Best Chrome Book on the Market?

[jenking]

Hi All,

 

Im looking for the best chrome book for use with Primary Students. I'm getting mixed reports from suppliers.

 

I like the Look of the ASUS Chromebook C202SA 4GB Cel-N3060 - https://www.asus.com/uk/Laptops/ASUS-Chromebook-C202SA/ - They look really robust and child friendly.

 

I'm also hearing that the Dell Chromebook 11 (3180) 4GB Cel-N3060 are also good.

 

 

Has any one used both these devices, or can any one offer me advice on the Best Chrome Book any model?

 

I am thinking battery life and build quality are the two most important things?

 

Last question is a 16gb ssd enough or would anyone advise 32gb?

 

 

Thanks in advance

[irfdude]

I deployed 90 Acer CB3-111's and 20 HP 11 G4's at a primary school about 3 years ago now.

Reasons for choice was solely price. The white Acers were £25 cheaper per device then other "better"models. This worked out to over £2k which paid for 4 charging trolleys.

The Acers seem really cheap and plasticky, but this means it was really easy to change a screen. I even let the kids have a go (device was completely broken but they didn't know that) School Radio & Digital Leaders

In that time I only had 1 broken screen and 1 damaged charge cable (got squashed in the door) Keys are fairly hard to prise out which is handy so no lost keys yet. That's it! They were spread out from Y2 through to Y6 so yes were very robust.

Only downside as far as staff were concerned was the white shows up dirt. Easily sorted.

In that time I've never felt they needed a bigger hard drive. Only thing I would consider is to have as much RAM as they could afford. But if you are deploying a large number this could be the difference between 2 extra GB of RAM or 20 more devices.

 

I managed to get 3 different companies to send me sample devices (PITA to sort but well worth it). We had a whole term with around 20 devices of different models. In that time SLT were amazed they couldn't see any performance difference between £180 model and £500 models. So in the end it came down to price.

 

After 3 years I haven't noticed any deterioration with the batteries. But they were generally kept in a charge trolley which had a timer which only charged overnight. I've tested one and on a full charge with constant non stop use lasted 6 hours. This equates to about 4-5 days occasional classroom use before they needed charging which I think is amazing.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

That was only meant to be a quick reply but I kept thinking of things to write.

[6Foot2]

Link: Chromebook Chart - 2017 Chromebook Comparison

 

[wr1306]

We've tested the lenovo thinkpad 11E and deployed it to year 7 with little breakage, however this year we are also going with the asus c202sa due to cost rises on the lenovo's, staff have already had them for a while with no issues. My only solid advice is steer clear of toshiba and non-edu acer devices, they are built terribly.

[wr1306]

Also, 16GB SSD's are fine in my opinion as google cloud storage is unlimited for education use anyway, I wouldn't recommend allowing users to save to the 'downloads' folder on the SSD though, as this is essentially RAM and once the user is removed from the device (common prank kids play on each other) all the local data is removed so anything in the folder is lost forever and isn't backed up in any way. I believe in GAdmin there is a device or user setting for this.

[jenking]

Thank you this great, just what i was after.

[dhicks]

Im looking for the best chrome book for use with Primary Students.

 

At BETT this year I had a go with previews of a couple of the new models coming out at the end of the month: the Asus Chromebook Flip C213 and the HP Chromebook X360 11 G1 EE. Both are hybrid devices where the keyboard can fold all the way back to make the laptop into a tablet, and both also now have rear-facing cameras (like a tablet) and stylus support, and come with 32GB storage and 4GB of RAM. Bear in mind that any new Chromebook should, technically, be capable of running Android apps, so your storage might start to get used up by apps being installed - I'd have said 32GB was more of a minimum, I'd prefer 64GB, but that starts to get expensive.

 

I have rough pricing from a couple of suppliers of around £390 for the Asus and £430 for the HP - I haven't double-checked the specifications, so there might be a performance difference between the two. That price includes VAT, so if you don't pay VAT that'll be a bit lower. I haven't heard back from Dell yet about their new model, I think they have a comparable device.

 

We currently have 160 of the Asus Chromebook Flip C100PAs, with the same fold-back keyboard. They seem to be more robust than I was perhaps fearing - I was thinking we'd probably have a couple of broken hinges by the end of year, just in the normal course of things, but they seem to have been fine. My main worry is that some of the younger children are going to start thinking that every laptop screen bends right back...

[jtotheb]

We've deployed several different types of Chromebooks from the original Samsung ones as regular laptop type devices rather than the tablet or touchscreen hybrid models.

 

We had a particularly bad experience with the Asus C300M. If we've had one bent or destroyed charging pin... Probably OK if a tech is plugging them back in to charge each night but they weren't really robust enough for public charging. Performance wise the second batch of Samsungs, the silver Exynos powered ones started to show their age the fastest.

 

Given the choice we pick up the Dell Chromebook 11 for all round performance and robustness. However, our last batch were HP G5 Chromebooks as HP were offering a generous trade-in.

 

If at all possible see if you can wangle some demo units to get in your hands.

Edited July 7, 2017 by jtotheb

[techy32]

@jtotheb How did Dell Chromebook 11 went for you? Any problem with them? We are looking into buying Dell Chromebooks 3180.... Has anyone had any experience with 3180?

[jtotheb]

@jtotheb How did Dell Chromebook 11 went for you? Any problem with them? We are looking into buying Dell Chromebooks 3180.... Has anyone had any experience with 3180?

 

They've been good as gold. Very sturdy and well made.

[techy32]

Thank you..