Two years ago, I bought my mother her third Chromebook. The 2012 and 2014 ones were good choices. The 2019 was when I learned about the secret Chromebook end of life policy and inadvertently bought a Chromebook that expired in only two years. So here we are again.
I went the Best Buy like the last three times. This time I chose to use Best Buy online so I could easily return it if it didn’t work. However, i did not go to the store to buy it. Instead, I started by looking at the expiration dates.
Selecting a model
I started by making a list of all the Chromebooks that expire in 2028 or 2029. Then I looked at screensize, CPU, hard drive and connectors. I also confirmed there was a security slot for my mother’s existing Kensington lock.
Comparing the stats from 2 years ago
Last time I got my mother a laptop with good speakers for music. This time, the speakers aren’t as good so I got her external speakers. This laptop cost twice as much as last time. However, I didn’t know I was getting such a good deal last time because the machine was due to expire.
| Acer (2019) | Acer (2021) | |
| Screen size | 15.6″ | 14″ |
| Price | $240 | $479 |
| CPU | Intel 1.6 GHz | Intel 2.6 GHz |
| RAM | 4 GB | 4GB |
| Hard Drive | 16GB | 54GB |
| USB | 2 USB 3.0 | 2 USB 3.0 + 2 USB C |
| HDMI | Yes | No. Bought USB C to display port adapter |
| Weight | 4.41 lbs | 3.42 lbs |
| Headphone jack | Yes | Yes |
| Battery life | 12 hours | 10 hours |
Setting up the Chromebook
- I got started and connected to my home wiki.
- Signed in as both my mother and myself. Also uploaded a profile photo for me that she likes better than my gmail one.
- Confirmed the wallpaper was solid light blue
- Made a recovery disk. I installed the ChromeBoook recovery utility on my Chrome browser on Mac to do so.
- Accepted Google Play/Google Drive since I want to use an app. I did not enable location services.
- Tested the all four USB ports headphones and that a Kensington security lock works
- On settings
- disabled Bluetooth
- disabled sync for passwords/addresses/google pay
- changed time zone to Pacific
- turned off check if have payment methods saved
- on site settings, set microphone and camera to ask before recommended
- Installed Keep Awake browser extension
- Covered camera
- Finally, I deleted a bunch of apps. This time I did it from the Chrome OS settings so I didn’t need to right click. I left amazon music, chrome, files, gmail, play store and web store. I also plan to install Zoom but waiting to do that together so my mother can learn how to install an app