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But Chromebooks are not standing still, they are “countering” that at the eBay deals, with Acer’s Outlet Store on eBay offering the manufacturer refurbished 11.6″ Chromebook CB3-111-C8UB for $150 with free shipping, with a limit of five per buyer, and a 90 day warranty from Acer.
It has 2GB RAM, 16GB on-board, and it is powered by a dual-core Celeron processor, with the usual 1366 x 768 resolution, and 2.7 lbs weight.
On the budget laptops front, among the anti-Chromebook SSD-Windows 8.1 options, eBay seller “voodublu” (99.4%) is offering the manufacturer refurbished 11.6″ ASUS X205TA for $160 with free shipping, with 90 day warranty from ASUS. There are over 700 units available as of the time of writing.
It has 2GB RAM, 32GB on-board storage, microSD storage (up to 64GB), quad-core Atom processor, battery life estimate of up to 12 hours, 2.2 lbs, etc.
Choices aplenty today if you are interested in an 11-inch Chromebook. Among them, the 11.6″ Acer Chromebook 11, model CB3-111-C670, with 2GB RAM and 16GB on-board storage is on sale for $174 with free shipping at Amazon by Amazon actual with a limit of three per customer. This has a non-touchscreen 1366×768 display with the Celeron N2830 processor, and two USB ports (one of each).
It averages 4.4 out of 5 based on 347 customer reviews and has over 220 questions answered.
The 13.3″ HP Stream 13 Windows 8.1 laptop with T-Mobile 4G cellular is currently on sale for $229 with free shipping, with a limit of three per customer, at Amazon.com by Amazon actual. It may look Chromebook-ish but it’s really a Windows 8.1 laptop with 32GB on-board solid state storage, not a spinning hard disk. Other specs include 2GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics, the obligatory Windows laptop 1366 x 768 screen resolution, and such.
It comes with a variety of freebies as well. For the life of the device, T-Mobile gives you 200MB of data per month. Not a lot of data but free is free. You can optionally sign up for a T-Mo data plan, but you don’t have to. This is not a contract laptop.
The other freebies include a $25 Microsoft Store app credit (a smart idea to get people buying Metro apps), and for one year you get 1TB of OneDrive and Office 365. After the one year, the OneDrive goes back to the default free service levels, and you no longer have access to Office 365.
If you like SSD-only laptops, and the $600 price range, the 13.3-inch ASUS Zenbook UX305FA-ASM1 is currently on sale for $700 with free shipping, with a limit of three per customer at Amazon.com by Amazon.
This has a 1920×1080 resolution with a 170-degree viewing angle, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD storage (no spinning hard disk), Intel HD Graphics 5300, eight hour battery life estimate, three USB 3.0 ports, 2.6 lbs weight, and such. To achieve lightness and slimless, it uses the fanless Intel Core M 5Y10 processor. It averages 4.2 out of 5 based on 57 customer reviews and if you are curious abut it, it has over 100 questions answered by your internet peers.
The Best Buy has a two-day sale ending Saturday night (April 5) that includes the 11.6″ Acer Chromebook for $130 with free shipping. This is available in the Moonstone white color scheme. Its official name is CB3-111-C8UB.
It has the basic budget specs of Chromies, 1366 x 768 resolution, no touchscreen, 2GB RAM, 16GB on-board storage, 2.4 lbs, one USB 3.0 port and one 2.0, HDMI output, card reader, and such.
Chromebooks are striking back in the laptop price wars! Available right now for pre-order at Amazon.com for $150 is a new 11.6-inch Chromebook from Haier, model HR-116R.
The specs are familiar, 2GB RAM, 16GB on-board, microSD slot, two USB ports, HDMI, headphone jack, 2.4 lbs weight, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 2×2 (MIMO) a/b/g/n/ac, etc. The battery life estimate is up to ten hours. The processor is the Rockchip RK3288 1.8 GHz (Cortex A17).
