https://bensbargains.com/bargain/samsung-12-1-n570-dual-core-ssd-chromebook-refurb-574286/
Shell Shocker! Today only. Newegg has the refurbished Samsung Chromebook XE500C21-AZ2US-C 12.1" N570 Dual-Core SSD Chromebook (Titan Silver) for $70 - $10 off with code 123ANSA90 [Exp 1/28] - $10 rebate [Exp 6/30] = $50 with free shipping..
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Can you get the play store on this one?
Doubt it.
Also, could not find any reference to it on search, so pretty sure it cannot.
Here's the list of Chromebooks that either have or will get Google Play Store:
https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chrome-os-systems-supporting-android-apps
I have two Chromebooks and they're my daily drivers.
I'm mostly concerned about the C Grade designation. They could, conceivably, be in pretty rough shape.
I've been wanting to try out a chromebook to see if they will do. But don't want to spend much on one. I'd want it to have the play store. Any suggestions? Or is it a case of you get what you pay for... Thanks
Swappa has a lot of listing, but nothing at $50.
https://swappa.com/laptops/chromebooks/search?sort=price_min
I bought one Chromebook on Swappa for $65 in excellent condition. (HP 14")
My other Chromebook came from Groupon for $99. (Acer 15.6")
I would watch those two places for a deal.
FWIW, I think the Acer is MUCH better, but the HP is a better size for traveling.
If you have an old unused laptop you can turn it into a Chromebook for free by downloading Chromium from Neverware.
The only thing you'll lose out on is the 5 second boot times because you won't have a solid state drive. Everything else should be about the same.
You can even set up dual boot if you want to keep your current operating system.
Or tri-boot if you install Linux as your second before installing Chromium as your third.
Chelle, re-purposing (or dual purposing) sounds cool to me, since I'm not sure that a Chromebook would work out for me-- it would be a good way for me to try it.
But...... I fear my version of 'old laptop' might vary significantly from yours. Do you have an idea of the minimum requirements necessary to run Chromium?
1GB of RAM is the practical minimum. 2GB is better.
I've actually found that Linux Mint runs better on 1GB and below laptops than Chromium does.
Neither needs much under the hood, though.
I use Chromebooks 90% of the time, my Linux Mint laptop 9.9% of the time, and Windows, almost never.
I might have a laptop with 1GB of RAM that I could give a try.
I mostly use desktops: laptops for work when on site somewhere, and my android tablet (with a keyboard) has replaced the laptop for casual personal use.
My 'newest' laptop is old enough to still have a serial port, since that's a requirement for work use for me. My oldest laptop-- well, it runs Win 95, since that suffices for programs that "require": Windows 3.1.
I got a Samsung chromebook cheap for black friday. Nice and responsive unlike my hp windows laptop.
That's what finally got me to switch to Chromebook. The idea of HP Stream was good until Windows updates filled the hard drive and made it unusable.
This is a bit off topic, but, in case some have not heard, there was a highly praised OS released by the Raspberry Pi devs a little over a year ago that was specifically created for laptops and desktops, and it's designed to be downloaded to a usb stick where it runs with complete "persistence" like any Linux OS. It will boot and run on older pcs which was the intention, and I can say that it's very fast and costs $0. Pretty much like having a chromebook in that the Chromium browser comes installed.
Edit: One can run a Linux distro with persistence from a usb stick with many Linux OSs.
What hardware specs are you using this PIXEL on? I put Neverware's CloudReady ChromeOS on a Dell Inspirol E1505 (2 GB RAM, Centrino Duo processor, 320 MB HD, from 2006) & it's useable for Gmail & other light browsing. Flash dies most of the time, though.
I use it on both an older Gateway laptop that I beefed up to 6GB of RAM and an older Gateway desktop that I beefed up to 8GB of RAM. Yet if you browse through the comments on the link I attached, it requires at least 512MBPs of RAM, which is nothing, and many successful users of the Pixel OS have older machines that they were going to throw out. One main reason the devs created the OS was so that schools would not have to spend money on newer more powerful pcs, which their budgets don't often allow for. With your 2GB of Ram, this should suit you well. Also, to save you some reading, if you do install the OS, the default keyboard is British, where the @ key and the " key( the only difference that I saw) are reversed, which can easily be set to USA keyboard in raspberry configuration.
"You’ll find all the applications you’re used to, with the exception of Minecraft and Wolfram Mathematica (we don’t have a licence to put those on any machine that’s not a Raspberry Pi). Because we’re using the venerable i386 architecture variant it should run even on vintage machines like my ThinkPad X40, provided they have at least 512MB of RAM."