Which chromebook to get?

[rogue.hackz]

Hi guys, with in a few weeks I'm planning to get a new Chromebook. Currently I have an okay-ish laptop that does everything fine only problem is the heat and short battery life, one of the reason why it is not that portable. It works perfectly fine as a desktop replacement though.

My ultimate goal for getting a Chromebook is to install Linux and use it for regular browsing, coding using vim, reading E-books, etc. thus I don't need that much of additional storage. Since I also use minimal environments like i3 Window Manager, I don't have much  requirements in terms of hardware.

My budget is somewhere between 200-350$ and so far these are the ones that caught my attention:

1) Toshiba Chromebook 2 http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-CB35-B3340-Chromebook-Celeron-HD-Screen/dp/B00N99FXIS

2) Acer C720 http://www.amazon.com/Acer-C720-Chromebook-11-6-Inch-2GB/dp/B00FNPD1VW

3) Acer Chromebook 11 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MMLV7VQ/ref=psdc_565108_t1_B00FNPD1VW


I kind of liked the Toshiba one cos of the screen quality and good keyboard, but since I don't have that much high requirement I'm sort of okay with Acer as well.

I've never owned a Chromebook and I don't have much idea about how well Linux runs on these machines or if they're powerful enough to use as an every day Linux box. Please suggest which one to go for or if you have some other suggestions I'm all open ears to what you have to say.

Thanks.

[TheWormKill]

Considering running Linux, you should be perfectly fine with the hardware, especially if you omit a DE and other heavy components. However, I'd do some research on how well your favourite flavour of Linux plays with the machine you are about to get, there were a few issues in the past iirc, although it should be possible in general.

When it comes to hardware choice, I guess I'd go with the Toshiba, but that's personal preference only.

[proxx]

Acer doesnt have such a good name in the industry.
Overall quality is just not that great.

As already pointed out , be really careful about chipsets and driver support.
What are you planning to run on it ?

[rogue.hackz]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I run Arch Linux on my main box and generally that's my preferred distro, but from Arch wiki I've read that actually if the Chromebook doesn't ship with SeaBios you would have to manually install that which can be kind of tricky and has the possibility of bricking your Chromebook if you're not careful. I haven't done enough research on that topic and also I've seen that for the most part people prefer to run Linux side by side ChromeOS using Crouton.

I don't have much idea about Crouton or how practical that model of running Linux  on top of ChromeOS is or if there are other side effects to that. But Crouton seems to be the easiest method so far and as of now supports Ubuntu, Debian and Kali. Initially I'll stick with Debian to get things going until I do more research and find a way to install Arch.

If you guys have more knowledge in this domain feel free to enlighten me, I appreciate your feedback.

Thanks.

[luerfb0x1]

Honestly, any of the ones you listed above will serve your purpose. I actually have a acer c720 and an asus chromebox. The acer I just run Debian via crouton and it actually works really well, even with the 2gb of ram, although I have the 32gb storage version. The chromebox I got close to 2 years ago, when they first came out and I still use as a dedicated "Kodi" HTPC using Openelec via SeaBIOS. Getting SeaBIOS on the chromebox and using Openelec wasn't that difficult, but there was already instruction guides etc on the web, then again I honestly have no qualms with my Acer using crouton. In the end since your going the laptop route, I will suggest that if you plan on using it a lot, go with a nicer screen, the Acer's screen is pretty bad, also try chromeos w/crouton before going the other route, you might just like it.

[rogue.hackz]

@luerfb0x1: Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll stick with crouton at the start and see how it goes. Also from what I've read the Linux distro that I install via Crouton method will share the same kernel ChromeOS runs on, so that is a plus point since the kernel for ChromeOS is optimized for the hardware in variety of ways compared to a traditional vanilla kernel. I'll definitely write a review on my experience and what I end up buying pretty soon.

[yimiol]

I run Ubuntu on my Chromebook using Crouton. I like it and haven't had performance issues or anything. I've been using it for almost a year, mostly for coding and coursework, but I also sometimes use it for more memory-intensive tasks such as data analysis and visualization using MATLAB and R.
I have this Samsung Chromebook: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Chromebook-Laptop-Celeron-Silver/dp/B00NJGRLUY/

As for the three that you listed, I would go for the Toshiba because it has a larger screen. And I personally just like Toshiba more than Acer.

[rogue.hackz]

Hey @yimiol thanks for the suggestion.

I've done some research related to the various processor performance of chromebooks and this is a good place to checkout their performance: http://zipso.net/chromebook-specs-comparison-table/

For the performance comparison a javascript based benchmarking tool called octane is used.

According to octane performance, the earlier generation of Toshiba chromebook 2 uses a tablet processor (n2840) and performance is around 8400.

Although I really like the screen, keyboard and build quality but I'm not really sure if it would be suitable for tasks that require a bit more processing power.

Surprisingly, the acer c720 comes with a faster processor (Intel Celeron 2955U) has octane performance of around 11,400 ~12k. Where as an i3 based processor being offered on c720 offers around 14k. There's not much difference between the two so I'm inclined more towards Celeron 2955U processor as it hits the price/performance sweet spot.

Getting c720 on amazon for ~$250 with Celeron 2995U would be an okay deal and to top it off I'm planning to get a 128GB SSD to replace the internal 16gb one  for ~$50 http://www.amazon.com/ZTC-128GB-Armor-Drive-ZTC-SM201-128G/dp/B00IZNYDBG making the purchase more practical.

What do you guys think? Is it a good investment for ~$300? I actually didn't like Toshibas offering that much, I agree they have good build quality and screen but now they're charging a premium price for it and I'm not sure if it's really worth it considering their new 2015 edition which costs > ~$500 with a processor that's a bit underpowered than the i3 http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Chromebook-CB35-C3300-Backlit-Keyboard/dp/B015806LMM/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&keywords=toshiba+chromebook+2+2015.

[yimiol]

this is a good place to checkout their performance: http://zipso.net/chromebook-specs-comparison-table/

Nice. Thanks for sharing that.

If you plan to do a lot of tasks that require more processing power, then go for the better processor over the nicer screen.
 
Before buying on Amazon, you might want to check local stores. I wasn't even planning on buying mine, but I went in to Staples for some ink and walked out with a $99 Chromebook (it was on clearance and I talked them into selling me the floor model for an additional discount).
I purchased another over the summer for a family member at Best Buy for $159, it was an open box item. The guy who worked there said they have people return them all the time because they discover the "limited functionality".