It looks like this does not have a touch-screen, which is not a surprise considering the price. I could not find the actual screen resolution other than “HD” mentioned in the description. As usual, it comes with two years of 100GB Google Drive cloud storage.
These sold out very fast, 1000 of them in just a matter of a couple of hours…
A lot of the laptops featured on sale typically have non-Core processors, or if they have one of the Core processors, they are typically i3 or i5. But if you are fond of the i7s, the current spotlight deal at the eBay Deals is the new condition 15.6-inch Lenovo G50 (model 59421808) for $540 with free shipping. This is sold by NewEgg’s eBay store, so it’s a trustworthy seller. Over 1950 laptops got sold from this eBay listing so far. The limit is five per customer and NewEgg is strict about the limit.
So what does $550 get you? The Intel Core i7-4510U 2.0GHz processor which currently ranks #431 at cpubenchmark.net. You get 8GB of RAM (which is the maximum supported) and 1TB of hard disk, and DVD burner, and Intel HD Graphics 4400, 4-cell battery and 4.63 lbs weight. You can’t expect miracles at this price, the resolution is 1366 x 768, and not a touchscreen. On the connection front, there’s Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, VGA, one USB 3.0 and two USB 2s, card reader, 10/100 Ethernet, and things like that. This is a Windows 8.1 laptop.
As of a 12/28/14 recheck, this sale ended…
If you are a fan of Chromebooks with 13-inch displays and you don’t need a touchscreen, the 4GB RAM and 32GB on-board storage version of the 13.3″ ASUS Chromebook is currently on sale for $230 with free shipping at Amazon.com with a limit of three per customer during this promotional period. This version is only available in black.
Samsung had the first blockbuster Chromebook with the late 2012 11.6-inch Chromebook. Since then, the market has gone a lot more competitive, and Samsung replaced the original model with a 11.6″ and a 13.3″. Now, market pressure and time, have discounted the second generation 11.6″ model, the XE500C12-K01US, you can get it for $230 with free shipping at Amazon.com and other places.
Strategically though, with more touchscreen Chromebooks coming out, one has to trade-off the convenience of a touchscreen vs the lower price of a non-TS model. Especially now that the affordable Windows 2-in-1s are directly competing on price with the Chromies.
As of a 3/11/14 recheck, this sale is back on!
Windows goes on the attack once again, bringing fire and blood to the Chromebooks which perhaps rested a bit on their laurels.Right now, for just $200, you can get the 10.1-inch 32GB HP Pavilion X2 Detachable hybrid from Amazon.com. Or you can get the 64GB version for about $25 more. Limit three per customer.
It’s a tablet, it’s a laptop, and it is SSD powered, so no painful hard disk spinning. And it has a touchscreen. It is powered by the recent Intel Atom Z3736F Processor, with 2GB RAM, Intel HD graphics, 1280×800 resolution, and a battery life estimate of over 11.5 hours. You also get a one year subscription to Office 365.
For general purpose lightweight computer use, I am now starting to tilt towards Windows 8 2-in-1s over Chromebooks. Thanks to the Desktop persona, you can install most of your favorite Windows apps, and you can install as many browsers as you want. And that’s before you take it to the next level with Firefox Profiles.
Obviously, don’t expect these to run Photoshop or AutoCAD or heavy duty productivity software. But for email, browsers, social media, music, videos, they can be pretty, pretty, pretty good as Larry David likes to say. You still have the various frustrations of Windows, it still takes a million pointless clicks just to install a new version of an existing app, you still have to reboot every time Windows Update sneezes, and such.
If you are not sold on the second generation Samsung Chromebooks 2, and you are not tempted by the various other Chromebooks by other manufacturers, the first blockbuster Chromebook, the Samsung Chromebook XE303C12-A01US has now flattened/settled in price to $200 at various online retailers, including NewEgg and Best Buy and Office Depot/Max and GameStop among others.
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