Budget 21-30k Chromebook or laptop with chromeos flex/linux

farrukjavid

farrukjavid

Disciple
Iam looking to get a device for watching YouTube videos and browsing only. Should i get a Chromebook or a windows laptop and install linux/chromeosflex. Though Chromebook offer good battery life, they have poor displays and processors, less upgardability and repairability compared to laptops. Budget under 30k, Should i get a laptop and install chromeosflex in it to get more battery life? Or a Chromebook
 
farrukjavid said:
Iam looking to get a device for watching YouTube videos and browsing only. Should i get a Chromebook or a windows laptop and install linux/chromeosflex. Though Chromebook offer good battery life, they have poor displays and processors, less upgardability and repairability compared to laptops. Budget under 30k, Should i get a laptop and install chromeosflex in it to get more battery life? Or a Chromebook
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Just to let you know, Chrome OS flex is not exactly in the best useable scenario right now and has far too many bugs for unsupported systems from not starting at all to getting stuck on the boot screen (have tried it on a couple of old laptops). Unless you're keen on tinkering, you can always go for Linux as a lightweight operating system. Also if you just want something to browse on, why not just go for a regular iPad?
 
If it's specifically for browsing and videos, a tab might work well. But I understand why someone might not want a tab since browsing desktop websites can be painful on those. I don't know if an iPad provides better experience in that sense, I've never used one. On the flipside, tabs in this budget will have better screen than laptops. Most laptops in this range will come with 720p displays, but tabs will have Full HD displays. This make a lot of difference to the sharpness of text while browsing and reading, less so in video watching.

You might not find great laptops for 30k these days. Prices went up a lot during lockdowns and never came back down, as is usual. If you can stretch your budget by a bit, like 2-3k, you might be able to grab an i3 based laptop. You can then install a light-weight Linux distro on it. I would not recommend a chromebook as it will tie you down a lot. If you have different needs in future, you might want the flexibility of using Linux or Windows on it.
 
Sammoka said:
Just to let you know, Chrome OS flex is not exactly in the best useable scenario right now and has far too many bugs for unsupported systems from not starting at all to getting stuck on the boot screen (have tried it on a couple of old laptops). Unless you're keen on tinkering, you can always go for Linux as a lightweight operating system. Also if you just want something to browse on, why not just go for a regular iPad?
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i already have a ipad 6th gen, i use it for note taking while watching YouTube from a secondary device.
gourav said:
If it's specifically for browsing and videos, a tab might work well. But I understand why someone might not want a tab since browsing desktop websites can be painful on those. I don't know if an iPad provides better experience in that sense, I've never used one. On the flipside, tabs in this budget will have better screen than laptops. Most laptops in this range will come with 720p displays, but tabs will have Full HD displays. This make a lot of difference to the sharpness of text while browsing and reading, less so in video watching.

You might not find great laptops for 30k these days. Prices went up a lot during lockdowns and never came back down, as is usual. If you can stretch your budget by a bit, like 2-3k, you might be able to grab an i3 based laptop. You can then install a light-weight Linux distro on it. I would not recommend a chromebook as it will tie you down a lot. If you have different needs in future, you might want the flexibility of using Linux or Windows on it.
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ipad or tabs screen is too small and i already have a ipad 6th gen which i use to take notes watching YouTube in my Chromebook which has a TN panel which is frustrating to use.
 
If that's the issue, then you're not going to get IPS panel or full HD screen in a 30k laptop. You'll need to extend your budget to 40k or look for used products.
 
Sanav3 said:
Got this one for 19k, totally worth it. Full hd screen and decent speaker experience for online meets. Battery life is about 8 hours
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It's showing 26k now, but definitely sounds impressive. Hard to find full-hd screens below 40k these days.

BTW, maybe not as fast as chromebooks, but even Windows and Ubuntu boot pretty fast from an SSD. And I'm not even talking NVMe, my NUC has an M.2 SATA SSD and boots into Ubuntu in 10-12 seconds and windows in 15-18 seconds.
 
Sanav3 said:
Get a Chromebook. I recently gave up my windows 7 and windows 10 laptop to move completely to Chromebook.


Got this one for 19k, totally worth it. Full hd screen and decent speaker experience for online meets. Battery life is about 8 hours. Absolutely love the experience of system being avilable to start working within few seconds of booting up.
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Thats a great price, will check it out though im considering getting a used vivobook or ideapad slim 3 as they have more ram ,i3 8th gen and install some light linux distro
gourav said:
It's showing 26k now, but definitely sounds impressive. Hard to find full-hd screens below 40k these days.

BTW, maybe not as fast as chromebooks, but even Windows and Ubuntu boot pretty fast from an SSD. And I'm not even talking NVMe, my NUC has an M.2 SATA SSD and boots into Ubuntu in 10-12 seconds and windows in 15-18 seconds.
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Boot times are not that much of a concern for me , ill try to get a used vivobook or ideapad 3 first
 
Did you consider Lenovo chromebook duet? It has great display, good colors & gets bright up to 400nits. Even battery life is great with it if you can limit usage to just the browser. I think it will be a perfect device for you considering your limited usage of browsing and watching youtube videos
 
RedFict said:
Did you consider Lenovo chromebook duet? It has great display, good colors & gets bright up to 400nits. Even battery life is great with it if you can limit usage to just the browser. I think it will be a perfect device for you considering your limited usage of browsing and watching youtube videos
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The screen is too small, detachable keyboard isn't stable to use on lap and zero upgardability and repairability options, i feel tab s6 lite is a better option than that.
 
gourav said:
This is such a good point which people often miss. This style of stand and detachable keyboard are usable only on a desk. When at home, the amount of time I use my laptop at my desk is about 5% of my total usage time. Most of it is on the sofa and some on the bed.
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Yep, when i use my ipad and Chromebook at home, Chromebook is way satisfying with a keyboard
Guys, My keyboards Logitech k380 and k480 keep on sleeping after 30 seconds of inactivity on my Chromebook. Can you please help with a solution.
 
farrukjavid said:
Guys, My keyboards Logitech k380 and k480 keep on sleeping after 30 seconds of inactivity on my Chromebook. Can you please help with a solution.
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I think that's a battery saving feature built into the keyboard. Try installing logitech's application to see if there's a setting. I'm pretty sure the laptop itself cannot control that.
 
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