Are Chromebooks the future of computing?

Chromebooks have widely been seen as an exciting and innovative way to communicate, work, browse the internet and generally use a computer on the go, but they do have their detractors. There are those, for example, that say Chromebooks do not offer a complete computing solution, and their many limitations are preventing them from really hitting the anticipated heights. The vast majority of Chromebooks only possess 2GB of RAM, and while the lucky ones are blessed with 4GB, memory upgrades are entirely out of the questions due to the slim and lightweight construction of the laptops. Their portable nature is their selling point, so to add more memory, though it would improve performance, would significantly detract from that key feature.

When running software like iTunes, Photoshop and Outlook, as well as regular browsers and programs that many laptops require, the RAM memory of a Chromebook can very easily be eaten up. Those who consider themselves ‘power users’ of laptops would state that Chromebooks are highly impractical due to their memory limitations.

Despite these complaints, there can be no doubt that Chromebooks are gaining traction in certain markets. Acer, for example, is marketing their latest Chromebook offering purely at students; this core demographic don’t need a unit with acres of memory to work on a dissertation or research old papers; they just need a powerful, portable machine that allows them to work on-the-go. Younger users who haven’t grasped all of the most important programs yet, as well as older users who just want to check their email and read the news, will not need anything more than a Chromebook in order to fulfil the requirements they have of their laptop. 

While it’s certainly true that power users are better off investing more in a high-quality laptop, Chromebooks are definitely meeting a certain niche demand for a sleek device that doesn’t hoard memory and will offer guaranteed great performance. For those who desperately need a little more memory, there are ultrabooks, MacBook Pros and other super sleek laptops on the market that can be upgraded with plenty of PC and Apple memory.