New report highlights why buyers should be careful of cheap Chromebooks

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

• Chromebooks are cheaper than comparable Windows counterparts, but a new report highlights that their components for repair are challenging to locate and purchase.
• Google’s eight-year automatic update guarantee for Chromebooks starts running from the day of certification and not purchase, meaning buyers are left with shorter update windows.
• This also affects their resale value.

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Chromebooks have become synonymous with cheap computers, largely in a positive way. They are inexpensive laptops that run Chrome OS and are perfect for browser-based use cases, such as online learning. You can spend about $200-400 and get a decent machine, providing a better experience than a similar-priced Windows laptop. However, this low price tag comes with some hidden costs, as schools in the US are just finding out about their Chromebooks.

According to a new report titled “Chromebook Churn” by the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (via TheVerge), schools that bulk purchased Chromebooks in 2020 when the pandemic hit are now seeing these laptops starting to break. That is a small problem by itself, but the bigger problem is that these Chromebooks are relatively harder to upgrade and repair when compared to their Windows counterpart.

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