MBCook 4y ago
  I assume the $200 ones would hold up perfectly decently if treated like that. But middle/high schoolers are not going to be that nice to it.
wmf 4y ago
Given a choice between $200 for two years or $1,000 for ten years I would actually choose the disposable one because a ten-year-old laptop may become obsolete even if it's still working.

by MBCook 4y ago

nazgulsenpai 4y ago

I know for sure Lenovo and Dell have more ruggedized Chromebooks just for schools. The one my kid has was a Dell that had an metal frame. The Lenovo 11e (iirc) was also mostly metal and quite rugged.

intelVISA 4y ago
[flagged]
dragonwriter 4y ago
> I know for sure Lenovo and Dell have more ruggedized Chromebooks just for schools. Many of the makers of Chromebooks have ruggedized models, and they aren’t just for schools.

908B64B197 4y ago

I was under the impression this was by design with Chromebooks, designed to be cheap and not last very long in the field.

mc32 4y ago

I recall a sales gig from Google demoing Chromebooks and part of his dog and pony show was tossing it to the ground. It was an attempt to impress disposability. They’re so cheap you don’t have to care if they break. I got the opposite impression. Why would I buy a piece of trash? Contrast that with a decade later and this attitude of disposability is a no-go. But they were selling that as an advantage.

djaychela 4y ago

True, but I think some of the demise of them is down to bad design. My partner is a tech at a first school here in the UK, and they have Chromebooks - pretty much one per child. Most of them have needed to be put back together because the hinge attachment to the case is not strong enough. The screws are not well fitted from the factory, and as soon as it comes loose, the mounting can get damaged because where the brass inserts are set in the plastic is pretty flimsy, and will crack. So they end up with a chromebook which can be 'kind of' repaired if you put the screws back in really tight, but it's only so long that it will last as that area has no real strength to it. If this part of these was made better (these are Asus C201, but there are others that are similar), then they would never have been a problem aside from the obvious actual abuse that about 10% of them get from children who have behavioural issues. Others mentioned here (such as Dell) are better, but have other issues - the Dell ones have glass in front of the screens, which can break, and leaves razor-sharp splinters when it does. It's also a nightmare to replace as parts are difficult to get (we had to order them from the US, and paid quite a bit for each one), and they are macbook-like in the difficulty of repair here. Making these much stronger (like many times stronger) would not have cost a lot. They just skimped on plastic in a few places, leading them to be weak in the field. Another £1 spent per unit would have meant almost none of them would have suffered this. The later model (C202) were better, but still broke in the same place, with the same failure mode for the most part.

toastedwedge 4y ago

Not a good source of input, but I've had a Chromebook for the last ~8 years that has no cracks or broken anything. I've only had to replace the SSD once in the entire time it's been running near 24/7 as a home server and auxillary PC with GalliumOS. Then again, it stays on a shelf, but it hasn't had any mystery developments in play. Maybe the screen has washed out a little but that's it.

MBCook 4y ago
I assume the $200 ones would hold up perfectly decently if treated like that. But middle/high schoolers are not going to be that nice to it.

wmf 4y ago

Given a choice between $200 for two years or $1,000 for ten years I would actually choose the disposable one because a ten-year-old laptop may become obsolete even if it's still working.