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Honored Contributor
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Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?

[ Edited ]

@4nichola wrote:

DON'T BUY A DELL, ALL OF THE DELL'S I HAVE BOUGHT FROM QVC ARE THE WORST COMPUTER EVER!!


In what way? We have 3 dell computers - all bought from the dell website - and we are very pleased with them.

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Registered: ‎01-01-2015

Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?


@SaRina wrote:

Hi @gardenman.  I know you're an author, so my question to you is....  I've got about 200 pages so far on my non-fiction work.  Other than this only project, all I do is surf, play games, and email.  I currently have a laptop and it's almost time for something new.  Can a Chromebook handle my book or should I stick with a laptop (which has so many features that I never use). 


Hi @SaRina,

 

I just wanted to let you know that I use a Chromebook and it comes with Google Docs installed on it. You don't have to pay for it. 

 

I use the Word Processing feature on it to write letters. 

 

You have to sign into it when you use it, like you would sign into your g-mail account if you have one, or like you would sign into your Chromebook to use it. 

 

You can also print off of your Chromebook too if you set it up to print with your printer.

 

It was a hassle for us to set up our Chromebooks with our new wireless printer to do it, but that was only because when I set it up to do it, I found out that there was a step missing in the printer set up instructions, when I was trying to do it. Smiley Tongue

 

I called the printer manufacturer for help, and then we were good to go. 

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Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?

Thanks for the info @Toppers.  :-)   I was under the impression that Google docs only provides a certain amount of space for free and beyond that, one has to pay.  I also heard that you need to make sure you have a printer  that is compatible with the Chromebook.  Or is any printer usable -- it's just that you have to know how to set it up properly?

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Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?


@SaRina wrote:

@Thanks for the info @Toppers.  :-)   I was under the impression that Google docs only provides a certain amount of space for free and beyond that, one has to pay.  I also heard that you need to make sure you have a printer  that is compatible with the Chromebook.  Or is any printer usable -- it's just that you have to know how to set it up properly?


Hi @SaRina,

 

I tried looking around the various Google forums for an answer to your question about possibly having to pay for Google Docs at some point, after having used up so much space.

 

I could not find an answer to that anywhere that I tried looking. So, I don't know what to tell you about that.

 

I haven't heard of that happening, but that doesn't mean that something like that isn't out there somewhere, if you've read about it or seen it somewhere. Smiley Happy

 

You are correct in that you need to have a printer that is compatible with a Chromebook. It needs to be a Cloud Ready printer, since Chromebooks are Cloud-based computers. You can look online to see which printer models are compatible with Chromebooks. Not all of them are compatible. 

 

Since we are just using Chromebooks here in our household right now, we were looking for a Chromebook compatible wireless printer. We bought an Epson model wireless printer that is Chromebook compatible.

 

If you have a Chromebook compatible printer, it's easier to hook up other devices to it. You can connect other computers to it. 

 

We do have a new Cloud Printer that is supposed to be a Chromebook compatible printer, where it's supposed to be like an easy one-step set-up to connect the Chromebook to the printer. That part just didn't happen though, no matter what I kept trying to do. Setting up a Chromebook to print with a Cloud Printer is still in the beta testing phase, from what I understand, though. 

 

These new Cloud printers are made like this now, so that the consumer can add different devices to their printer, so that they can then print off of them if they so desire. 

 

However, our new wireless printer wouldn't connect through our Chromebooks to print like it was supposed to do.

 

When I called the Tech. Support Dept. for the printer, I finally told the Technician that I didn't really care if it connected to print through the printer, or through the Cloud Print connection feature of the Chromebook.

 

I'm hoping that I make sense as I explain this, because you can set it up to print by doing it two different ways.

 

One way is to do it through a connection through the printer.

 

The other way is by doing a supposed one touch easy set -up through the Cloud Print set-up, through the Chromebook itself. It is supposed to be able to work this way, with any printer that is a Chromebook, Cloud Ready printer. However, it just wouldn't work this way. Smiley Sad

 

I told the printer Technician that I could not get it to connect through the Chromebook for Cloud Ready printing, and that it was even registered to connect that way through Google with my Google account, but that the Chromebook wasn't recognizing the printer. Sigh.

