Oour whole school district uses chromebooks for middle school and high school, looks like it IS the right tool.
google docs has a power point equivalent which works just as fine !!
I replied to this before.
It absoultly IS the perfect tool !!
There is a google equivalent for every word/powerpoint tool and google can convert it into doc.
the fact that most games to not run on it ia a plus 
There’s a Lantronix box called the xPrintServer Cloud Edition (black one) that will allow Google Cloud Print with most printers at a basic level. It’s not perfect, but it works for basic printing. ~ $140
Office online is actually not bad, and with Dropbox integration coming later in 2015, it makes the Chromebook even more useful. She may be able to do what she needs, if she has wifi available where she does schoolwork.
The HP Chromebooks are not expandable: the RAM is soldered onto the motherboard so you have to buy either a 2GB or 4GB model (don’t expect to upgrade by installing additional memory).
There are lots of comments from previous purchases on the previous model (second generation HP Chromebook 14). This model is the third generation, if you’re comparing specifications. The display and keyboard appear to be the same. This Chromebook uses an ARM CPU while the previous model had an Intel Haswell CPU. You won’t notice a difference for web browsing, email, etc. but the Intel processor is slightly more convenient for hackers (you can run precompiled Linux distros, try Win32 binaries under WINE, etc.). The 2nd generation has a (very quiet) fan, while the 3rd generation is fanless, which should mean improved battery life. Bottom line, if you intend to use the Chromebook as an appliance, 2GB will work fine. If you want to play around with alternatives other than ChromeOS, 4GB would work better.
For those who asked about printing, I don’t have a “cloud print” enabled printer, but just save files with google drive and print them from another system. But my printing needs are very low-volume. You can also save files on an SD card or USB flash drive and move them to a different computer when you need to print.
That one keeps talking about Haswell processor - its a different model.
You shouldn’t write this off yet. I have been using google drive for almost all my computing instead of the Microsoft Suite as of late. Basically, all of your key programs in MS (word, powerpoint, excel) all have google versions that work almost the same and can be downloaded into a format that can be opened in MS.
I think it would totally work for your daughter. Check out google drive to see for yourself. https://drive.google.com
This. I also have another computer I use for audio editing. However, for everything else, my Chromebook takes care of it. I do wonder about the 2 GB (I have last year’s model - slower processor but 4 GB Ram). I’ve had ten tabs open, for genuine reasons, and have experienced no lag.
There have been a couple of times where my processor chugged - While designing a book cover on Canva and while streaming music through Amazon Prime (which makes no sense to me, as Pandora is fine). Those things aside, I think buying one of these is a no brainer if you spend a great deal of time working in the cloud.
My 2 cents.
From reading your comments, I know that you’re knowledgeable about these, and computers in general, certainly more so than I am, so I hope you can expand on your statement. I’m on my Chromebook right now, I have the online Word app installed, and other MS online apps available. OK, it’s not the full version, as it would be if I were using the full software program installed on my PC, but it’s fine for most of my uses, at least when I’m Web-connected.
So I can’t reconcile your assertion that it doesn’t run Windows apps. Can you explain what you mean? (I hope I’ve communicated this as a sincere question – not trying to be snarky or in-your-face, just curious.)
The important part there is “the online Word app”… that isn’t installing the app, that is using a webpage. It cannot install the app (or any other Windows app, tool, script, widget, etc) but many/most online “apps” (web pages) will work.
#1. It’s a different learning curve with the modified online versions of the few apps you mentioned and they don’t want it to be different.
#2 There’s about four million Windows apps that require real Windows, so the exception does not prove the rule.
I can’t run Adobe Audition, Photofiltre and all the apps that REQUIRE the Windows operating system. That’s because it’s not a Windows machine.
I love my Chromebook and I don’t want it to become a Windows machine.
It doesn’t run Windows apps. It runs a few programs modified to work with Chrome…some well, some not so well. And there are tons of native Windows apps that can’t run, because the Windows OS is simply not there.
I find folks who have a terrible time understanding Windows file management…and they ARE running Windows. I pity the poor kid who has to find “My Documents” on the C: drive of a Windows machine who has grown up using only Chrome!
You got Prime to work? Wow! I did not know it could!
Oh, absolutely. I was pretty naive to think Chrome would work well on a machine designed by Google. The limited number of offline apps was one of the most minor problems this thing had, although few of the offline apps that exist are appropriate for professionals. It’s a machine for kids and grandparents and not many in between.
It seems there are two kinds of Chrome users. Those who want to use them and those who want to make them do something aside from what they were designed for.
Nothing wrong with that.
Interesting that I read a quote from the originator of “Puppy Linux” saying why bother hacking a Chromebook, leave it alone!
Of course, as an enthusiast, it’s always a challenge. But I think some people read about all this and get confused.
I think some will disagree.
I don’t think you’ll regret your purchase. I have the previously mentioned older perl white model. I to thought the small amount of RAM and lower end processor might be a concern - it isn’t, unless you want to run dual HD displays playing netflix and youtube at the same time the device holds on its own. (Unless you tab a lot, the chrome browser is as always RAM hungry- then you can reach some issues but the SSD covers up a lot of the lack of RAM.) With the 2014 Model I can only assume your performance will be better.
As for the display…I’m not a graphics designer or screen freak, but the look of it can be ‘washed out.’ It seems it is not the screen it self but maybe the cheap back-lighting. As for your concern on the screen size, I think you’ll be fine (unless you’re use to a high resolution 15or16" laptop) the 14 is plenty.
My only problem with my chromebook is the trackpad. It is fine when moving your finger around at high speeds, and tracks the multi-touch features well, but when you slowly drag you finger it jumps or doesn’t move. I HATE IT, but I’ve learned to deal with it plus it does have Bluetooth so if you don’t like the trackpad then get a low power mouse. (Disclaimer, my previous ‘laptop’ was a macbook pro which has an absolutely amazing trackpad. Thus my dislike with my chromebook could just be me being way to use to a premium hardware as I’ve had issues with friends “normal” windows laptop trackpads.)
I’m not quite sure about running Linux on this. This has an ARM Tegra K1 processor. According to Archlinux
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chromebook
Unsupported by
Arch Linux ARM
The old HP Chromebooks had Celerons, and that was not an issue, but with certain ARM processors it’s not as easy. Correct me if I’m wrong please.
I guess I understand even less about computers than I originally thought, or maybe it’s just a case of comparing apples and oranges.
The OP asked if his his daughter could use it for schoolwork, with Word, Power Point, etc., and for Netflix. They didn’t ask if could run all apps that require Windows OS. They even sounded open to alternatives (Google, anyone?), so it didn’t seem the learning curve would be that big a deal, at least for this family.
If they had said they were locked into using full versions of programs that require Windows OS to run, I’d agree with your warning them away from a Chromebook, but to me, it sounds fine for their purposes.