Anyone heading out to buy a laptop or notebook computer this year is guaranteed to come across a new addition to the market – the Chromebook. Chances are you’ve heard of them by now and you might also have seen them in one or two stores, but in terms of what they are and what they do, there’s still a fair amount of confusion.

After all, when you see a £150 Chromebook on sale next to a £350 entry-level laptop, you can’t help but think it’s a bit of a no-brainer…but is it really?

Chromebook Selling Points

For the sake of those new to the whole Chromebook idea, basically what you’re looking at is a web access device built around Google’s Chrome operating system. Now, what makes Google’s Chrome OS different from say Windows or Linux is the way in which it has been designed to work in conjunction with an Internet connection and cloud computing. As such, pretty much everything you do with a Chromebook happens online – you have access to Office Online, all manner of apps and pretty much everything else the web has to throw at you.

As for the arguments in favour of Chromebooks, not only are they extremely affordable…at least at entry-level…but their performance is nothing to be sniffed at either. As they aren’t clogged and cluttered with all manner of unnecessary garbage they load up quickly, perform fluidly and offer seriously impressive battery life – at least six hours in most cases, sometimes up to ten.

What’s more, they’re also incredibly compact and lightweight, there are cellular versions available for those needed round-the-clock connections and they really couldn’t be easier to use.

As for the bad stuff – if you don’t have a strong and reliable Internet connection at any given time, a Chromebook is about as much use as a paperweight. In addition, entry-level models do the business for the basics, but you can forget about running any powerful apps or games unless willing to spend a hell of a lot more. And then of course there’s the fact that being limited to only the apps and content Google approves is also a bit of a bind.

Laptop Selling Points

As for laptops, the selling points are for the most part self-explanatory. Scope for power is enormous – laptops range from entry-level word processors to incredibly powerful gaming machines of epic proportions. What’s more, most laptops are also very easy to upgrade, expand and modify, which cannot be said for Chromebooks.

Perhaps the biggest selling point of all however is that a Windows or Linux laptop…or a MacBook for that matter…is in no way dependent on an Internet connection to operate. Offline working is crucial to so many users, in which case laptops are the only real option.

In terms of downsides, a powerful laptop will always cost more than a Chromebook, battery life is rarely as good, the machines tend to be much larger and heavier and there’s also a lot more that can go wrong with a laptop.

And the Best Buy?

It all comes down to what the machine is to be used for, though it’s generally said that unless you already have at least one PC or laptop, a Chromebook alone may not be enough to get by on.