For a start, if you do not like chromebook, do not waste your time by browsing and commenting on this deal. This is not a debate abt how crap chromebooks are. I want one and think this is cracking deal. Still retailing at £300 at currys/ Amazon.
will be better if voucher code offer is honoured.
happy chroming
All comments (79)
akuakuu
5 Sep 17#1
Still waiting for a Chromebook with a i3 atleast around this price...... Celeron just doesn't cut it nowadays
jackvdbuk
5 Sep 17#2
this is the one i had, great bit of kit, should be getting the android store.. ."soon".
pep411 to jackvdbuk
5 Sep 17#4
You had....any reason you sold or changed for something else. I will admit..not sure of gold color. Well know when I pick up this evening
jackvdbuk to pep411
5 Sep 17#52
I bought this originally for travelling, but gone for another laptop in the end..
I'll start with the good points. Super fast, loads up in seconds. Battery lasts ages Chrome is smooth and 4gb memory really helps
Bad points I didn't like that vlc had issues with mkv and various formats buy that could just be me.
I got frustrated in the end with things like team viewer being on a Web browser
Missed things like smb shares working properly but again ymmv.
Quite impressed so I've reserved one to try. Doesn't seem to have the advertised SD slot but not a big deal. Good find OP thanks
pep411 to fairytooth
5 Sep 17#27
fairy for £10 voucher I think u need to pay online. Click and collect does not count.
Plz Ignore if u did not go through voucher code.co.uk
MarkShopper
5 Sep 17#12
How easy it is to install printers on a Chromebook? Looking at the drivers page for mine (support.brother.com/g/b…spx?c=eu_ot〈=en∏=hl2250dn_eu_as) Chrome OS is not listed. Android is there, not sure if that would work?
reddit
5 Sep 17#16
Would like to know what the eMMC speed is because more than anything else, this will determine just how well it will perform with real use and allow other specs to shine a little more.
Picard123 to reddit
5 Sep 17#17
Actually, I'd say it's the CPU that's the biggest determining factor. Complicated media heavy webpages with embedded video opened in multiple tabs can really bring a laptop to its knees with CPU maxing at 100%. And I've tested this loads in the real world over the last few years as I constantly switch between a Chromebook (fast and snappy browsing most of the time) and a Windows laptop (software library, grunt work etc)!
reddit to Picard123
5 Sep 17#18
Take practically any machine with a mechanical drive in it and replace it with an SSD and you always get a quantum leap in real performance for the average user.
Any limitations with CPU etc will never change when if you hit those limits but the overall experience of having faster storage means a lot.
Faster reading and writing makes the experience more satisfying and having used a number of devices with great overall specs but crappy, slow eMMC, it is noticeable when a vendor takes particular note of this.
In the same way that some devices may now come with primary eMMC storage but expansion through SSD or M.2. Once you change the primary source to a faster drive the difference in performance can be huge and more satisfactory overall.
Picard123 to reddit
5 Sep 17#19
This gets a bit complicated as you're talking about different tasks across different OSes including 'heavy duty' tasks which you typically wouldn't be doing on a Chromebook. Obviously with eMMC v HDD the former has a big advantage but if you're talking Chromebooks, I don't think I've seen one that has a HDD - they'll all have eMMC or in rare cases SSD.
The difference between eMMC 4.5 spec and say 5.0 isn't going to be the bottleneck on a Chromebook - it will be the CPU that will be the 1st bottleneck, followed by the 2nd bottleneck of 2GB ram (4GB is fine), though Chrome will try and unload Chrome tabs out of memory in the event of RAM shortage. Failing that, the browser page will crash. The eMMC speed doesn't typically become an issue.
reddit to Picard123
5 Sep 17#20
It's about the overall experience, which will always feel better with faster storage that doesn't appear to hamper what may otherwise be hardware that is better than previous experience may have given rise to believe.
So it will be interesting to see what eMMC this has and hope that it isn't something slow form the likes of Forsee.
