So you’re saying this is going to be faster than my current iPhone 7?

One of the reasons I still use a flip phone is to avoid staring at a screen when I’m out to dinner with friends, seeing a movie in a theater, driving.

This holds for Fires too. Another trick... 99% of what’s “on your Kindle” is already backed up in the cloud. If you deactivate it, wipe it and restore it as a new device, there’s no penalty... and you get a fresh, empty device that you can clutter up again over time.

I never thought to look in the menus. Just hold down the power button until something happens.

It goes beyond just “sluggish” behavior, my Kindle Voyage was refusing to turn off when I closed the cover yesterday resulting in unexpected page turns. A reboot fixed it for me. We tend to forget that Kindles and smart phones are computers too, they do best when restarted every once in a while.

I bought my Chromebook last year, expecting to use it as the computer that I lugged back and forth to campus each day to teach my classes. That way, my Dell/Windows laptop could be spared some abuse.

Buy the best you can afford and don’t compromise. Remember, unless you want to have to deal with upgrading every few years, future-proof as much as possible. The time and stress a speedy computer can save you is priceless. For some people, the space (depending on what you’re buying) and weight can make a difference…

I’ll stand by my Lenovo ThinkPad yoga any day of the week. Except for the screen. It has this habit of ghosting no matter how I set the display.

I agree. I switched to a chromebook over a year ago, and have been a really happy camper! I don’t miss the overhead that comes with Windows — not at all!

I struggled with expensive, bulky, troublesome Windows laptops for more than 20 years. But then, a couple of months ago, I tried a Chromebook. OMG! Such a simple trouble free machine. No antivirus or firewall software needed, no system crashes, no annoying operating system updates, no time-consuming software updates,…

Strangely enough, my husband and I like to be in the same room, facing each other, even when we’re on our computers. He has a gaming laptop, I have a higher-end laptop for photo processing, because it’s nice to be comfy AND in the same room with my sweetie AND able to play/work on the computer—all at the same time. Or…

“required a hip replacement, but the X120e fired up at the hospital just fine”

I think a lot of people could get away with a Chromebook. I’ve been amazed by how much I’ve liked Asus’s Chromebook Flip. Weighs under two pounds, nice aluminum chassis, does most everyday tasks well, battery lasts me for a day. Of course, I wouldn’t want to develop applications on it or do anything with heavyweight…

I agree. That’s basically what the linked article is saying too. Perhaps I didn’t explain it well enough in the post, but the point is a cheap laptop stuffed with high-end components you don’t need is the real waste.

Nope. Just know the difference between flash and solid build. My Thinkpads are made of black plastic. BORING. But they’re strong enough to survive. And I don’t spend a lot of time looking at the case, in any event.

There’s a lot to be said for a sturdy machine. (full disclosure: I tend to buy used, so my price point is closer to $200). For that, I have bought machines like the Lenovo X120e (5 years ago) and its upgraded version, the X140e (about a year ago).

I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $450 for a laptop. I never saw the point. I always buy the lowest model of a notebook that can be upgraded and make changes as needed.

Well put... I completely agree.