Anyone wanting to purchase this only and also wanting to use O2 priority moments, just ask for a carrier bag. I just purchased this, the carrier bag was 8p and the £10 was discounted no problem. £140.07 so very pleased.

I've got a Toshiba Chromebook and its great. But you'd be advised to get one with 4gb ram. 2gb will struggle with multiple applications.

Toshiba should number their revisions better. Lots of versions now all with similar names. AFAIK, it goes

-Toshiba Chromebook

-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2014) - 2gb + non full-HD screen
-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2014) - 4gb + Full HD screen

-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2015) - Celeron processor + backlit keyboard (4gb, skullcandy speakers)
-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2015) - i3 processor + backlit keyboard (4gb, skullcandy speakers)

I still have the original one, which I find to be excellent.

Can also use O2 priority to knock off another £10,just need to find an item costing 1p to qualify though.

Is this a good Chromebook and what's the difference between this and laptop?

A bit more information for you on the differences: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/chromebooks-vs-windows

Does this have a cd drive ?

Hi jonicholls as is common with other Chromebooks, this does not have an optical drive.

Chromebooks are amazing pieces of kit!! if all you do is surf the net,back up photos,bank,emails etc etc Chromebooks are the fastest and easiest way to do so!! most people only require a chromebook but think they need a massive desktop!

I've got a Toshiba Chromebook and its great. But you'd be advised to get one with 4gb ram. 2gb will struggle with multiple applications.

Zoso touched on this above, I'm really keen on getting a chromecast for WordPress development, as it's primarily done online, would 2gb be sufficient for say, 3 chrome tabs and Google music and notepad++?

Resolution 1366 x 768

(benjamin)

The 4gb ram version looks worth the extra money. It has a full HD screen vs the 1366x768 on this one. It's the version most of the reviews are done with.

Just FYI. These are not the refreshed Toshiba chromebook 2's with Intel cpu and back-lit keyboard. A great price however and a hot deal, but I'm going to wait for the refreshed version. (Although rumour has it that the UK might not get it?) :disappointed:

Hope someone will be able to answer my question...about to buy one of these but just want to check....

I understand switching between accounts is very easy on chrome, but will the mrs and myself be able to access our own email, youtube, banking accounts etc. easily? What I mean is that will it save our individual website bookmarks, usernames, passwords etc for each individual user? My info/settings won't be accessible on her account and vice versa? Hope that makes sense!!

Toshbia? Is this a Toshiba knockoff? :man:

I bought the 4GB version with the full HD display a few months back and it's great. Currently that one costs £220 on John Lewis and I'd highly recommend buying it over the 2GB. Chromebooks are popular for all age groups from me (20) to people in their 60s.

Toshiba should number their revisions better. Lots of versions now all with similar names. AFAIK, it goes

-Toshiba Chromebook

-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2014) - 2gb + non full-HD screen
-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2014) - 4gb + Full HD screen

-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2015) - Celeron processor + backlit keyboard (4gb, skullcandy speakers)
-Toshiba Chromebook 2 (2015) - i3 processor + backlit keyboard (4gb, skullcandy speakers)

I still have the original one, which I find to be excellent.

Quite. It's unnecessarily confusing.

Hi thanks for the link and information. I'd noticed that whilst doing research on the chrome os. What I'd like to know is slightly different...I'll use an example.

At the moment, we've got 2 different users on our laptop, myself and the mrs. When I log in to my hotmail account via my web browser, my username and password are already stored/displayed and I just click on 'log in'. If I switch user on our laptop, my mrs's info. comes up before logging in to her hotmail account. The same can be said for online banking, amazon, youtube accounts etc.

What I'd like to know is would the same happen on the chromebook when we switch between chromebook users? thanks.

and sorry if it seems like a silly question, i think the same applies when switching accounts on a chromebook, just need reassurance i guess.

Can the O2 priority code be used online, or is it instore only ?

chromebook is still my choice at home. can't be arsed messing around waiting for Windows when I need to check emails, or browse.
It's the future

It's a fair price but Google apps are so buggy and I like watching films on iTunes so not for everyone

Chromebooks - No Skype, No iTunes. I get this all the time, people buy these and moan. Awesome machines for web browsing and not getting loads of malware though.

