For the price, this is a great Chromebook. It checks a lot of boxes and I've done my fair share of research.
1. Solid build. Nice sturdy plastic chassis. (Keeps it lightweight)
2. USB type C port, SD card slot, HDMI, and USB 3.0
3. Touchscreen with an IPS display
4. 4 gigs of RAM and 64gig of storage. (rare at this price point)
5. Nice feel to the keyboard and track pad.
6. ARM processor that is optimized for the Google play store apps and runs much better than the Intel celerons you see in most low-end Chromebooks.
You get a lot for $300. You can't really find those options within that price range. The only thing I wish it had was a FHD display. 1366x768 still looks sharp on an 11.6 in screen but it would be super sharp if it was 1080p. I would highly recommend this Chromebook.
Full disclosure, I am not an IT professional but use laptops, tablets, and desktop computers daily in my personal and work life. This chromebook has far exceeded my expectations. This is my first time using a chromebook. I have had a week or so to really dig into the device. I own an alienware gaming laptop, but I find myself only using it now for gaming purposes only.
This chromebook is fast in my opinion. The speed is snappy and the device responds quickly to gestures and commands. I have yet to find sometime I can't do on this that I do on my windows laptop aside from gaming. One game I like to play requires windows, mac, or linux. Since this has an ARM processor it does not support linux applications at this time.
Design: This device is a bright attractive white chromebook. I find the design to be pleasing to the eye and appears sturdy even though it is made from plastic. I do not particularly like using it in tablet mode. The screen feels bulky and sometimes unmanageable in tablet mode. The screen quickly transitions to whatever position to place it in whether laptop, tent, or tablet mode. I personal find myself not even using my LG tablet for much of anything except when I need LTE internet away from home. Overall the design is great.
Screen/Input: I find the keyboard to be on par with most laptop keyboards. The keys are a little shallow and I feel my typing has slowed a little bit, but not by much. The IPS touchscreen is very responsive and rarely find myself having to touch the screen more than once for my intended gesture. Screen is bright in home conditions, but feel it would lack in more intense lighting situations, such as outdoors.
Ease of Use: The google play store makes this thing be able to do just about anything. I have not tried any intense applications. I use chrome, netflix, hulu, evernote, several banking apps, and various other apps. All of them are snappy responsive. The bank apps load like they are in phone mode, thus they are in a small window. The apps still work as designed. Netflix and Hulu playback is smooth and pleasant to watch on the screen.
Overall, I am impressed with the Google OS and this device in general. If your someone who is on the fence about the operating system, I suggest you give it a try. The battery life is good as well. When using my gaming laptop its always with a cord tethered nearby. I also understand a gaming laptop is far more power intensive. I have yet to use this chromebook while charging it. The battery has allowed me to watch 4-5 hours of netflix, talk on facebook, and text through my phone without ever getting critically low. I charge it at night and then never put it back on till the next night. This is a max screen brightness. I was also very surprised with the speakers. The speakers were much louder and not distorted. I honestly expected them to be cheap netbook quality that is mostly better just to never use them, but thats not the case with this chromebook. I do generally use a bluetooth headset. The bluetooth headset paired with extreme simplicity. I also set up my brother wireless laser printer with google cloud print in less than 30 seconds.
Google did it right and lenovo delivered a solid product. I did purchase this on sale for $200 but would have spent the $300. If your a web surfer, music listener, netflix watcher I highly recommend this. If you need windows intense software then go with windows. Otherwise I think you'll find yourself using this as your primary device as I have.
I am extremely impressed with this unit. Great price, and it works really well. Nicely designed, sturdy, the keyboard and trackpad are decent. Touchscreen works well. I would highly recommend it. One thing is incorrectly described in the specifications - it says there is a microSD card slot. It is actually a SD slot. I bought a microSD card hoping to put it in and have added storage space on the go, but an SD card sticks out a lot.
Chromebook prices range from around $100 to over $1000. Better Chromebooks have Intel Core CPUs for great performance. The much cheaper Mediatek system in this Chromebook gives it mediocre performance, especially for intensive games or for business users who open lots of tabs simultaneously and frequently switch between them. On the plus side this Chromebook has a useful 4GB of RAM, a sharp colorful IPS screen, a touch screen that works great with Android apps, a very responsive (for swiping) touchpad, and reliable WiFi (much better than my HP laptop). On the minus side, the white plastic shell looks and feels a little cheap, the screen is not very bright, and the touchpad's button feels a little clunky. In summary, if you can't afford more than $300, this is a good choice for casual users who only have a few tabs open at once and use it mostly for email, Facebook, web surfing, and streaming music or videos. If you can afford $350 to $400, you will have several choices with more powerful CPUs for more intensive users.
Over the period of 30-60 seconds after unboxing it for the first time.
1. Turn on
2. Sign in with your Google account.
3. Select wifi network.
That's it, everything is set up, all your Google pictures, mail, bookmarks (from your Android phone, assuming you use chrome on mobile) is all there.
I'm used to spending at least a few hours setting up, updating, uninstalling bloatware, denying "trial offers" on Windows PCs. Nothing on this.
Literally ready for use within a minute.
Windows®, take notes.
