Chromeboxes

Caged · 20 Jul 2014 at 18:00

Is this just another Google side-project that they aren't particularly interested in following through with? I think we're at 8 months now since Asus and HP announced their Chromeboxes, Asus were aiming for a March launch, HP originally planned a bunch of different colours and have gotten as far as three models of black in the USA only.

Is it utterly foolish to keep waiting for these devices to ever appear, and if I just want a cheap web browsing machine is it time to look at the Celeron NUCs, that ECS thing, or some of the tiny embedded platforms?

darth.mader · 20 Jul 2014 at 21:45

Nuc or brix will be just as good.

Caged · 20 Jul 2014 at 22:18

Yeah, the newest Celeron NUC (N2820) is a bargain, but once you've added RAM, SSD and an OS license it gets pricey.

I did actually check the HP site again after posting this, and they've seen fit to release one of the Chromeboxes onto their store with the Celeron 2955U in. £143 delivered, and it can go back if it's terrible. It's to replace a 7 year old Dell that my parents use purely for web browsing - which they use Chrome for, their printer supports Cloud Print and it also scans to Google Drive, so hopefully it should be a decent replacement. And a bit quicker.

Emlyn_Dewar · 20 Jul 2014 at 22:30

I've had my Samsung one for over a year, the prices of them new were a bit grim, but I got a reasonable price off eBay.

ChromeOS receives frequent updates, boots extremely quickly off the (small) SSD and is just a nice, quiet machine to use.
I'd love one that could support 3 monitors!

I'd replace my parents laptop with a Chromebook, but unfortunately they need iTunes for various Apple devices.

Caged · 20 Jul 2014 at 22:57

I think £150 for the Chromebox and £200 for a Chromebook is around the right sort of pricing - any more than that and you're knocking on the doors of a cheap Windows PC, which in a year or so will be a cheap Windows PC with a small SSD in as they become a cheaper way to gain performance than by putting a more premium CPU in.

Hopefully it will be the perfect device for people fully invested in the Google way of doing things. If not then I'll ask HP to come and pick it up.

They also make a £650 i7 Chromebox, but I have no idea who that's aimed at. I think it's a tie-in to their Hangouts video conferencing system but like lots of other Google products it's been half-implemented and then something shiny came along and distracted whoever was tasked with the project.