They’d be fine for most of the people I know. Of course then I wouldn’t get a steady stream of £ to fix relatives Windows problems, but I’d gladly forego the money to never have to deal with Windows again.
If they crop up on Amazon for £100 again I’ll pick one up to play with and then it’ll probably go to my mother to replace her ancient Thinkpad T61 running Ubuntu MATE.
I gave my mother a chromebook and she hasn’t needed support since (well there was the time PC World sold her a windows only printer after she went in asking for a printer compatible with her chromebook…)
So either she’s not had any problems since or she’s decided never to call me for support again after I lumbered her with the chromebook… win win either way 
This! The impression here is that they’re almost throwaway machines.
It’s a bit of a strange one, I guess no Chromebook really can run a web browser too much better than another (can it?) so you’re paying a premium for decent hardware, but the hardware you’re getting for the price is not as good as a comparable windows machine. It’s a dilemma when you don’t want a windows machine but don’t want a flimsy Chromebook either.
I think ultimately I will either go for the Asus C302, wait for the Google hardware event that @anon12104950 suggested or just not bother and wait for a bit and see what comes up.
In my experience, what paying a premium price gets you is:
better screen (larger and/or higher resolution)
metal body (instead of plastic body)
…
That’s about it really.
It’s not so much that they’re throwaway machines, but the intention is for you to be able to do the basics on them; so, web browsing, email, documents, spreadsheets. Maybe a bit of streaming video. But that’s more or less it, really.
Photo editing? Video editing? Games? Anything computationally intensive, a Chromebook isn’t going to cut it. If you’re looking at a top-line Chromebook for the power, then you’d actually be better off looking to the ‘real’ laptops instead. Otherwise you have to ask why you’re looking to pay a premiun for little added functionality.
Sure, a metal body is nice. But does it actually add functionality? Is it worth the extra cost?
I’ve an Acer R11 and I’m very happy with it. Does what I want it to and cost me a pittance compared to almost every other option I was looking at at the time.
The Pixelbook is £749 ATM if anyone is interested.
Still tempted, but I can’t shake the fact that it was/is $750 in the US and with the exchange rate that’s like £580. The price difference will pay for a good chunk of the flight to go get it 
You’d be better off getting a Surface laptop and then just installing Google Chrome tbf
It was an extra 10% off that at Best Buy last weekend and i still resisted. Think I should have just pulled the trigger now.
Is the US price with taxes added as well?
Depends where you go.
In Oregon, where I used to live (and still have family), there’s no sales tax.
Dont buy a chromebook. Chrome OS is still half baked and needs more development. Better get a windows device or an iPad or you can also get tablets like the galaxy s4 from samsung.
I’m liking the OS 70 update. My Asus Flip’s tablet mode looks a bit more appealing now 
Finally ordered a C302ca and just waiting for it to arrive from Amazon 
Wish google would hurry up with the slate