[Sarah]

I have an Acer netbook already. Is there a difference besides the operating system, does anybody know? Is there something different in the hardware?

 

[russcasey]

Depends on your model, but chromebooks tend to have small SSD disks, high res displays, big battery life, and dual core CPUs. When I checked a windows netbook with the same features was much more expensive - £500 vs £350. Although it did have a larger disk, this is essential with Windows and pointless with chromeos.
Any netbook that costs around the same price as a chromebook WILL have about half the battery life and a crappier screen. It will also need regular software updates, won't boot as fast, etc.

 

[kngeiywo]

I am not certain but my guess is that the Chromebooks, unlike the netbooks strictly run on the Chrome OS. However, I am just wondering if the price of the former would shoot with time?

 

[aaazealot]

I assume that using Chrome OS means there won't be any driver issues. Does this mean using external mouse or other USB devices (i.e. keyboards, etc.) will be automatically recognized? Or not?

 

[Hanna]

Any netbook that costs around the same price as a chromebook WILL have about half the battery life and a crappier screen. It will also need regular software updates, won't boot as fast, etc.

The battery thing isn't necessarily true; I have an Asus netbook with a battery life of around 6 hours (with the wifi on) that I got for about $340. I think that's comparable to the Chromebook's battery life, right?

 

[russcasey]

The battery thing isn't necessarily true; I have an Asus netbook with a battery life of around 6 hours (with the wifi on) that I got for about $340. I think that's comparable to the Chromebook's battery life, right?

Yeah, its comparable (Samsung CB battery is 8 hours, Acer 6) but what about the screen resolution and processor? The cheap netbooks I've used have all had really poor screen resolutions, and the cheaper atom chips can struggle to do simple things like display jpgs on a web page. You might find a netbook that can compete on 2 of the 4 key measurements (in this case battery and price but not screen or CPU), but I haven't seen anything that is genuinely comparable at the same price. I'm happy to be proven wrong, of course

To answer aaazealot, mice and keyboards work immediately - I tested this with a logitech trackball and an MS natural keyboard. I've not tested any USB storage devices but I understand they work just as easily. After that you're stuck - my USB speakers didn't work and I think the same will be true of anything else that has an oblong plug and isn't already mentioned.

 

[Relic]

Until Google fixes the speed of their only program running on their OS. I would opt for the Netbook. Actually I would go for the Asus Transformer. It has wonderful battery life at around 15 hours when connected to it's keyboard base and the Android OS runs circles around ChromeOS. Plus Chrome will be released for Android Ice Cream in the coming weeks. Don't get me wrong I really like my Chromebook but as a developer. A Normal user will end up throwing the thing out the window because of the lag is so bad. I installed Ubuntu on my Samsung just to see how it performed and would you know it's pretty quick, like 10 time faster quick. How Google managed to make their browser slower on their own OS compared to another OS running on the same machine and same browser is beyond me.

Sorry for being this way today but I'm tired of my Chromebook crashing half of my sites at any given time. Is it the new update?

 

[Administrator]

Acer Chromebook: AC700-1099 | Product Model
Acer Netbook: AO722-0022 | Product Model

Comparing the specs, the Netbook is better than the Chromebook for only $30 more.
Better graphics chip. Loads more storage. Twice the memory.

 

[MAP2010]

Seems The C7 at only $199.00 and 320 GB storage is a Great Deal and Very Fast.