Perfectly suited to ChromeOS, very pleasant to use
The point of this laptop is to browse, check out linux on Chrome and see how far 4GB can stretch (not very far!)
The best part of the hardware is the battery - it really gives 8-10 hours use in browsing, watching videos or office type work. The USB-C ports are on either side and you can choose either to charge the laptop. I charge my phone from these ports as they are fast and I dont worry about the laptop dying unexpectedly. At 60% battery I have 5.12 hrs left, and this is a reliable estimate. These ports can also output Displayport to a monitor, though I havent tested this.
It is instant to turn on from sleep on opening the lid, and the browsing and writing experience is snappy.
The screen is great for the price, indeed far better than more expensive laptops. Its FHD and IPS so the screen is good for sharing with a few others, you dont have only one good aspect as with TN screens. The keyboard is clicky and comfortable to type on. Once you get used to the CB layout, or remap a few keys, its very good indeed. I dont like the trackpad, it has good glide action, but clicking on it is hard work, and sometimes there are messed up actions, especially drag to highlight.
64GB has proved plenty so far as it defaults to save in GDrive. I have inserted an SD card which is recognised as external storage.
RAM is a problem. I chose to use linux rather than Android, and have uninstalled the Play Store. Linux and Brave browser take up only 10GB in a "container" or Virtual Machine; dont worry its easy to set up with a few changes to the settings menu. Apps dont save to external storage but ChromeOS itself takes 18GB set up and running.
After an hours use of Brave and 11 tabs open, I have only 0.1 GB remaining, yet all is still quick no lagging. I log out and reopen again and 2.83GB are available.
Chrome opens instantly, Brave browser on linux container takes a few more seconds as it loads and uses 300MB to reopen 11 tabs.
I can see why the 8GB RAM models command twice the price, that is the sweet spot. I wouldn't bother with more than 64GB storage as the SD card and USB-A give plenty of easy and cheap external storage.
If this came in the same package with Windows which would I choose? That's hard as I am getting used to ChromeOS, which is well suited to this hardware. 4GB on windows would be painful. The BIOS would not allow any other OS so bare metal Linux isnt an option.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned