JB Hi-Fi has 15% off some computers until Monday. This gets the Acer Chromebook down to $253.30 and includes delivery.
Acer 11.6" Chromebook $253.30 Delivered or Pick-up @ JB
![](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/u/62/71862-38.jpg?h=ddddbdcd)
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I hope you aren't just judging by the brand, I never knew Samsung to be that reliable in notebooks, they don't even make desktops. They may be a tech leader in many areas but notebooks ain't one of them.
At least with Acer you get an inexpensive product to balance out any risk with the unit itself.
For $50 more many reviews say that the Samsung Chromebook is a better buy, though since it doesn't get the discount it's a harder choice.
Samsungs latest laptops have quite good reviews.
Hardly. The reviews of the Samsung are better than those of the Acer Chromebook. The Acer is just a repackaged netbook with ChromeOS instead of Windows. Acer is thicker and heavier.
It's also the old, 2GB RAM version of the Acer one with worse battery life compared to the one they currently sell in America.
Why would you buy a Google Chromebook ??
Because it's $253 or you just mainly use it for web browsing.
Really easy to support for your non-techy Mum or Dad.
You can install Linux.
If you do most of your computing in the cloud, this is designed to work with you (e.g. apps support prefs across devices, automatcally stores data in the cloud etc.)
I would put Linux on it and use it as a lightweight, long battery life netbook for travel. The form factor and battery life are what interest me. I can get the OS to do what I want.
I installed Chrome OS, well Chromium OS as that is the open source one, on a 6 year old laptop that wasn't top of the line when even we got it and gave it to my mum to use. It runs great and she can do all her email and web browsing on there. Because there is so little to it it runs really well on dated hardware. Why have all the other stuff installed when all the user needs is web browsing and browser based apps?
According to reviews, the Chromebooks lack enough oomph to handle multitasking and tab-heavy browsing patterns. E.g having 10 tabs open, probably with one or two web docs open at the same time.
If it lags even at web browsing Google really needs to pack in a better CPU/GPU and perhaps include 4GB RAM by default.
It was $239 back in April according to MildSurprise. As of Acer C7 vs. Samsung XE303C12, Acer one with dual core 1.1GHz Celeron actually out-performs Samsung with dual core Exynos 5 Cortex-A15 by quite a bit. It's also more self-serviceable, i.e. upgrading RAM and replacing HDD with SSD, etc. The shortfalls would be shorter battery life and fan noise.
not surprising! and not exactly a fair comparison, the Celeron is x86 and the Exynos 5 is ARM
The next generation notebook CPUs will be cheaper and faster. Wait for them to arrive and to be updated on the chromebook for better performance, and longer lasting battery life.
Even then, unless you do something like greenpossum and install Linux on it, I can't really find a use for it that you can't do on any other laptop.
A useless $253.30 chromebook is still $253.30 too much for me.
I would highly recommend people to run Chrome OS in virtual mode before deciding if this notebook can meet all their needs, or will it be better to pay a little bit more so you can run local applications on your notebook or be able to use applications without a internet connection.
As someone who sold laptops for several years, I can tell you hands down that Samsung beats Acer on quality. Acer build everything cheap and plasticy, Samsung while not perfect, generally have noticeably better build quality.
And the proof was in the pudding. I dealt with a hell of a lot more faulty Acer's than any other brand we were selling (the others being mainly HP, Samsung and Toshiba).
That can't be said of the TravelMate TimelineX series. Clear you sell pretty cheap laptops.
Will this work as a media server?
Does it run VLC or have a media player to run MKV files?
Will it even run HD content?
Pity no reduction on the Samsung Chromebook.