Heat from me. For a few Chrome tabs, using Google Docs (offline as well!) etc and watching Netflix, Chromecasting and so on this is great.

This Toshiba has excellent battery life, great build quality and is very light. The keyboard and trackpad are also superb, far better than any Windows laptops in this price range (or much more, to be honest).

The Full HD version has more RAM and a much better screen for £70 extra, but the improved screen comes at a cost - Chrome OS isn't well optimised for high DPI displays and you end up with tiny icons. It's not a deal breaker as the screen is far better (as good as any decent IPS panel and much better than the Macbook Air's TN panel) but bear the UI limitations in mind.

Also, for those of you who use Sky Go or NOW TV - you cannot use these on Chromebooks as Sky have disabled them in the Chrome browser (grrr).

You can have multiple users and only their browser settings, bookmarks, plugins, apps, shortcuts, passwords etc appear under that profile.

In short, yes, things are kept completely separate.

Not any more: https://web.skype.com/en/

These machines are surprisingly versatile. You can even run some Android apps (using Arc Welder in the Chrome Store) and dual-boot these with Linux...

My wife even uses the Remote Desktop app on her HP Chromebook to connect to her Windows desktop PC. She can then use Photoshop on the Chromebook screen. Works flawlessly.

OK for surfing the web - but a tablet is smaller, lighter , often cheaper and easier to use on the go.
Where these things really fall on their face though is the lack of on-board memory. Cloud services are useless if you are travelling and have a dodgy (or no) internet connection - you can't even watch a film on a wet evening in your room.
Give me a Windows laptop any day of the week. Even a modest one wil have plenty of room for music and movies and you can actually do stuff with them.

Tablets don't have built-in, full-size keyboards. Most also don't have trackpads. It's all about what you need to use it for.

Chromebooks have USB 3.0 ports and SD card slots - load one or two cards or thumb drives (or even a portable HDD) up with movies and/or music for your flight/hotel. The built-in player works offline and plays pretty much anything. You don't need masses of on-board memory as you aren't using a huge OS and bloated software.

Good luck finding a Windows laptop with 9-10 hours battery life that can "do stuff" beyond the abilities of this Chromebook for under £150. The best bet would be a tablet/keyboard combo like the Linx 1010B with a smaller screen and the same performance/storage restrictions you describe.

It's a shame you can only sideload apps otherwise would be better than a tablet.

Fantastic device.

Excellent devices, easy to use and fast. Does what most people need to do, but sadly most dont understand the concept.

The camera doesn't work with web skype, and people want the camera to work, and they also want iTunes. It essentially means they didn't research the product before buying. Chromebooks are good for web browsing, that's their forte.

Facebook Messenger works well with camera, which I now use instead of skype.
Never used itunes on a PC. Not sure why we would need to. The other half is into Apple and has the phone, the watch, ipad and ipad pro and says they do not need to be connected to a PC.

Anyone wanting to purchase this only and also wanting to use O2 priority moments, just ask for a carrier bag. I just purchased this, the carrier bag was 8p and the £10 was discounted no problem. £140.07 so very pleased.

Brought this. Didn't realise about carrier bag. Ended up buying another £10 item for the same of additional 1p spending too redeem o2 priority app.

You can use an external USB CD drive though.
(If you frequently need a drive, a laptop with one built in will be better, but for occasional use, it works, at least when the Chromebook has its mains adapter/charger plugged in. I had to use a little USB extension cord on mine, because it uses two ports, and the Chromebook I have has them on the two sides, not next to each other - I think this one is the same.)

Performance isn't particularly good, battery life is though.

As far as I know the Chrome OS does not support optical drives. At least not for playback of things like DVDs. I'm sure I recall asking a google rep in a shop about it. The OS does not have the driver software. I don't use chromebooks on a daily basis so someone else chime in and correct me if I'm mistaken.

Copy+Paste this from another post i made for someone else looking for basic computing. The link below might help you decide.

Was looking at a laptop for my dad. All he does it web browsing and emails.
After reading the comments on that deal, the previous 3 or 4 on here then an hour of youtube videos they look the best price for basic computing. Noted that Skype does not work on these with video and audio, only text unless you are willing to mess about getting it working.

