r/chromeos • u/tony-ravioli504 • Jul 09 '25
Buying Advice Would this be a good beater internet browsing device for 50 bucks?
At my local best buy for like 55 dollars
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u/drfsrich Jul 09 '25
Depends on your level of patience. 4GB of RAM is limiting even on a Chromebook. I'd look for a deal on a used or refurb device with 8gb before I bought this.
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u/popsicle_of_meat Samsung CB+ V2::Optiplex Chrome OS Flex Jul 09 '25
I bought a chromebook with 4GB of ram and a Core m3 cpu almost 6 years ago. And only recently has it become slower to the point that it's becoming annoying. For the longest time, 4GB was plenty for browsing, apps and occasional linux. But I guess Chrome has just become bloated even for it, needing more ram for stuff in the background (kind of annoying when it pwas perfect a year ago).
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u/ILoveSBCs Jul 09 '25
Recently I disabled the Play Store on my older 4GB Lenovo Duet and it freed up like 1.2GB of RAM which made the system feel snappier. Try that on your system unless you use a lot of Android apps
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u/popsicle_of_meat Samsung CB+ V2::Optiplex Chrome OS Flex Jul 09 '25
Is the Play Store doing so much in the background? If it's quick to give up the ram, that's not a huge deal. But if it's constantly using it AND actively using CPU in the background that's just bad.
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u/oldschool-51 Jul 09 '25
I agree. I disable Playstore even on 8gb machines. They changed the underlying android model and since then it's really awful. The Linux partition doesn't have the same problem.
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u/ILoveSBCs Jul 09 '25
I don’t recall that it’s chewing through CPU cycles but it immediately freed up the RAM, which helped. Lots of similar observations I’ve seen here in this subreddit, which is how I initially tried that approach.
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u/popsicle_of_meat Samsung CB+ V2::Optiplex Chrome OS Flex Jul 09 '25
I don't use mine every day, so the biggest one that annoys me is when it starts up and checks/downloads/prepares for an update. It brings it to a crawl for 5 minutes. It just can't multi-task well any more. Maybe it's just time for a new one...
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u/lockedmhc48 Jul 09 '25
I've got the Duet, and didn't know the Playstore was using any RAM, how do you disable it?
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u/lockedmhc48 Jul 09 '25
Nevermind, I just looked and there are apps I want to keep. I'll just delete those I don't want maybe that will give me more
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u/frozoxs Jul 11 '25
Which apps?
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u/lockedmhc48 Jul 11 '25
Donno. I deleted them because I didn't even remember using them.
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u/frozoxs Jul 12 '25
Oh sorry i meant the app that are worthy to keep
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u/lockedmhc48 Jul 15 '25
Sorry I'm off on vacation without my Duet. Basically I just kept all the apps that I actually use day to day and got rid of the rest. Don't remember which o kept and which I didn't.
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u/National-War-4028 Jul 09 '25
4GB is pretty much underpowered these days even for internet browsi devices like chromebook
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u/Damn-Sky Jul 09 '25
I watch youtube just fine with light browsing with 4gb but agree must aim at least 8gb.
while chromeos works pretty smoothly with 4gb, linux even with xfce can suffer from the 4gb ram.
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u/Vectrex71CH Jul 09 '25
I love my Chromebook, BUT i could hit me in the face myself everyday, that i bought a model with only 4GB back then !
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u/former-ad-elect723 Jul 09 '25
For $50, that's the best you could get. Just a warning it will be slow and laggy
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u/MaxCruz Jul 09 '25
No it won’t be slow and laggy off the bat . That depends on the use . If you are just gonna browse then it will stay fast . Trust me I know what I am talking about. I do this for a living .
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u/Anguine_Koala53 Jul 09 '25
I've had this a week now and here is what I think. With 15 or so tabs open I see no slow down when I surfing the web. I can have multiple Youtube tabs open and now slow down. Is it as snappy as my Flex 5i with an i3 and 8 ram, no, but for watching videos and surfing the internet it is fine.
In all honesty, I do nothing with Linux, but there are other chromebooks made better for that.
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u/Ok-Comb-6099 Jul 09 '25
the display on it sucks, really bad, like I wouldn't use it period with how bad the display is. Everything looks washed out.
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u/Late_Presentation103 Jul 09 '25
Yes if all you are using it for is browsing I don't have a problem with mine I even watch Netflix on it
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u/ZLoLz01 Jul 09 '25
I don't know why people are complaining. I literally had a stupid Samsung Chromebook with the same amount of ram. Even less storage and was filled with Google parental supervision. Bloatware and I was still able to play games on there. I played YouTubers Life 2 on there and I didn't complain at all. I still have the Chromebook. It's just completely destroyed cuz I accidentally broke the screen when I forgot I had a USB drive between the screen and the keyboard when I tried to shut it
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u/frozoxs Jul 11 '25
Is it samsung chromebook 4+ ?
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u/ZLoLz01 Jul 13 '25
I don’t know the model and I recently lost the Chromebook. All I know is it’s a sort of silver color and looks like an offbrand MacBook from 2016.
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u/ZLoLz01 27d ago
yes it is recently found it and used google lens
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u/frozoxs 27d ago
Holy thats the same as mine! is the youtuber life game runs good?
