Thoughts on Chromebooks
I recently bought a used Chromebook at a thrift store and Dad wondered if I was going to do a blog post about it, I hadn’t really thought about it, but here we are. It is a Dell Chromebook 5190 that is similar to this one. The main difference between mine and the one linked is mine doesn’t bend around to a tablet.
Most of this post has been done on the Chromebook except for uploading pictures.
One thought that comes to mind with very little use is the spellcheck is weird. On my iPad I can type something and it will use context to find the problem and fix it for me while this just underlines it in red and I have to go back through and fix the problems. This is kinda picky but instead of a caps lock button it has a search button that brings up a menu similar to the windows start menu. It can be changed but I haven’t for some reason.
It is also very web based which is why I think schools use them. It isn’t very hard to lock down a web browser and restrict access to certain sites. Most of the time though apps and services have some version of an online app. Sometimes I prefer an online app because it has better capabilities than the mobile app but it is still nice to have the option to have an app.
It is also very Google-centric. If you need a word processor, Google Docs, a spreadsheet program, Google Sheets, an email program, gmail. If you buy a Chromebook you better be on good terms with google. You can install other apps but the apps that come preinstalled are all Google apps.
If you want to store and do a lot of things offline don’t buy a Chromebook. The one I bought has 25 gigabytes which isn’t very much. My iPad has 256 gigabytes. The storage sizes vary depending on what you buy but typically with a Chromebook it isn’t much.
Another strange thing about Chromebooks is they have an expiration date. The one I have is set to expire around June of next year. By expire I mean they stop updating.
Overall I like it but I think I would prefer a full-fledged laptop. The unbeatable thing about Chromebooks is their price and ease-of-use. I’ve only had it for a week and a half though so we will see how it goes in the long run.