Feature Product
- HIGH PERFORMANCE LAPTOP: The Chromebook C330 is equipped with a MediaTek MT8173C Processor, Chrome OS, 4 GB LPDDR3, 64 GB eMMC and so much more
- SLEEK & STYLISH DESIGN: Sleek, stylish and secure, this 360 degree convertible laptop is less than one inch thin and 2.6 lbs. light with a 11-inch FHD IPS Touch Display perfect for day-to-day computing and multimedia, on or offline
- POWERFUL PROCESSING: Enjoy powerful processing for daily tasks, LPDDR3 memory for multitasking, eMMC storage for quick boot-ups, fast software loading and additional 100 GB of cloud storage via Google Drive, all on your Lenovo Chromebook C330
- BUILT TO CONNECT US: Full I/O support comes standard on the Chromebook C330 with USB-C, SD and USB 3.0 for effortless connectivity
- EASY TO USE: The Lenovo Chromebook C330 is easy to use, offers built-in virus protection and keeps going with long battery life. No setup is needed, just a Google account so your emails, maps, docs, pics stay with you via cloud storage
Description
Faster, simpler, and more secure, the Lenovo Chromebook C330 brings the latest Chromebook features to you in a sleek, stylish, and durable Blizzard White convertible design. Offering the latest multimedia in high-definition, this convertible Chromebook features a 10-point touchscreen IPS display for easy viewing in tent, tablet, stand, or laptop mode. Never slowing down and always up to date, the Lenovo Chromebook C330 offers the latest in digital security while delivering perfect day-to-day performance via powerful processing with integrated graphics, eMMC storage, and DDR3 memory—all with up to 10 hours of battery life.
I've owned several chrome books in the past 5 years, and can say that none came close to this in term of features and versatility. Of course the display could be better but for what you use it for 95% of the time, 1366 x 768 is more than adequate. Videos are sharp and clear, document display clearly and crisp and texts are sharp on the screen.
You can operate this in all different ways; as a laptop, flat tablet or tent mode to watch your favorite movies. Touch screen is very responsive, I kept forgetting it's a laptop! One gripe however, the SD card slot is shallow; put a SD card in the it sticks out more than half the length. So you wouldn't want to leave the card in; must remove it after use.
Of course, you know the benefits of a Chrome book. Light weight (in many ways, both software and hardware), no need for tedious OS upgrade, no worries about viruses while providing everything a computer user needs. If you are a Netflix subscriber, there is no download option however so you couldn't take a movie to watch on the plane ride. Regardless of these limitations, I still love this chrome book and it would definitely with me on trip from now on.
I am a big fan of Chromebooks. They update themselves, can now run at least some Google apps. They are portable, cheap enough to haul where ever you go and fit one both airplane trays and the teeny desks they give students at college. This one is a good value at the price for everyday use as long as you are not a demanding gamer.
Pros:
Price.
Touchscreen. Nice at this price point!
Lots of connections SB-C 3.0 port USB-A 3.0 port, a full-size HDMI connection and a DisplayPort port a full-size SD card reader, combo audio jack. There is NO Thunderbold 3port.
Keyboard is excellent for the size. Nice rebound to the keys.
Folds so watching videos is easier. And when you fold it the speakers are then behind the screen, which gives reasonable sound for this small of a device.
Battery lasted 10 (surfing internet mainly) hours, 11 hours (mostly playing videos) and 10.5 (combo of tasks) hours in three trials. This is a long time. You can get through an entire day with this. Screen was at between 50 and 70 percent brightness for these tests, higher brightness will drain it faster.
Will run Google apps that are available (not all google apps are available for chromebooks)
Lots of storage at 64GB for a Chromebook. You can add more with the SD slot.
Has Bluetooth, so you can use your headphone to get a better audio experience.
Cons:
The bezel is too large for the size (see photo). The resolution is not great at 1,366 x 768 (140 PPI). We have all become a little spoiled with the clarity of phones, this is noticeably lower. It has a refresh rate of 60Hz so it is fine for catching a little Netflix, but do not expect high def quality.
No backlighting on the keyboard. No number pad.
Its too slow for intense gaming. You will not be playing any high demand games on this, it lags. Fine for browsing the internet and word processing, low graphics demand games and other such tasks.
Before I share my thoughts on the product I would like to preface with a disclaimer that I am an educator who has used Chromebooks as a tool for teaching and for my own work projects.
I LOVE this Chromebook and feel fortunate to have above a basic understanidng of how Chromebooks work. First, it came with a Lenovo box packaged in an amazon box. No problems opening the packages or initiating start up with the Chromebook. The winter white case is plastic and may require extra care. However, it does NOT look or feel cheap as noted by other customers. Also, because I noted the complaints with regard to speed associated with memory, I did purchase the larger 4 gb RAM and 64 gb memory with a SSD. I really think this is a gamechanger and will be utilizing this Chromebook for online classes and anything else I may need to do online. I have already been able to utilize commonly accessed apps for my cell phone on my Chromebook! No problems with anything thus far. I will update.
Today is 4/16/19 and I am still enjoying my Chromebook. A couple things that have come up with regard to the laptop keyboard: the keys can pop off if snagged. The keys have popped or snapped on easily when I noticed they were gone. It is nice that the keys don't actually break off. I have noticed that some apps still don't work on Chromebooks, however there are extensions to improve access.
Just got this after having an old Macbook Air for many years and I'm blown away. Great keyboard, touch screen works well, most websites load quickly enough and tablet mode is good for watching videos. Android apps run smoothly too, which is fun to explore if you're coming from Planet Apple. Highly recommended
If your needs are browsing the web, checking email, watching Netflix, there's no reason to spend any more money than what the cost of this is. Downloads and runs apps from the Google Play store super well. Keyboard is great, touchpad is lightyears better than I expected it to be with multi-touch functionality. Unless I need to run a professional software like Photoshop, I don't think I'll be using any other device on the go/around the house. Pretty lightweight, fits in a bag easily, although it's a plastic shell it seems pretty durable. This little device has far exceeded my expectations.
0 comments:
Post a Comment