Any ideas on the best 2 in 1 Chromebook for around $500-$600?
The main feature I'm looking for is a great screen. 13" minimum.
I also don't want it to be slow so ideally an i3 or similar with 8Gb Ram would be nice. I can compromise on the CPU/Ram specs, but not on the screen.
This one would be ideal, but it is $200 over my absolute limit:
https://www.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/lenovo/student-chromebo…
Cheers.
I know I could get a chromebook with a run of the mill screen for under $400, but as it is mainly used as a media player I want to get a very good screen. I'm prepared to pay a few hundred more for that. I also want touch in case I want to use Android apps.
Well that expalins what might push the price up - the price of the screen.
From what I remember a few months ago, my partner wanted a small laptop for basic office work: she wanted something small and portable, about 13", but those seemed dearer than the 15" screens that most people want. Also, I'd recommended for office to not get a widescreen aspect ratio as my current laptop has, because you are forever scrolling up and down and zooming in and out. It was near impossible to find an affordable laptop with a non-media player display, especially within my partner's budget.
Bought a Lenovo C340 few months back and it's a great little unit. The screen is only 11.6" though. I think it was something like $250 after an Amazon Au $100 credit promo. So with end of financial year approaching you might see similar promos.
Wow. You got a great price for the Lenovo C340. Well done.
Yeah not bad haven't used it much though lol. But the couple of times I did use it I can tell ya it was a fair shake of the sauce bottle.
Ha ha. It's the Ozbargain way, want not need. Will be the same for me if I manage to snap one up at that price.
A pity I didn't see that deal :(
How do Chromebooks do for office work though? I suppose they are fine with Google offcie apps which are based online(?), but how about more conventional MS Office ?
As long as you have a reliable internet connection, you can run MS Office in the browser these days. The other thing you can do is use the Android office apps.
Thanks for the reply.
Your "Toshi"? Is that a Toshiba?
That's what I have: a Sateliite p750 or something. It's about 8 years old now, so I shouldn't complain too much, but I paid about $1,300 for it. I wanted something to replace my eight-year old powerhouse of a desktop, but it never really lived up to the specs. It looked fantastic on paper: i7, 8GB RAM, and so on, but it overheats before anything requiring that muscle even gets going, so it's pretty much a waste of good components as well as my money. I dislike the widescreen display too, as I mentioned earlier.
I've got the HP 14" that was effectively $139 after the $100 gift card, and it had been fine for business trips using MS Office. It's of course also great for Google docs even when offline. Had bought it for the kids but ended up keeping it!
The FHD screen is surprisingly good for the price, and the keyboard is comfy for hours of continuous typing. Downsides of this cheap Chromebook are the battery only lasts 4-5 hrs, and performance isn't that good for multitasking. The screen while good is not bright - i find it most comfy at 90-100% brightness for indoor lighting.
What aspects of the screen are you most after? Resolution / vertical size / max brightness / colour accuracy?
An all round good screen. Accurate colours and decent pixel density. 1080p is fine at the size, but 2k would be nicer. Battery needs to last minimum of 7-8 hours.
Preferably FullHD about 13".
That seems a good price for my partner's needs. Battery life might be a little low though, but I suppose it recharges quite quickly.
The deal breaker for her might be the bloatware HP and Dell (used to) pre-install, she's certainly not keen on the latter.
Thanks.
@particle What is the model of HP, please?
That's a great price, but the screen is just too small for my use.
I've been using a Toshiba Chromebook 2 with a 13" screen for more than 4 years and that's as small as I'm willing to consider going. As the Toshi is still working (used on average for 1-2 hours per day) I'm really just looking for a small upgrade plus the 2 in 1 format.
Ok, so I think I've settled for the Asus Flip C434. It's exactly what I need. Now I just need it to be half the price.
May the power of Ozbargain be with me.
I am also looking for a new Chromebook and have noticed not many deals can be had these days. Prior to COVID-19 retailers were throwing in $100-300 gift cards on already discounted machines.
Interesting. It seems like it's quite hard to find local stock of good Chromebooks these days. Lots of cheap end stuff, but not much medium or high end.
So maybe I'll put off my purchase for now, increase my budget and wait for the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook to be released. I could live with the poor battery life for such a beautiful gorgeous machine:
https://youtu.be/krwcIXNWcq8
I'm tempted by the Galaxy Chromebook too if/when it comes out here. It will surely be very expensive when it arrives, though the 8 years of support is reassuring. Would love to have that 4k display.
Reviving this thread as I'm in the same boat now..
Looking for laptop/chromebook for our soon to be grade 3.
Main use will be O365, Roblox, Minecraft and school Web apps like Study Ladder etc.
Would a chromebook with 4G memory suffice or a laptop with Win10 like Acer Swift 1 would be a better option?
https://online.acer.com.au/acer/store/acer-swift-1-intel-cel…
TIA
I've been super happy with the ASUS Flip I bought in May. I'm not sure what's out there these days, but a Chromebook will generally be much better value for money than a windows laptop. By that I mean that for the same dollars you should be able to get better keyboard, trackpad, screen and battery life, since the other hardware can be scaled down without affecting performance.
The Chrome Unboxed channel on Youtube is a great source of info. Shame most of the models don't make it to our shores.
Sorry I'm no help, but I thought $899 was about twice what I would want to pay for that computer, let alone the original "Web Price" of $1,349.00!
I'm evidently more out of touch than I realised.
I'm watching this thread with interest as my laptop is on it's last legs, but whenever I go in Officeworks or JB Hifi I baulk at the prices just as I did with the above one.