Whereas looking for back-to-school offers, it may be straightforward to deal with the discounted value, ignoring all else. A current change to Google’s Chromebook help web page meant that we briefly thought-about a back-to-school Chromebook deal when it was a foul discount as a substitute. Right here’s find out how to keep away from making the identical mistake.
We suggest back-to-school offers on Chromebooks primarily based upon what we all know. Not solely are we guided by our opinions of the most effective Chromebooks, however we take a look at the specs, the worth, and marketed low cost. We additionally double-check to see the place the Chromebook seems on Google’s record of supported Chromebooks. They’re all essential.
One Amazon vendor has priced the Acer Chromebook 315 at $235, 8 p.c off as of this writing. That’s not nice, however the $235 price ticket not less than made us contemplate it. One examine you can also make is to enter the URL on camelcamelcamel, an oddly-named web site that professes to trace costs on Amazon. It doesn’t all the time work — when contemplating an analogous Chromebook 315 mannequin, for instance, the seller claimed an eye-popping low cost of 66 p.c, to $205.80, off of a $599 MSRP.
Each distributors, then, throw up some crimson flags. However, trying again at some historic launch data, the MSRP for the Chromebook 315 ought to be about $279.99. However there’s one other drawback.
Mark Hachman / IDG
To its credit score, the primary Amazon vendor listed the $235 Chromebook 315 as mannequin CB315-1HT-C4RY, with a Celeron N3350 inside. The $205.80 Chromebook is listed as a CB315-3HT, with a Celeron N4020 inside. It’s not all the time true {that a} larger quantity equals a greater processor, however on this case it’s true: the N3350 was launched seven years in the past in 2016, and Intel is phasing it out in September.
That’s a tipoff that you can purchase the $205.80 Chromebook 315, however it’s not the actual black mark towards it: the help window. Google solely helps Chromebooks for a restricted time, and publishes the Chromebook lifecycle data on its web site. As soon as a Chromebook reaches end-of-life, Google will cease supporting it, identical to an out-of-date model of Home windows or an Android cellphone. It can work, however Google gained’t publish any updates or safety patches for it.
We checked each the CB315-3HT and CB315-1HT-C4RY towards this record. Whereas the primary mannequin appeared, the second didn’t. In order that’s good, proper?
Sadly, Google seems to have up to date its help lifecycle web page, eliminating fashions that it apparently believes have been taken off the market. That may depart even a savvy shopper considering oh, I don’t see it on the record, so it’s most likely high quality. On this case, it’s not! Fortunately, in 2020 we made a listing of the Chromebooks expiring quickly, and the Chromebook 15 (CB315-1HT) seems on this record. Assist for the CB315-1HT is scheduled to expire in lower than a yr, or June 2024.
Whereas this isn’t unlawful — the seller has each proper to promote this Chromebook, which is viable and utterly supported by Google for now — we predict you’d agree that it does really feel a bit slimy. And when you stroll away from this text considering, wow, what a large number — effectively, welcome to our world. For those who don’t see a deal on the positioning, which means we’ve typically excluded the deal for a specific cause. However chances are you’ll generally suppose you’ve discovered a diamond within the tough, too.
To recap, right here’s what you must search for in evaluating a Chromebook deal:
- The worth and low cost. Use camelcamelcamel or one other web site to gauge whether or not it’s an precise deal, primarily based on historic pricing.
- Vendor title and mannequin. Some fashions (particularly Chromebooks) have comparable names.
- The {hardware} specs. We prioritize bigger, higher-resolution (1080p and above) screens, and ideally 8GB of RAM. We search for a contemporary CPU, however it’s not a deal-breaker.
- Double-check it towards the Google Auto Replace Coverage, aka the help lifecycle.
After all, you possibly can merely examine our back-to-school offers on Chromebooks, which we attempt to replace virtually day by day in the course of the summer season season. However good purchasing is an effective technique any time of the yr.