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u/nik_da_brik Jul 09 '25
I bought one of these for $80 and I still consider it a good value. Web browsing can be a bit sluggish but still totally usable. Some point out that it only has 4gb of ram, but we have this amazing thing called swap space that ChromeOS uses by default so you can load it up with tabs and it chugs along just fine. My biggest complaints are the screen and video decoding. The cheap TN panel is 1080p and has good dpi, but the viewing angles are horrid. The video decoding is so weak that YouTube above 720p drops frames like crazy, and moonlight, parsec, and probably all game streaming services for that matter will not be usable. It is also an arm chip which limits what you can get away with in Linux, but gives you good battery life and low heat in return. There is an arm Debian image you can flash onto an SD card and boot into, but the GPU drivers are completely broken in my experience and it isn't really usable outside of ChromeOS.
TL;DR: not bad at all for $50 and will work fine for regular web browsing, but you still get what you pay for.
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u/frozoxs Jul 11 '25
Hey can i know more about that swap space tabs thing
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u/nik_da_brik Jul 14 '25
Chromeos (and basically every other OS for that matter) will write data stored in RAM to the SSD when it isn't being used. The user will only be actively using 2-3 tabs at a time, so tabs that are open but aren't doing anything get suspended by the browser, then their data gets moved to disk by the OS. This means your computer doesn't freak out and crash when you fill up the RAM, but with the downside that switching to a tab/app that you haven't used in a while will cause a lag spike as it loads the data from the SSD, which is much slower than RAM.
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u/frozoxs Jul 16 '25
Ohh thanks for the insight, im using one rn and i have like 80 tabs open but not used, 4gb ram 64gb and its emmc
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u/Rand0mRay Jul 09 '25
Would you be interested in a used Dell Latitude 5490 laptop with an 8th Gen i5 processor? I usually sell them, but I’d be happy to send one your way and cover the shipping. Just let me know, and I’ll make sure it’s fully factory reset before sending.
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u/La_Rana_Rene Acer 516GE | Stable Jul 10 '25
i wanted one but the tn screen is just horrble. for that price is fine i guess.
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u/WarriorYT01 Jul 10 '25
for the price id rather get a cheap android phone with an ips panel honestly... i despise tn panels
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u/frozoxs Jul 11 '25
Lol i still use my TN panel on my 15' 1080p laptop. its until the day i got a taste of ips or higher panel. My eye standard hasn't go higher
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u/Ambitious-Cake-9425 HP x360 14 chromebook plus Jul 09 '25
For that price, can't beat it. It's going to be laggy because of the low memory l. But it's so cheap.
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u/Corbin_Dallas550 Jul 09 '25
50 bucks is a steal, but I wouldn't recommend anything under i3 / 8 GB RAM
You can find something like that on eBay easily
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u/Interrupshin Jul 09 '25
Yes these are good deals. I basically buy old Chromebooks exclusively unless I need Windows for something.
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u/ahappywaterheater Jul 09 '25
Try Best Buy’s open box and clearance section. It’s a good way to save money.
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u/ConcentrateLess5606 Jul 11 '25
It really depends I personally like the Lenovo brand laptops and tablets. I've seen Thinkpad and IdeaPad Chromebooks around for reasonable prices! There are some great deals on gently used Samsung Galaxy Pad Chromebooks on eBay. If you're looking for a good deal eBay might have better prices!
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u/theoriginalzads Jul 11 '25
I mean it would be better than sticking your penis in an Ethernet socket. Marginally better.
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u/Intrepid-Cry5328 Jul 11 '25
Just fyi. They do not include power cord for good and fair conditions for open box items.
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u/SnakeByteSolutions Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25
I've had one for about a year If ALL you're doing is watching youtube, netflix, email, basic web use.. You'll be fine. It isn't snappy, but very functional and battery life is amazing. If you have aspirations of using linux or anything more than basic android apps, then move along to something with 8gb. The processor isn't as bad as made out to be for a budget device. The display is actually fairly nice (1080p in a budget device) but a bit dim.
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u/Romano1404 Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 | Lenovo Flex 3i 8GB 12.2" Jul 09 '25
A laptop with 4GB RAM and a dim TN screen that was outlawed 20 years ago shouldn't be sold in any industrialized country. We're not savages.
The problem with ChromeOS is these super cheap devices that are borderline trash right from the factory while locking the whole plattform in a low spec baseline. Developers have to juggle around with only 4GB RAM for the next 10 years of "guaranteed updates" and manufacturers aren't willing to develop any nice Chromebooks either because everyone assumes that Chromebook = cheap trash laptop
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u/Mubz92 Jul 10 '25
Search eBay for old MacBook airs. I got one about 2 weeks ago. It’s is 2015 with an i7 with 8gb ram and 256 gb ssd. For how old it is the condition was quite amazing and the battery was replaced on it as well by the last owner. Just took about 2 hrs to install Monterey and set it up. Paid about $57 with shipping. Much better than any Chromebook imo.
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u/SentientSquirrel Jul 09 '25
Wired has a review of it: https://www.wired.com/review/asus-chromebook-cm14/ In their conclusion they wrote:
Their review was based on a sticker price of $299, and they're talking about it being a great buy at $180, so it does sound like $50 absolutely makes it worth it.