Look at this video for the basics of a Chromebook and decide if its enough for your needs.Chromebook For Beginners

Note to OP.
Also available on Amazon for the same price. I'm going to go for John Lewis as they offer two year guarantee.
Amazon

Can you upgrade this with extra ram? I am wondering if I should get the HD version that also comes with an extra 2gb of ram and obviously the HD display for an extra £70?

I have had one a while and love it

I have had a number of chromebooks, and I recommend one with 4gb ram

Are these touchscreen, and should chromebooks ideally be touchscreen, or are they fine without?

I got this for my parents but I can't tell if it's the Chromebook 2 or the prev model, can anyone help me to tell the difference

Just in case it's important to anyone: I don't think you can download programmes from BBC iPlayer onto a chromebook. If I'm wrong I'd be happy to be corrected as it's the only thing holding me back from this deal.

LOL. Have you not heard of a 128gb flash drive? The nano sized USB 3.0 Sandisk Cruzer Fit is less than £25.

As for "dodgy or no internet" connections, if you can get a mobile phone signal, you can get an internet connection. I doubt that there are many people who live in areas where there aren't any mobile phone signals.

Not possible natively as downloads are only available by installing iPlayer Downloads, which is Windows/Mac only.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/install

It is possible to use a 3rd party workaround to download the video from iPlayer on a Windows machine, strip it of its DRM and convert it into a suitable format for a Chromebook but it's not worth the hassle IMO. One of the weakest aspects of ChromeOS is the sketchy codec support. Something like H265 Player from Chrome Store does help but it's a massive CPU resource hog. I love Chromebooks - I think they're great for day to day stuff - but if you do any sort of video encoding/decoding work, you're better off with a Windows machine.

Obviously, you can still watch videos direct through iPlayer on a Chromebook though.

One of the issues facing ChromeOS is Google's commercial attitude towards it. If Google put development resources into it, it could be a great OS but they're stopping it from greatness because they want to push Android everywhere. That's a big mistake IMO as Android simply isn't an OS for a desktop power user. Android on the Pixel C is pretty comical for instance.

No easy fixes for illuminating the keyboard? Don't like the clip on lights, not sure there are any other options if illumination isn't built in. Am not as young-eyed as I once was!

main use will be surfing the internet so I'm not that bothered.

Thanks.

Thanks for the answer, once again I'm impressed by the level of knowledge out there and the willingness of people to take the time to share it.

So I received my Chromebook today and initial impressions are very good. I got the 4gb ram version.

However, I've got a slight grumble with the touchpad. When I click by doing a gentle tap on the lower half of the touchpad, it feels a little loose. Difficult to describe really but someone's described it here on redddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/3vwb5z/does_the_trackpad_on_toshibas_chromebook_2_2015/?

Certainly doesn't impact on functionality. Was wondering if anyone else has this problem on their new Chromebook?

Thanks to those who answered to my last query.

Hi mwalke36

Assuming that you’re a U.K. based consumer, I’d advise you to contact your nearest branch of John Lewis and ask the shop floor of their computer department if they have both of these Toshiba Chromebook 2’s on display in-store. You could then view them side-by-side in order to make a valid assessment.

There are loads of great reviews on-line - try this one for instance:

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops/chromebooks/1402696/toshiba-chromebook-2-cb30-b-104-review

Regarding your 1st query:

“Can you upgrade this with extra RAM”?

Don’t take this as absolute gospel, but to the best of my knowledge I believe it’s not possible to add extra RAM to either the CB30-B-103 or CB30-B-104 Chromebook 2, so I’d tend to dispense with that particular notion if I were you.

When going on location or holiday, I tend to take quite a lot of photographs using my identical pair of DSLR camera bodies, each one attached to a different lens. Whilst I already own an excellent but fairly hefty 2014 Windows 8.1 Toshiba Satellite 17.3” laptop, the thought occurred to me that I might be able to preview the shots I take on a lighter tablet of some description, equipped with a full-size SD card slot and a decent HD screen.

The long and the short of the matter was that ridiculously I couldn’t find a single tablet equipped with a full-size SD slot (only MicroSD ones !), which is where Toshiba’s CB30-B-104 remarkable Chromebook 2 came to the rescue, as it has the SD slot I so desperately needed.

