Bought a 14 inch HP Chromebook with 4 Gigs of Ram & a 32 Gig Solid State Hard Drive about a week ago.
Have been fooling around with computers starting back in the early 1970s with the IBM 1005 card processor.
The Chromebook cold boot time is just under 7 seconds. Recovery from sleep is virtually instant. There are a few off-line apps but most require internet access. On the home network have a wireless Brother HL-3170CDW color laser printer. Works fine the Chromebook. Google lists several printers that work with Chrome O/S.
Had given thought of sticking Linux on it too but after using it am sticking with only the Chrome O/S as it meets most of my needs. With Linux installed you can toggle between operating systems.
You get 100 GB cloud storage + the 15 GB that you would normally have with Google Drive. Virtually everything is stored in the cloud and I have a couple of 64 GB SD cards that work just fine with it and also have a 1.5 TB USB 3 external hard live that I could use if needed.
Because of virtually everything is done in the cloud. Either a 16 or 32 gig hard drive should be plenty and if more storage locally is needed that is where the SD cards come in handy. I have mainly used them to have access to my Photos and Music. You could use a thumb drive too for local use or transfer stuff to the cloud, etc.
I find that the apps meet my needs for word processing, email, web browsing, some photo editing, etc.
There is options of using Microsoft Word on line and Google Docs. Both work well unless you are a very advanced user of Microsoft Word.
There is not an app for Skype yet but that is not a show stopper as I don't use Skype but rather use Google Hangouts.
For younger users there is a lot of educational material available.
For what it is am impressed and it meets many of my casual computing needs both at home and at the local coffee shop & it takes a lot to impress an old geezer over 70!
Have been fooling around with computers starting back in the early 1970s with the IBM 1005 card processor.
The Chromebook cold boot time is just under 7 seconds. Recovery from sleep is virtually instant. There are a few off-line apps but most require internet access. On the home network have a wireless Brother HL-3170CDW color laser printer. Works fine the Chromebook. Google lists several printers that work with Chrome O/S.
Had given thought of sticking Linux on it too but after using it am sticking with only the Chrome O/S as it meets most of my needs. With Linux installed you can toggle between operating systems.
You get 100 GB cloud storage + the 15 GB that you would normally have with Google Drive. Virtually everything is stored in the cloud and I have a couple of 64 GB SD cards that work just fine with it and also have a 1.5 TB USB 3 external hard live that I could use if needed.
Because of virtually everything is done in the cloud. Either a 16 or 32 gig hard drive should be plenty and if more storage locally is needed that is where the SD cards come in handy. I have mainly used them to have access to my Photos and Music. You could use a thumb drive too for local use or transfer stuff to the cloud, etc.
I find that the apps meet my needs for word processing, email, web browsing, some photo editing, etc.
There is options of using Microsoft Word on line and Google Docs. Both work well unless you are a very advanced user of Microsoft Word.
There is not an app for Skype yet but that is not a show stopper as I don't use Skype but rather use Google Hangouts.
For younger users there is a lot of educational material available.
For what it is am impressed and it meets many of my casual computing needs both at home and at the local coffee shop & it takes a lot to impress an old geezer over 70!
