Chromebooks vs Laptops: The Best Notebook PC for College

By: Dara Udobong ‘23

Your personal computer is probably going to be your most used asset (and biggest investment) when you’re coming into college. While there is a myriad of options to choose from in a booming tech world, let’s focus on two broad categories: Chromebooks and Laptops.

So what’s the difference?

Chromebooks run on ChromeOS, an operating system built on the Google Chrome browser. This means you can do just about anything on a Chromebook that you would have done on the browser. 

Regular laptops usually run on iOS (Apple’s operating system), Windows OS, or Linux (which is more common for those working in computers than for college students). 

In order to determine which is the best fit for you, let’s look at the pros and cons of each category. 

Chromebooks

Chromebooks are an affordable and practical answer for the everyday computer user. They are affordable, light, and have a pretty good battery life. Running on the Chrome browser means you can literally open your PC and boom you’re on the internet browser. This means all the work you do on the system is automatically saved to the Google Drive cloud. This also means you need to have a stable internet connection and a Google account. However with Chromebooks, Google takes care of all your security needs which gives Chromebooks an efficient iOS with limited data loss risk.

Up until recently, Chromebooks were basic devices which did just enough computing tasks. You can’t run specific programs on Chromebooks such as apps like Photoshop and Windows games. Chromebooks also have limited local storage (in favor of the cloud storage model). The lighter processing load allows Chromebooks to retail at cheaper prices compared to their competitors and have a much longer battery life.

However, newer models offer offline software options as well as external app support at a higher cost.

Laptops

PCs using other operating systems offer more software options and hardware support. This convenience requires more computing horsepower which raises the price and lowers the battery life. For non-ChromeOS PCs, the hardware quality and functionality lower as the price drops. At the lower end of the price spectrum, you will probably get a better performing Chromebook than a Windows or Apple laptop.

Conversely, as we move towards the other end of the price spectrum, the overall quality of non-ChromeOS PCs are significantly better than Chromebooks. They can also be used more extensively for gaming and multimedia production.

So which is better?

It all boils down to what you’re planning on using your PC for. Chromebooks are definitely satisfactory for the everyday student in that they have stylus support for easy notetaking and drawing. They have a pretty good battery life, and they’re relatively cheap. They do everything you already do on a browser such as checking emails, doing research, editing articles and spreadsheets via Google Suite, using social media and watching Netflix (so basically the average college student). 

But if you want access to a greater variety of software while doing more specialized tasks such as programming, gaming and multimedia production, you might want to spend a bit more on a different operating system.

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