 

You were literally supposed to do a "one button click," and then you were supposed to press a button to be connected to Cloud Printing through the Chromebook itself. Ding! 

 

I was like, "More like, "Doing!" Nothing's happening! Smiley Surprised

 

So, we were finally able to get it to print through the printer, though. I was happy with that option. 

 

It was a very frustrating experience, and was not easy to do. Like I said there was a missing step that was left out of the manual, that tells you how to even do this option-to even connect it to print through the printer.

 

I had to call the Tech. Support Dept. for the printer, in order to get the printer hooked up to the Chromebook. 

 

I had been following instructions through the printer's owner's manual, and there was a step missing in there, to where we couldn't get the printer and the Chromebook to work together. 

 

It took a phone call to the printer's Tech. Dept. to resolve the problem, and now we can at least print through the printer. Smiley Happy

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Registered: ‎04-17-2015

Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?

[ Edited ]

Hi @ Toppers.  We keep missing each other -- you must be a night person, I'm a morning person.  :-)

 

Aww, that was very sweet of you to research my question.  I researched some time ago and couldn't find an answer either.  I think it was a Best Buy salesperson who said the Chromebook wouldn't be adequate for my needs and that I'd have to buy more space for such a large document but, of course, I think he was trying to sell me a pricey Win 10 computer!  I'll continue to ask around.  I think I still have a bit of time left on my 7-year-old laptop.

 

Geez, sorry you had so much trouble with your printer.  I'm glad the Tech Dept. was able to help you out. I can get pretty easily frustrated with technology because my interest is just not there.  I like simple.    

 

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.  :-)

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Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?


@SaRina wrote:

@Hi @ Toppers.  We keep missing each other -- you must be a night person, I'm a morning person.  :-)

 

Aww, that was very sweet of you to research my question.  I researched some time ago and couldn't find an answer either.  I think it was a Best Buy salesperson who said the Chromebook wouldn't be adequate for my needs and that I'd have to buy more space for such a large document but, of course, I think he was trying to sell me a pricey Win 10 computer!  I'll continue to ask around.  I think I still have a bit of time left on my 7-year-old laptop.

 

Geez, sorry you had so much trouble with your printer.  I'm glad the Tech Dept. was able to help you out. I can get pretty easily frustrated with technology because my interest is just not there.  I like simple.    

 

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.  :-)


And this is why you never listen to a salesperson at Best Buy. Most Chromebooks come with 16 gb of built in storage and 100 gb's of online storage. If your 200 page book takes more than a few mb's of storage I'd be stunned. You could probably store it a thousand times over on the 16 GB of memory with no trouble. 

 

Just to give you some idea of how little storage writing takes, my "Novels and Ideas" folder which holds all of my finished novels and multiple works in progress consumes a whopping 32 mb's. Not even one gigabyte. I've got another 968 mb's to go before I even hit one gb. Now, if your book is loaded with photos and illustrations it'll eat up more space, but not a lot. You can check out the size of whatever folder you've got your novel stored in to see how bulky it is, but expect it to be pretty small.

 

If he was talking about the RAM memory to load the file, he's once again sadly mistaken. Even the smallest Chromebook with 2 gb's of RAM should easily load even the largest writing project. Sales people are driven to create sales. A local radio personality who used to work in electronics joked once that the sales clerks she worked with had a saying, "An informed comsuner is a real pain in the a$$." They far preferred the naive idiots who would buy whatever they suggested.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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Registered: ‎04-17-2015

Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?

Lol @ gardenman!  Those Best Buy salespeople are like car mechanics. You kind of have to understand at least a little bit not to get taken! Thankfully, I have a highly trusted mechanic who I've been going to for 30 years.....   and I have all you knowledgeable people here.

 

Thanks very much for the additional info.  I will never be as prolific as you, so I now know there is enough space for my project.... and what little else I'd be typing in the form of letters.  I am pretty sure I will be getting a Chromebook next.  I think Acer most recently came out with a near 15" screen on their Chromebook, which is what I would want -- the others have smaller screens for the most part.

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Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?

You're welcome for the help, @SaRinaSmiley Happy

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Registered: ‎01-01-2015

Re: Samsung,HP,or Dell Chromebook?

Hi @gardenmanSmiley Happy

 

It's always great to see you posting too, and thanks for your great explanation as always, too. Smiley Happy