bromsgrove_avfc Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 I need office for my son as well and cant believe how expensive it is. I have used open office but he seems to struggle with it, are there any other options you'd recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted September 9, 2013 Administrator Share Posted September 9, 2013 Google Docs. It's free which should mean you can buy some training if necessary. Mind you, so is LibreOffice or OpenOffice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 29, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 29, 2013 Laptop advice needed. I'm in desperate need of a new one. My current one is old and clunky, slows down, gets too hot etc etc. It's 5 years old so I think it's time for a change. I think I'm settled on a Chromebook. These days I rarely use my laptop for anything other than web browsing, listening to music and watching films/videos. With all my stuff on Google music, that's not a problem going to a chrome book. I do sometimes get Football Manager, but that's a small sacrifice to make, I'd easily manage without. Storage is a problem on Chromebooks, but with 100gb free Google Drive that should be fine coupled with an external hard drive which are pretty cheap these days. So yeah, I'm settled on a Chromebook. Cheap, quick, looks nice. So I think I'm going with the Samsung Series 3 Anyone got any experience? Also, this is probably a ridiculous question, but they do play your normal video files don't they? As in nothing streamed, good old fashioned .avi .mp4 stuff Any other recommendations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 The only reliable way of playing video files on a Chromebook is to upload them to Drive and stream them from there. Video support on ChromeOS is poor. It'll play some .avi/mp4 files, but lots won't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 29, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 29, 2013 Hmmm, thanks for that. I guess uploading to Drive won't be too much of a problem, I'll have plenty of space as I can't see me using anywhere near 100gb, so it's a work around. Would rather play then directly from the machine though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Posted November 30, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted November 30, 2013 Mate has Netflix working just fine on his Chromebook. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Web based videos are fine, the problems I mentioned above are concerning watching videos that are stored on the local machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 MS Office will cost you your entire budget. Not with his education discount, it won't £60 + you get a free year of Xbox Live Gold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancsVillan Posted December 6, 2013 Moderator Share Posted December 6, 2013 So with Aston going to Uni next year, can I take advantage of him being a student to get him a new laptop. We're past the age of keeping Xmas a surprise. If so what is a decent laptop these days for around £350 where he uses it for FM, browsing and his uni work - Office! ? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 (edited) So with Aston going to Uni next year, can I take advantage of him being a student to get him a new laptop. We're past the age of keeping Xmas a surprise. If so what is a decent laptop these days for around £350 where he uses it for FM, browsing and his uni work - Office! ? Cheers If you don't want him to fail University get him a Chromebook so that he can browse, do his work and not play FM. Edited December 7, 2013 by samjp26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Wait... Aston is going to Uni?? **** me I'm old. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legov Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 So with Aston going to Uni next year, can I take advantage of him being a student to get him a new laptop. We're past the age of keeping Xmas a surprise. If so what is a decent laptop these days for around £350 where he uses it for FM, browsing and his uni work - Office! ? Cheers If you don't want him to fail University get him a Chromebook so that he can browse, do his work and not play FM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 4, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 4, 2014 (edited) Resurrected! Due to the issue I described in the other thread, looks like I'll be getting a new laptop courtesy of my insurance. I've already asked this question above, but that was almost a year ago so thought I'd ask it again now that I definitely will be getting a new one and not just pondering it. Assuming I get a choice, I was going to go for a Chromebook. All i really use my personal laptop for is web browsing and watching films/Netflix. Any odd bits of word processing/office work I do can be handled by Google docs. Anyone got any suggestions for which is the best to go for? I was initially tempted by the HP Chromebook 14, but reading a few reviews it seems the general consensus is the Acer C720P is the best (affordable) one around at the moment. Anyone got one? Any new ones on the horizon that I should be looking at? (I did read something about a new 13" Acer one but I don't think it's out for a while) Edited September 4, 2014 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicho Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 Im no techy but my last two laptops have been ACERs. The one im using now is nearly 3 years old and is still going well if a little slow at times. It did get very slow but I took it apart and cleaned the fan out (which I can now do quickly) and every time I do it it picks back up. I have a tech problem though, Ive got and iPad, PS4 and now my laptop needs to be new, will be going for another ACER I think. Aesthetics matter so it needs to look good as well as being easy to use, fast and have a lot of space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted September 4, 2014 Share Posted September 4, 2014 The Wirecutter is a good site for recommendations. Don't just buy what they recommend blindly, but use it as a place to look at the things you should do more research into. http://m.thewirecutter.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 4, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 4, 2014 Cheers Rev, that's one of the sites I'd looked on. They reckoned the Dell 11 was the best, but the C720P came in a close second. The Dell one is ugly (which doesn't REALLY matter, but I'm shallow like that) so think I may stick with the 720P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 5, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 5, 2014 (edited) Getting swayed by the Hp Chromebook 11 now. Not as powerful as the Acer but lighter, better keyboard and way better looking. Lacks a touchscreen, but is cheaper as a result (and I'm not sure how useful a touchscreen on a laptop would be anyway?) But seeing as, according to their website, Currys/PC World don't sell it (they only sell the HP 14) then my mind may be made up for me! Edited September 5, 2014 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 18, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 18, 2014 Finally got my new laptop. Went for the HP Chromebook 14. Currys don't sell the 11 and only the non-touchscreen C720, and as I had to spend my voucher in store I went for the 14. Impressed so far. And it's a lovely looking machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limpid Posted September 18, 2014 Administrator Share Posted September 18, 2014 I got a new work laptop yesterday. Windows 8.1 lasted about 25 minutes. Long enough to realise that it's pretty much unusable. XPS13. Installed kubuntu. Everything just works. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 21, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 21, 2014 I love the way the touch pad works on my chromebook. Is that a normal thing now for laptops or is it unique to Chromebooks? Using two fingers to swipe up and down allows you to scroll, and left and right acts as forward and back on web pages. Really simple, but very effective Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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