Update: The sale has apparently ended. The price now shows as $58.98 (U.S.). That’s still a bargain in my opinion although not quite as attractive as the earlier sale price.
Here is my original article:
If you have been reading this newsletter for some time, you probably realize I am a fan of Chromebooks. One thing that amazes me is the prices of these little devices keep dropping all the time. Almost every week I exclaim, "That is the lowest price I have ever seen!" Well, it happened again this week. $48!
Over at Walmart, you can now buy a refurbished HP Chromebook 11 G5 for just $48 (The price was $56 but the new sale price is even cheaper).
OK, at this price you are NOT going to obtain a top-of-the-line powerhouse. This is a basic bottom-of-the-line computer. However, it will do most everything that the much more expensive devices will do.
At $48, the HP Chromebook 11 G5 has an 11-inch screen (that's rather small... if you have vision problems, you won't enjoy using that small screen). It contains a 1.60 GHz Intel Celeron processor. That probably is going to provide mediocre speed. It has 4 gigabytes of DDR3 RAM memory which is plenty for a device with a Celeron processor, and 16 gigabytes of SSD "disk" drive (which you will probably never fill up because the default of Chromebooks is to store everything in the cloud, not in a local disk drive). While Chromebooks will perform many functions without an internet connection, you will undoubtedly want to also have a wi-fi connection to the internet to obtain full use of a Chromebook.
Even with those drawbacks, you will still be able to perform probably 98% of the most common computer tasks: read and write email, surf the web, send and receive files, access social media web sites, access genealogy web sites (such as MyHeritage, FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, and many more), play lots of games (although not all of the games that require high-powered processors), create and access word processing applications, spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, and more.
As a $48 Chromebook, this is an ideal device for use when travling to access your email and more (why expose your $1,000 or more laptop to damage or theft?), as a first computer for a child (it has a real keyboard), or for use by a senior citizen or other non-computer-literate adult. Not bad for a fraction of the cost you’ll pay for a Windows laptop with the same level of performance!
This is a sale price and I have no idea how long the low price will be available. But even the "full price" of $56 is still attractive.
You can check it out at https://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Chromebook-11-G5-11-Google-Chromebook-1-60-GHz-Intel-Celeron-Laptop-4GB-DDR3-RAM-16GB-SSD-Chrome-OS/784901023?athbdg=L1600&from=searchResults
Note: That is not an affiliate link. I won't be compensated in any way if you decide to purchase this Chromebook. I am simply happy with my (admittedly more expensive) Chromebook and want to share my experiences with the readers of this newsletter.