Chromebooks have come a long, long way since I first used one. It helps that so much of what we do every day happens in a browser, so, in a way, we've met Chromebooks halfway. Either way, it's entirely possible to use a Chromebook as your only computer. The question is, what are you giving up by doing so?
Limitations with professional and legacy software
As far as ChromeOS has come, if you're a professional that needs to use certain applications from disciplines like engineering, science, and so on, there's just no way to run that software in many cases. Some modern Chromebooks can run Android or Linux applications, but there are various limitations here as well. For example, getting GPU acceleration to work on the Linux virtual machine in Chrome OS is a hassle, and even if you get it working it might not work reliably or as expected.
Performance ceilings that show up over time
I have a Core i3-based Chromebook Plus, which honestly has impressed me with its general performance. However, even this upgraded Chromebook doesn't have the processing power and memory to do more than light- to medium-multitasking. My MacBook and my Windows workstation laptop can both handle dozens of apps and a hundred tabs with no issue, but my Chromebook would struggle with just a fraction of that.
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Most people don't need this level of capability often if ever, but if a Chromebook was your only computer, and you did need heavier app or multitasking capability at some point, you'd run into a performance ceiling. Of course, these days you can just rent a powerful computer in the cloud to use as you need it, but that does add monetary cost to the Chromebook you already bought.
High-performance Chromebooks do exist, but I've argued in the past against buying high-end Chromebooks because of the inherent limitations of ChromeOS. There are plans to merge ChromeOS and Android , but its unclear how much that will make high-end Chromebooks viable.
Hardware expandability and peripheral constraints
Maybe it's not fair to level up the issue of expandability at Chromebooks specifically in a world of Mac and Windows laptops with soldered RAM or SoCs that have built-on storage you can't upgrade. Still, the fact remains that apart from an SD card slot, or using USB storage, there's not much you can do to upgrade your Chromebook's storage.
Some Chromebooks have had upgradable RAM in the past, but these days it's normal for it to be soldered without the ability to upgrade. As I said, that's not uncommon in Windows and Mac laptops, but cheaper laptops in the price range Chromebooks usually occupy do tend to have the option to install a bigger SSD or more RAM.
You're also more limited in the peripherals you can use, since there might not be a driver for a specific USB device that will work on ChromeOS.
Offline reliability varies more than people expect
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While Chromebooks aren't nearly as reliant on an internet connection as they were at first, there's no denying that they still have more of an internet dependency than other types of computer running other operating systems. Part of this comes from a lack of native applications for ChromeOS, which forces you to use the web version of those apps.
Even when using Google's own native software on your Chromebook, you need to take special care to ensure your data is available when you're offline. Such as marking which of your Google documents should be available without Wi-Fi before you step on a plane or a train. Since storage is often quite limited on a Chromebook, you can't just sync everything and call it a day, so this does add an extra layer of difficulty.
That said, fewer and fewer places in the world aren't covered by some form of internet connectivity, so over time this is one issue that could solve itself.
Hidden ecosystem lock-in and long-term cost trade-offs
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Again, you could level this accusation at any brand of computer these days, but from one point of view, Chromebooks aren't about selling you hardware. They're about selling you subscriptions in the long term. My Chromebook Plus came with a year of Google Gemini , and a year of free Google cloud storage.
This seems generous, but the idea is to give you a taste of these services, and if you let those subscriptions lapse, you'll soon learn how limited your Chromebook becomes without Google's integrated cloud services behind it. At least on a MacBook or Windows PC, you have options to get by without a subscription, or you can subscribe to the services of competitors, but the level of lock-in on Chromebooks is a fair bit tighter than this.
Chromebooks are fantastic devices for the money, when you apply them to the right problem, but it's important to know what you're getting into and how much it will really cost over the lifespan of the device.
