A brand new, boxed Chromebook. Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 Chromebook (I3-1115G4, 8 GB RAM, 64 GB eMMC, Brand New)

I will only use this device for school assignments and occasionally watching movies. The device seems a bit old, and I haven't kept up-to-date with current prices. The asking price is $246. Is it worth it?

  • No. Do you have a costco near you and have costco membership or someone with membership?

    i3 n355 Asus Chromebook on sale for $199. It has 256GB storage and 8GB RAM

    Touchscreen as well and comes with a year of Google AI pro membership.

    I think people sleeping on the recent N-series CPUs which are 8-cores and even have Xe graphics.

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    isnt the n355 poor performance brother of i3 11th gen ?

    parent root

    Emmc will make 11gen worse.

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  • i would say it is a good deal

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  • I have a similar Chromebook and it's very fast, except it only has 128GB of NVMe storage.

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  • imo , better to get ssd drive or ufs. The official acer refurbish ebay store has some good ones for under 200

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  • I'd try and get one with 256 gb of space. I use about 128 gb now.

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  • Look into the Lenovo 3i Chromebook with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. 8GB RAM and 128GB storage should be the bare minimum for a "pleasant" ChromeOS experience.

    There's also this option which is honestly more of a tablet+keyboard, but it comes with a free USI pen: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/lenovo/lenovo-edu-chromebooks/lenovo-chromebook-duet-gen-9-11-inch-mediatek/

    And this one (this model doesn't have a touchscreen), even though buying ASUS products at Best Buy means Best Buy handles the warranty: https://www.bestbuy.com/product/asus-cx14-14-fhd-chromebook-plus-laptop-with-google-ai-intel-core-3-8gb-memory-128gb-emmc-misty-grey/

    TL;DR: That's not a good price for that Chromebook - there are better options out there with similar price points.

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  • I just got a 2025 Chromebook from Best Buy for $120

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  • Is it not possible to increase the memory capacity? I have a 256GB NVMe SSD and I can install one.

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  • I'd prefer not to buy it. Honestly, I know people who have them and they're not very satisfied. Most of them have low-end hardware, which is understandable given the price, but nowadays you can find refurbished computers with decent specs for almost the same price.

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  • Don't do it, if you don't care about Android apps (and with 64gb eMMC you really wont anyway), and you still want ChromeOS, get a cheap laptop and put Flex on it. For that price you can probably find something on ebay with double the ram and 512gb storage

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  • I buy the cheapest used banger on amazon I can and pound it.

    Im sure its fine. I usually spend around a hundred bucks (cdn)

    I think mine is like a 2019 or something

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  • I would not buy it. Get a basic tablet instead, such as the A16 or something similar.

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    As the owner of both a basic tablet and a Chromebook, the Chromebook far outperforms the tablet, unless you are willing to spend the cost of a laptop on the tablet, in which case, just buy a laptop. 

    parent root

    Outperform for what exactly? Cause if you need to take notes for school (which is what OP is interested in), a tablet is a better choice.

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    If you are thinking of a tablet that you can write on with a stylus, that is not my definition of a basic tablet.  A CB is a middle ground between a tablet and a laptop. IMO it is a better productivity tool than a basic tablet, which is more useful for entertainment purposes. 

    parent root

    You probably mix “basic” tablet with “junk” tablet. In my opinion, the A16 is a basic tablet. It has everything needed for note taking and entertainment. Android tablets under 100-200 $ are just junk.

    parent root

    Unless the tablet is from Google it will be stuck waiting for OS updates.

    Chromebook are far better.

    parent root

    Cars are better than Chromebooks then. /s

    What you are missing is the purpose of using a specific device. For note taking in school, I’m sorry, you are wrong. A tablet with a stylus is MUCH better. It gives you the option to write on PDF, underline words, add pictures, diagrams, the entire lecture and so forth.

    Any laptop, including any Chromebook, is far worse in this activity, which is what OP presumably would do.

    For other purposes, a windows laptop, a Mac, a Chromebook might be equal or better.

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    Pencil and paper much better.. works even in space. Stupid.

    Assignments are often dozen pages. Do you want to use tablet to ruin your eyes? Or buy a desktop mode compatible tablet that costs> 500.

    Use your brain

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  • Just buy an iPad then, they cost 350$ as of 2025

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