Anyone who has looked into buying a Chromebook will have noticed that they are cheaper than traditional laptops. Naturally this leads to everyone asking why are Chromebooks cheap? Let’s first have an overview of what a Chromebook is.
What is a Chromebook?
At a quick glance a Chromebook looks visually similar to a regular laptop. It’s only when you turn it in that you’ll notice the main difference – that it runs an operating system called ChromeOS, not Windows or MacOS. You’ll find Chromebooks do a lot of their processing and tasks using the cloud which reduces the need for a powerful processor and a large amount of RAM.
In order to be accessible to a wide market Chromebooks are designed to be easy to use, intuitive, and able to be used straight out of the box. If you have used a mobile phone before then using Chromebook’s Chrome OS will be straightforward. Chrome OS has many similarities to a mobile operating system, particularly you will be downloading apps from the Google Play Store to use on your Chromebook.
To be even more accessible to the public, companies focus on keeping the prices of Chromebooks down which has also helped fuel their popularity. Let’s take a look at why Chromebooks are cheap in more detail.
So, why are Chromebooks cheap?
Chromebooks are cheap due to their low specification. Compared to regular laptops they are smaller, have less processing power, have less RAM and less storage. All these factors mean they are cheaper to produce as the component parts are not as expensive to make as they are not as powerful.
In addition to being lower specification devices, Chromebooks are also built mainly of plastic. This allows their chassis’s to be cheap to produce and keeps them lightweight and portable. Don’t let this put you off though – they are still built to be high quality devices for the mass market.
The operating system Chrome OS is free so there aren’t any hidden costs like you will find on a regular laptop having to licence the Windows operating system. Savings are also made by using Google’s free suite of apps such as Docs, Sheets and Drive – yet more licence fees avoided by not using Microsoft Office or 365! You’ll also find that as Chromebook’s are not powerful computers capable of gaming or video editing, there are no expensive software packages. Almost everything in the Google Play Store is able to run on your Chromebook.
Are Chromebooks worth it?
There are many benefits to purchasing a Chromebook. If you are looking for something to browse the web, carry out basic tasks and be easy to use, then a Chromebook is definitely worth it. There’s no need to spend over $500 on a regular laptop when all you want use it for is basic tasks.
Modern Chromebooks are more powerful than ever before, helping you to complete those tasks seamlessly and with next to no lag. Word processing, internet browsing, video streaming, playing mobile games – all effortless on most Chromebooks these days.
So if you don’t require major processing power for your computing needs a Chromebook could be worth it for you. They’re also really easy to maintain, a factory reset can be completed in under 10 minutes!
Why do schools use cheap Chromebooks?
Chromebooks are such popular devices within underfunded and cash strapped education systems all around the world. When we ask why are Chromebooks cheap, you’d be surprised to learn that educational establishments can get them for even cheaper when purchased in bulk! So not only are they easy to use and versatile, but they are budget friendly too.
Hardware wise Chromebooks generally have SSDs installed which are more robust than traditional hard drives and less likely to break if dropped. The sizes of the devices are also perfect for students to fit in their bags and transport with them.
Chrome OS also makes them really easy to administer for IT departments due to how easy they are to maintain. Not to mention how almost everything is cloud based so they can be almost impossible for a student to mess something up. Being cloud based also means students can log into almost any Chromebook and have the same access to their files and suite of apps.
Conclusion
We have explored why Chromebooks are cheap and the reasons behind this. With Chromebooks becoming cheaper and cheaper, more people are buying them and adjusting to a new life without Microsoft Windows!