Also the invaluable 'instant-on' facility on this Chromebook means that there is absolutely no 'hanging around' for minutes on end (patiently twiddling one’s thumbs !) whilst waiting for a typical older Windows laptop to boot-up. Combine that with a lengthy 9 to 10 hour battery life and this laptop should last most of the day, depending upon what you might be doing on it !

It’s becoming increasingly rare nowadays to find something that greatly exceeds one’s expectations, but in my experience, Toshiba’s CB30-B-104 punches well above it's weight in so many ways that it’s difficult to actually know where to begin.

Depending upon what you wish to achieve with one of these machines, it is my considered opinion that the stingy 2GB’s of DDR3 RAM supplied with the CB30-B-103 is borderline sufficient for smoothly viewing Youtube clips or movies, although others may naturally disagree !

Re your 2nd query:

“I am wondering if I should get the HD version that also comes with an extra 2GB of RAM and obviously the HD display for an extra £70” ?

Well evidently the main visual interaction between any user and a computer is going to be it’s screen, the quality of which is paramount. Having seen the cheaper CB30-B-103 Chromebook 2, it’s 'sub-par' 1366 x 768p resolution and non CSV LED backlit display is plainly not up to scratch. Imagine for one moment being sat in front of a grainy washed out display all day long….is that something you’d really fancy ? Nope, I thought not !

In fact I can virtually guarantee that were you misguided enough to try saving a few quid by purchasing the cheaper CB30-B-103 version, you’d repeatedly kick yourself EVERY SINGLE TIME you opened up the laptop ! So my answer to your second question is unequivocally YES !......and trust me, you’ll have no regrets whatsoever !

At the end of the day, the trivial price differential between Toshiba’s CB30-B-103 Chromebook 2 and their CB30-B-104 Chromebook 2 literally pales into insignificance the very second you first clap your eyes on it’s gorgeous vivid pin-sharp 1920 x 1080p FHD IPS (In Plane Switching) display and for me it was love at first sight.

The additional 2GB of RAM (total 4GB) always wins out every time over the B-103 and means that you can keep as many ‘tabs’ open on the web as you like (within reason !). In a ‘no-holds-barred’ contest, the B-104 comprehensively trounces it’s lesser sibling by some considerable margin.

Incidentally, thus far I've not heard of a Toshiba Chromebook 2 with a backlit keyboard, but imho adding that feature would only make it even more desirable to potential purchasers…..maybe a new Chromebook 3 is hiding around the corner for 2016 ? You'll have to wait and see !

Would I buy the same computer again ? Definitely without a shadow of a doubt….what’s not to like…..simply go for it !

I'm sure there are quite a few people with poor or no mobile reception, even in cities. Also don't think this has any 3G/4G support, so mobile signal is not much use unless you buy a wifi hotspot or USB dongle (or if you phone can be used). However, as you say it's cheap and easy to add storage, so it's not really an issue.

I know this might sound daft but what can a chromebook be used for if there is no internet access ?

Sorry just read the post above !

would a chromebook be suitable for a child starting secondary school, thinking of school work, are the google docs,sheets and PowerPoint equivalent really on a par with microsoft versions and if uploading in Google docs to school can the document be saved as a word document and will it reliably keep its formatting?

Hi 1jim

You might find some answers to your question via the links below:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/review/chromebooks/toshiba-chromebook-2-review-3597903/

http://www.johnlewis.com/toshiba-cb30-b-104-chromebook-intel-celeron-4gb-ram-16gb-ssd-13-3-full-hd-silver/p1841467#tabinfo-ratings

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-CB30-B-104-13-Inch-Chromebook-Celeron/product-reviews/B00RK7LFEG

http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/132767-toshiba-chromebook-2-review-finally-a-chromebook-worth-buying

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops/chromebooks/1402696/toshiba-chromebook-2-cb30-b-104-review

http://www.alphr.com/toshiba/toshiba-chromebook-2

That lot should keep you pretty busy for quite some time.....happy reading !

regards

Richard

hot from me and john lewis for the 2 year guarantee:p

got mine today ordered yesterday from j lewis picked up from waitrose,only negative so far is for me is there is no delete button you have to use alt+backspace, probably get used to it:D

this deal gone?