If you would’ve asked me about 5 years ago whether or not a Chromebook was a good buy, I might’ve laughed and told you to get a Windows machine. That definitely is not the case now, and might not have been the case back then, but after purchasing an HP Chromebook recently and using it for over a month, I can honestly say that a Chromebook is a capable machine that can handle a variety of tasks.
In the past, I contemplated getting a laptop for productivity on the go when I was away from my desktop. I looked at the lower-end laptops that were around $400-$600 and was less than impressed by the reviews and specs. Most had aged hardware that would be obsolete by the time I opened it up, and many reviews made me question the quality of the machines so I put off the idea of getting a laptop for a while.
Now, about ten years in the future, I pulled the trigger on purchasing a Chromebook. I needed something that was in the $400-$600 range, and after doing a bit of research, a Windows machine was off the table. A decent machine capable of running Windows 10 would’ve set me back at least $700-800, and I wasn’t about to extend my budget just to get a Windows compatible machine. Before I made the purchase, I stepped back for a moment and asked myself “What do I need this machine for?” I needed something that I could use to surf the web, check email, watch videos, listen to music, use office apps, edit HTML/CSS/JS, and maybe a few other things here and there. Thankfully, after digging a bit, I found that a Chromebook could do all these things. Email, audio/video, and web surfing just needed a browser and Google Docs is a capable office suite with everything I’d need. All I needed after checking those boxes was an IDE to edit code in. Well, problem solved, because the Linux-based Chromebook can run Linux apps (in beta) or you can even install a desktop environment such as LXDE or Xfce. The Chromebook was it. I made the purchase and waited a whole month for my Chromebook to arrive. It was totally worth the wait.
I set it up, put it in developer mode and installed the Xfce desktop. It was pretty painless to install, but one downside is the ugly screen that appears whenever you restart (this happens when the Chromebook is in Developer Mode). Not a huge deal, but whenever I end up restarting and seeing that screen, I need to remind myself to hit Ctrl+D so I don’t end up hitting the Spacebar and lose everything. Having the ability to switch desktops using a keyboard shortcut was amazing. Most apps ran well on the Xfce desktop, but a couple were kind of glitchy, notably VS Code and Chromium. All of the other apps I tried worked as expected. Geany is my standard IDE when working on Debian-based distros like Raspbian and Ubuntu, so I installed that as well as Sublime and both worked great. I also installed GIMP for editing images and that worked fine as well. The Chromebook was more than enough to suit my needs.
The HP Chromebook 15 I decided on was the basic model without the touchscreen. After reading many articles before my purchase, I wondered if I would regret not getting the touchscreen. Thankfully, I didn’t regret my decision as the touchpad works just as well for me. The touchpad seemed a little touchy at first, but I got used to it pretty quickly. The keyboard is nice, full sized, and backlit. There’s even a number pad. The 15.6 inch screen is very nice, maybe a little dim at times, but still good quality for the price. As for the specs, the model I bought came with a dual-core Pentium Gold running at 2.3 GHz, 4 GB RAM, and 32 GB of storage space that can be expanded with a microSD card. It comes with the standard ports, the aforementioned microSD slot, a USB port, a 3.5mm audio port, and two USB type C ports are available. The webcam worked fine for video conferencing (I tested it out with Google Meet) but it isn’t the best camera for pictures at around 1 MP. The hardware specs don’t seem like much, but I haven’t experienced any lag or slowdown while using it, so far it has been adequate for what I use it for.
Overall, for around $400 the HP Chromebook 15 can’t be beat. It does everything I need without breaking the bank. If you’re on the fence about buying a laptop, or just need a new computer, go for a Chromebook. They’re capable machines that can do quite a bit and the value is second to none.
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