SOFTWARE FOR CHROMEBOOKS

The key difference between Chromebooks and other laptops is the operating system. Rather than Windows or macOS, Chromebooks come with Google Chrome OS installed. This is rather like a mobile phone operating system and can only run apps from the Chrome Web Store or the Google Play Store.

That might sound restrictive, but there are thousands of apps to choose from and all the basics are covered. For text documents, spreadsheets and presentations you have Google Docs, Sheets and Slides; for quick photo editing you can use Adobe Photoshop Express; and for movies and TV you can choose from Google Play Movies, Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video.

If you need specialist software, however, then a Chromebook isn’t the laptop for you. For example, if you’re a photographer or designer who relies on the full version of Photoshop then you’ll need a MacBook or Windows laptop. Serious gamers will also need to stick with Windows – though there’s a great selection of fun games in the Google Chrome Store and Google Play Store for casual players.

You can use a Chromebook offline, but they work best when connected to the internet. Chrome OS will update silently in the background when you’re online, and your documents sync to your Google account so you can access them anywhere.