Chromebooks

[tonypaul]

I'm new to this thread - I came across it after reading everyone here was really knowledgeable and really helpful.

My Macbook Air has finally died and as they now longer make this I'm toying with the idea of purchasing a Chromebook... I use a laptop for writing and some simple Photoshop and illustrator but the most important thing for me is portability.

Does any one have any experiences with a Chromebook to share? Any insight is welcome!!!!

[rob4001]

My limited experince with chromebooks is if you are just going to consume the internet web browsing etc it is fine. If you want to do a little bit more then get a regular laptop also chromebook is not very useful without a wifi connection.

[ubiquity]

Don't believe you can get Photoshop / Illustrator on a Chromebook.

The new Pixel Chromebook looks lovely, with great battery life, but again next to useless without internet.

You can get some dedicated apps now, such as Adobe LightRoom, but not Photoshop / Illustrator.

A Razer Blade Stealth would be fine for running Photoshop / Illustrator, and is very light and portable, but this is an ultrabook and is a few more $$$.

If budget is a consideration, can shop around for other ultrabooks, or possible just get a new/second hand Macbook Air?

[shaithis]

Adobe announced Photoshop for Chromebook (streaming via a virtual machine) some time ago, although from what I can tell, it never took off and they never moved the scheme outside of a small educational audience, nor did they add any other apps.

[rborge]

If you really want a Chromebook, your best options are Pixlr and Polarr for photo editing.

[philehidiot]

Are you sure they don't do an Air still? It's still live on Apple's website and I'm sure I've seen them for sale. They're outdated and due to be refreshed.

GIMP online exists for Chrome users but the ratings are poor (2.5/5 stars). I dunno about other image editors but here's a website :https://www.howtogeek.com/360311/the...r-chromebooks/

I think for your use really a Chromebook isn't an option as the whole point of them is to shunt the processing load into the cloud and so if you don't have a good internet connection, you can't work properly.

Whilst I hate to recommend them, Apple do have some other laptops which are pretty good as long as you don't mind USB C and dongles (as well as parting with lots of cash).

If you give us some idea of a budget, it'll make it a lot easier to recommend things. As it stands, I'd not get another Air at this time as they're very overpriced for what you get compared to the newer Macs. The screen for example is beyond awful compared to newer spec jobbies.

Also, assuming your Air has an SSD, I'd defintiely not go back to an old HDD. It'll be like pulling teeth.

[emilsobo]

I don't think a Chromebook can run photoshop since it doesn't run on windows I would recommend going for a proper laptop like the LG Gram since its light and good for portability

[ajmeel]

Well what's your budget? If you are a student, ASUS chromebook are just fine. They battery life is pretty amazing.

[rell]

I'f thats your primary needs in a computer, a chromebook will do just fine!