Yes I can agree that it can be complicated when it comes to looking at every aspect of use from every application but having experienced so much night and day difference, based upon the difference solely from the storage adopted, it is my considered opinion that it is a major factor for general user experience.
Picard123 to reddit
5 Sep 17#21
CPU is still the key factor in the overall experience IMO.
My Celeron 2955U / eMMC Chromebook is fast and snappy for basic webpages - probably snappier than my i5/HDD for basic web pages (due to the amount of the bloat in Windows) but for several media heavy webpages opened simultaneously the situation is reversed as the 2995U cannot deal with the significantly higher and prolonged CPU load. The i5 still spikes to 100% but drops back down very quickly, whereas the 2995U shoots to 100% CPU and stays there until the pages are fully rendered. In the case in the case of 4 or 5 media heavy webpages with embedded videos, JS and 3rd party plugins, that can result in a complete machine freeze for over a minute!
Have a look at the CPU usage below on a N3450 which is slightly more powerful than the Celeron N3160 here. The first graphic is using Chrome and CTRL-left mouse click on several links on the main HUKD page to open 1 new page, then another new page, then 4 Chrome tabs simultaneously - look at the CPU utilisation spiking to 100%:
The graph below is doing the same thing on a very media heavy webpage with alot of embedded videos, sound, adverts, javascript, 3rd party plugins etc (the Liverpool Echo website).
Opening several media heavy webpages simultaneously seriously maxes out the CPU! The pages load fine but the pages feel sluggish when loading. By comparison, my:
- i5/8GB/960m/HDD laptop has no problem with the same task.
- my Celeron 2955U/2GB/eMMC Chromebook freezes up when I try and load 4 x media heavy Liverpool Echo pages simultaneously! (I have ensure that I only open 1 page, then close it after reading, before opening up another one of the same type).
Also shows how important 6GB RAM is over 4GB.
I'd say that Chromebook v Windows laptop performance can be summed up as follows:
- if all you do are mostly single tasks or light web browsing of low demand / average pages eg. most BBC website pages, a Chromebook is fast and snappy (for light web browsing I actually prefer my Chromebook over ANY of my Windows machines) - if you multitask or your demands are greater, it really pays to try and get an i3 or higher - if you do anything other than basic web browsing and emails, you should seriously consider paying more for a Windows machine due to the greater range of software and power available. In all cases, get a minimum of 4GB RAM and in Windows, a minimum of 6GB RAM.
I've been editing this post on 3 different laptops just for comparison. In terms of usability, speed, best experience, For this specific task, I'd rank as follows:
(1) Chromebook Celeron 2955U / 2GB RAM / eMMC (easy No.1 - its so fast/snappy with these sort of tasks) (2) Windows i5 / 8GB RAM / HDD (3) Windows N3450 / 6GB / eMMC (this feels noticeably more laggy).
If I were to start doing something more demanding, then (2) quickly becomes No.1 in terms of speed, usability and overall experience. (3) is the laggiest and least enjoyable to use in terms of speed but it also does many things that (1) cannot do.
EndemicAlarm to Picard123
6 Sep 17#58
Good write-up.
If you haven't heard of the Chrome plugin "The Great Suspender" you might find it useful, it hard-caches unused tabs to free up memory. It won't help with CPU performance or simultaneous use of course, but I currently have around two dozen open tabs on a 2Gb machine and it keeps on trucking.
Also, the uBlock Origin plugin to block advertisement and tracking can help, as a fair amount of content then doesn't load in the first place.
Oneday77
5 Sep 17#23
Cracking Acer Chromebook 14 Inch Celeron 4GB 32GB for a great price £219.99 @ Argos Does it come pre-dropped to get the cracked screen?
Hombased
5 Sep 17#24
Please don't shoot me - nothing against Chromebooks but I just had one of these delivered:
and it is a nice piece of kit, all aluminium body, N3450, 6GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, dual band WiFi, m.2 slot, unlocked BIOS and FHD. There was a code BOOKPRO that I used, not sure if still working.
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
![[Xbox One] Q. u. b. e: Director's Cut on Deals with Gold](/images/topics/208716_1.jpg)
Opening post
will be better if voucher code offer is honoured.
happy chroming
All comments (79)
I'll start with the good points.
