Is it worth buying a Chromebook?

AIf you’re a regular T3 reader, you’ll know all about the tightness of the purse strings at Guru Towers; investing in something for which GaGu already has three alternate functioning examples is strictly forbidden. But Guru has, somehow, successfully argued for a Chromebook to join the laptop ranks, possibly because semi-decent examples like the Acer Chromebook 14 are available for as little as £249 – there are options that are cheaper (don’t bother) and pricier (like the horrendously overpriced £999 Google Pixelbook – again, don’t bother).

Chromebooks are not, however much Google might like to sell them as much, proper laptops. They’re sit-on-your-bum and browse the internet machines, with heavy limitations on the number of tabs you can reasonably have grinding away thanks to the low-cost chipsets that power them. They’re working machines, with off- and on-line access to the functional if unspectacular Google Drive range of office software.

As of recently, they’re also pretty much phones: the majority of Chromebooks have access to the Google Play store, and can run Android apps, extending their functionality, at least as far as a computer without much of the requisite handset hardware that’s pretending to be a typical Android handset can be functional. Roll out your beard and stop washing for a while, and you might even be able to convince a Chromebook to run some form of nerd-OS Linux.

Okay, the key is that they’re cheap. There’s not much to shout about in terms of system specs and screens are usually a bit rubbish. But battery life is generally strong, since Chromebooks are inherently low-powered and low-drawing, so if you just want a machine for light work and light browsing, a Chromebook is a great light option.