- Joined
- Thursday September 26, 2013
- Location
- Halifax, Republic of Yorkshire
My trusty (and quite ancient) Netbook is practically dead. It's been on just about every holiday/trip for the last few years, big enough to hold a few films to watch on the plane and really just a browser to ... well browse ... for anything and everything.
As the years have gone by, more and more is web based ... in fact, very little is not. Many hotels we stay at now, we can just plug in an Amazon FireStick or output from phone to TV.
Finding something that runs Windows 7 now is just about impossible. Windows 10 is utter pap, so that puts practically everything out. Apple MacBook Air would be lovely, but I just can't justify that money to run a simple browser.
I tried Android ... and I'm impressed enough, almost jumped in for that Huawei Media Pad M3 with the HK speakers, but the tablet (even with a keyboard) is not quite right for me - I like typing a lot and I like a laptop, not a tablet with a keyboard. An iPad with a keyboard is just not quite right either.
I want something in the middle ...
Which left me with Android's slightly older and slightly less slick sibling: the Chromebook. Leaps and bounds over the last few years and a good number fully supporting the Google Play store for Android apps!
So ... all the apps of the tablet and a dedicated browser environment on a laptop?
Perfect!
After playing around with a few at Curry's, I'm sold. I've downloaded Chromium OS (from the curiously named Arnold the Bat) and tried out Neverware's CloudReady, but neither support the Google Play store.
Heart set on one now ...
Acer R13 is the frontrunner.
Anyone with direct experience, thoughts or otherwise is welcome to share.
Cheers!
As the years have gone by, more and more is web based ... in fact, very little is not. Many hotels we stay at now, we can just plug in an Amazon FireStick or output from phone to TV.
Finding something that runs Windows 7 now is just about impossible. Windows 10 is utter pap, so that puts practically everything out. Apple MacBook Air would be lovely, but I just can't justify that money to run a simple browser.
I tried Android ... and I'm impressed enough, almost jumped in for that Huawei Media Pad M3 with the HK speakers, but the tablet (even with a keyboard) is not quite right for me - I like typing a lot and I like a laptop, not a tablet with a keyboard. An iPad with a keyboard is just not quite right either.
I want something in the middle ...
Which left me with Android's slightly older and slightly less slick sibling: the Chromebook. Leaps and bounds over the last few years and a good number fully supporting the Google Play store for Android apps!
So ... all the apps of the tablet and a dedicated browser environment on a laptop?
Perfect!
After playing around with a few at Curry's, I'm sold. I've downloaded Chromium OS (from the curiously named Arnold the Bat) and tried out Neverware's CloudReady, but neither support the Google Play store.
Heart set on one now ...
Acer R13 is the frontrunner.
Anyone with direct experience, thoughts or otherwise is welcome to share.
Cheers!