Updated Nov. 25, 2016  –  Walmart is offering Black Friday specials on this model with 4GB RAM for $119 !!!

The Chromebook 3 is a helpful laptop option for quick blogging, SEO and light WordPress work.

  • Efficient – Easy and responsive.  Great battery life.
  • Quality – Feel and finish and keyboard good enough to make work enjoyable.  Good value.
  • Good Size – Big enough to type on , but small and light enough to actually take to couch or bed.

Small , light and efficient … and under $200.  All day battery life.  I have other tools for other jobs , but this is becoming my go to device.   I purchased my Chromebook 3 in June of 2016.  Google had just announced that they will update the operating system of this machine to run Android apps in the near future.   If you are thinking about a new Chromebook you may want to check this list for the Chromebooks that will support Android in 2016.

Samsung Chromebook 3 with hand for scale

Samsung Chromebook 3 – good size and great battery life

Why the Chromebook 3 works for me…

Frankly, I was getting quite frustrated with my main laptop, a three-year-old 17″ HP laptop.   Everything seemed to have more friction after the Windows 10 update.   I felt like I was driving a Mack truck to the 7-11 !  I have a Nexus 7 tablet , which is great for surfing , videos and as an entertainment controller, but tablets are not ideal for content creation.

This is where the Chromebook fits in nicely.

  • Ready to go: Almost instant startup, and the battery last a LONG time.
  • Portable: Small enough to carry around and do work anywhere.
  • Right-Sized: Screen and keyboard good enough to get work done.

This works well because I’m doing a lot of content creation. Blogging, light graphics, social media and the occasional video and screen capture.  Having very fast internet helps a lot (Thank you, fiber!).

Why it may not work for you ….

Your experience will not be so good if you have a different situation.  This setup is not ideal if you:

  1. Do not have a fast connection – at least a cable modem wifi class connection .
  2. Are trying to do “Heavy Lifting”:  Coding and development , or heavy video or graphics.

           

So far I’ve been impressed!  I’ve found it to be quite easy to use, and so convenient that I actually use it!  I don’t think you will find people raving about it like they would about an Apple ,  but this machine has a humble workhorse type of attitude.  At about 1/6 the price of a mac book , it is a great value.   You get about 80% of the functionality of an expensive machine at 20% of the cost.

Getting hands on time is vital!

Actually,  I had a hard time finding Chromebooks locally.   I find this strange because they are generally selling well and are in demand.  I have fairly large size hands (please, no comparisons to Trump!),  so I decided to rule out the 10.1 inch Asus Flip .   Although it had a good quality feel to it , the keyboard seemed far too small for my hands.  Good choice for a student or a much smaller person than me!  The keyboard on the Chromebook 3 is good enough to get stuff done

The Chromebook 3 is available through Walmart for about $190 .   Please note that this is the 2GB version.  I probably would have bought a 4GB version if they had stocked them,  but I haven’t really noticed any memory issues .

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