Super fast, loads up in seconds.
Battery lasts ages
Chrome is smooth and 4gb memory really helps
Bad points
I didn't like that vlc had issues with mkv and various formats buy that could just be me.
I got frustrated in the end with things like team viewer being on a Web browser
Missed things like smb shares working properly but again ymmv.
Good find OP thanks
Plz Ignore if u did not go through voucher code.co.uk
Any limitations with CPU etc will never change when if you hit those limits but the overall experience of having faster storage means a lot.
Faster reading and writing makes the experience more satisfying and having used a number of devices with great overall specs but crappy, slow eMMC, it is noticeable when a vendor takes particular note of this.
In the same way that some devices may now come with primary eMMC storage but expansion through SSD or M.2. Once you change the primary source to a faster drive the difference in performance can be huge and more satisfactory overall.
The difference between eMMC 4.5 spec and say 5.0 isn't going to be the bottleneck on a Chromebook - it will be the CPU that will be the 1st bottleneck, followed by the 2nd bottleneck of 2GB ram (4GB is fine), though Chrome will try and unload Chrome tabs out of memory in the event of RAM shortage. Failing that, the browser page will crash. The eMMC speed doesn't typically become an issue.
So it will be interesting to see what eMMC this has and hope that it isn't something slow form the likes of Forsee.
Yes I can agree that it can be complicated when it comes to looking at every aspect of use from every application but having experienced so much night and day difference, based upon the difference solely from the storage adopted, it is my considered opinion that it is a major factor for general user experience.
My Celeron 2955U / eMMC Chromebook is fast and snappy for basic webpages - probably snappier than my i5/HDD for basic web pages (due to the amount of the bloat in Windows) but for several media heavy webpages opened simultaneously the situation is reversed as the 2995U cannot deal with the significantly higher and prolonged CPU load. The i5 still spikes to 100% but drops back down very quickly, whereas the 2995U shoots to 100% CPU and stays there until the pages are fully rendered. In the case in the case of 4 or 5 media heavy webpages with embedded videos, JS and 3rd party plugins, that can result in a complete machine freeze for over a minute!
I'd say that Chromebook v Windows laptop performance can be summed up as follows:
- if all you do are mostly single tasks or light web browsing of low demand / average pages eg. most BBC website pages, a Chromebook is fast and snappy (for light web browsing I actually prefer my Chromebook over ANY of my Windows machines)
- if you multitask or your demands are greater, it really pays to try and get an i3 or higher
- if you do anything other than basic web browsing and emails, you should seriously consider paying more for a Windows machine due to the greater range of software and power available.
In all cases, get a minimum of 4GB RAM and in Windows, a minimum of 6GB RAM.
I've been editing this post on 3 different laptops just for comparison. In terms of usability, speed, best experience, For this specific task, I'd rank as follows:
(1) Chromebook Celeron 2955U / 2GB RAM / eMMC (easy No.1 - its so fast/snappy with these sort of tasks)
(2) Windows i5 / 8GB RAM / HDD
(3) Windows N3450 / 6GB / eMMC (this feels noticeably more laggy).
If I were to start doing something more demanding, then (2) quickly becomes No.1 in terms of speed, usability and overall experience. (3) is the laggiest and least enjoyable to use in terms of speed but it also does many things that (1) cannot do.
If you haven't heard of the Chrome plugin "The Great Suspender" you might find it useful, it hard-caches unused tabs to free up memory. It won't help with CPU performance or simultaneous use of course, but I currently have around two dozen open tabs on a 2Gb machine and it keeps on trucking.
Also, the uBlock Origin plugin to block advertisement and tracking can help, as a fair amount of content then doesn't load in the first place.
Does it come pre-dropped to get the cracked screen?
hotukdeals.com/dea…489
and it is a nice piece of kit, all aluminium body, N3450, 6GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, dual band WiFi, m.2 slot, unlocked BIOS and FHD. There was a code BOOKPRO that I used, not sure if still working.