I bought a "all aluminum(sic) construction" ASUS laptop - the bottom panel was plastic.

Still plenty around stores in London over here, it is the exact model as the £250 one also on sale on Argos.

Just tried to buy, looks like they are all gone. Won't place in my basket, or buy now. Damn!

Gaargh, just got this and sat down to play with it and the volume turns down automatically. Think it's got a faulty volume rocker so I'm going to have to return it.

Thanks for the replies, very helpful :smiley:

BTW the C720 was my other 90% along with Toshiba Chromebook 2. I just missed out on a Pixel for £365 (although battery not great on first gen) Also just found the app alled Keep Awake (this has 3 modes, one keeps screen and chromebook on 24/7 and one dims screen but keeps chromebook on) Perfect for torrents or other apps that need a constant connection.

It is paid for but I've had no issues with JSTorrent. Takes a bit of time to get started but then pretty good (think only limiting factor has been my older chromebook) I have tried a few free ones like Bitford but all were rubbish.

Is it worth it for 140 still have 20% offer eBay???? I already ordered Toshiba 2

Another very happy C720 owner, here. It's been my sole machine on an extended overseas stay doing the digital nomad thing. With Crouton I can run the specialist software I sometimes need, but Chrome OS is often sufficient.

But I'd love to know which torrent client you mean - the two I tried on Chrome OS were hopeless.

16GB HDD, I didn't know they still made hard drives that are that small.

It will probably make more sense to use EMMC or UFS or SSD or SD at this price and form factor.

Nice find OP...was looking for a replacement for my Samsung Series 3 Chromebook and found the Asus in stock at 2 local(ish) Argos - Wigan and Leigh.

Picked one up from Leigh this afternoon and it is a really nice machine (typing this on it now). Noticeably faster than the Samsung and a better display (albeit a little smaller). Keyboard is good too.

Add in the all metal build and very compact size and it is great buy for £175. Brand new in sealed box too.

​yeah that's the one but they don't ship to the UK and that is the only place on the net at the moment that has preorder at the moment!

This is a good deal. However the new Acer 14 announced this week that is basically a macbook air clone but with 1080p IPS display and 4GB of ram looks like the real deal.

The rockchip processor is a little on the slow side, though it's comparible with the Tegra K1 and Intel N2830 processors that the majority of lower end chromebooks have. The 4GB memory will help though.

does it matter that it's a rockchip and not Intel? I had a c720 (died) and when looking into Linux it said that non Intel cpus werenot so great with Linux.

Worth every penny. I paid £250 and would pay it again. Easy to run android apps and a good few Linux distros.

[I've impulse ordered one, I'm assuming it won't be too much hassle to cancel if I don't want to keep it]

I've got a samsung series 3 chromebook. Would this be much of an upgrade?

The screen on my chromebook freezes a lot unless it's in the right position, I have to warp/squeeze/whack it sometimes to make it usable. I love the machine itself but I'm not sure how much longer it will last so I'm tempted to upgrade.

You using Intel or arm Chromebook? As mine is on older it's arm like many android machines so that might be why VLC fine for me? Of course if you have an Intel based Chromebook I'd just get Linux dual boot or crouton on it

Only way I've seen is via Linux but wasn't hardware optimised for arm. Pray tell if there is now a new way?

That was very close to me buying it and I owned a Toshiba Chromebook before my Google designed one. Guess it's just not quite premier designed enough for me at the original price they were asking. I think that a Chromebook has to offer more hardware wise at anything over £250 to justify the purchase over a windows laptop. Having got your one for £180 I think that was a great buy.

i got the 2013 pixel for £380 , second hand of course. an outstanding machine, everyone should have a chromebook. i use mine for betfair. Quickest laptop ever.

Kodi can work on ChromeOS, do some googling.

VLC for ChromeOS is a complete mess IMO as it's a pure Android port. Not sure how you're not having problems with it. Mine crashes all the time, has problems reading different video files, laggy as anything and a real resource hog. Horrible Android based UI as well - I mean, how do you even get rid of that top white border bar when the screen is maximized? On the whole, VLC is bad enough for me not to want to use it which is a shame because it's great on the PC. H.265 Player works better than VLC on ChromeOS IMO, but then you have the subtitles option. Use Subtitle Player and you can't play half the video files that H.265 Player can....

The problem with ChromeOS is actually Google. They could easily develop a good video / music player for ChromeOS but they just won't do it. Instead, they want to push Android onto all devices but its such a huge mistake as Android simply isn't a desktop OS. The limited ported apps that I've seen have been awful.

I had a play with this model while away with friends the othet week.

Very impressed, if the 20% deal was still on id be tempted.

​oh yeah, always where I went wrong at school!

I still rate the C720 above the rest. It is even better with Win 10. ChromeOS is good, but I really couldn't cope with the lack of a proper email client.

What turned you off the Toshiba Chromebook 2 with full HD IPS screen? They're starting to turn up used on eBay now at decent prices. Picked mine up (ex demo) at the start of the year for £180 - love it!

This couldn't have been on yesterday could it *cries*

the misses reckons 10 inches aint enough, i'll show her ....lol

My daughter has a Toshiba Chromebook with a 1080p screen for homework. It really helps to be able to have windows side by side, so you can write stuff whilst referring to other documents, or Facebook. Printing from Chromebooks needs a bit of planning, as not all printers will work easily. There are work arounds, but they can be a bit fiddly. It has really nice to have had no worries about backups, malware and virus scanning.

TBF it is the first Chromebook I've seen that (for me) ticks all the boxes since I bought the original HP Chromebook 11 designed by Google (other then the Pixel) with IPS display and speakers through keyboard. I have liked 90% of many of them but not enough to trade up! I already own the Pixel C tablet and keyboard and a Macbook Air 11 so I have the 11 inch market well covered! The Acer has everything I want apart from maybe a better processor in it (not a major factor in a Chromebook) Also regarding media I feel that used to be the case. However with VLC now on Chromebook I have found it great now. There is even a very good torrent client too. I have also ran BT Sport and Showbox via ARC fine....just wish KODI would work and then I could use my Chromebook for nearly anything media wise!

The Acer 14 is nice but I'm not convinced by the increase in size/weight. Sure, 1080p is nice but given the limited video codec support in ChromeOS, it's not really a media machine (other than YouTube, iPlayer etc). 11.6" is my preferred size for Chromebooks. Love the Acer 720. Fast snappy, light and great battery life.

Looks good. Is it 1080?

love chromebooks ... sorely tempted by this... really dont need it though

I've got one of these coming from a private eBay sale. The screen may only be 1200 x 800, but it's a touch IPS panel and meant to be a nice bright one at that. Really looking forward to getting it as I'm already sold on Chromebooks.

"the 18 inch size" - is that the overall diagonal dimension?

is ginna be cold from me , there was couple deals in same price with hd screen this one has poor screen 1200x800 , screen is quiet important when y choosing laptop or other device from one simple reason you are looking on it