Hello Dell friends,
These Chromebooks came out a month or so before. Where are the reviews? I'm not sure how does it work these days, but don't you, the manufacturer send out review units to relevant media for reviewing purposes these days?
1. Specs.
From your new Chromebooks 3180, 3189, and 3380, which are fanless, if any? They seem to come with similar/different Celeron processors (when not i3).
Important question: what are the notable differences on the insides of the 3180, 3189, and 3380 Chromebook and Windows models, namely:
- Wi-Fi module
- Keyboard quality (sure, the layouts are different, but the quality?)
- Touchpad quality
- Screen quality
I intend to run Linux on it, that's why I'm asking.
What are the known specs for the screens of 3180, 3189, and 3380 Chromebooks, most notably brightness in nits, and viewing angles? For the touch and non-touch models alike. Are the non-touch models all come with TN panels, while the touch models with IPS displays?
Is the overall build quality of your 3180, 3189, and 3380 series (Chromebook and Windows) generally better than the build quality of your Inspiron 3000 series? (You know, as a reasonable customer I find it funny, confusing, and a little frustrating how PC builders - excluding Apple - differentiate their laptops. If I'm a home or home office consumer, meaning, I don't need a Pro Windows license - and I'm not opting for the Chromebook, you - and other PC manufacturers similarly - offer me mediocre to *** build quality, think of the Inspiron 3000 series - with its miniaturized keyboard, to add insult to injury. I'm not a school or enterprise to require a Pro Windows license - I don't want to pay such a 'tax' if not necessary -, but going with your school/enterprise offering seems to be the only option for a decent build quality these days. I don't quite get the logic: aren't the same, or similar people use enterprise, school, home, and home office laptops? I mean, people are people. As long as you are in a corporate or school setting - according to PC manufacturers -, you deserve normal build quality. As soon as you arrive home, or to your home office - meanwhile, you are the exact same person -, you are downgraded to deal with mediocre to *** build quality hardware. Logic?) Likely I have to hack a Chrome to ultrabook, as this seems to be the only viable choice, to a growing number of concerning users.
2. International availability.
I'm in Germany. I haven't checked with all the European Dell pages, your new Chromebooks seem to be available in the US, the UK, but not in Germany. How about other Euroland countries?
What are the unique model numbers - speaking of US and European model numbers, if they are different - for the
- $219.00 Chromebook 3180
- $239.00 Chromebook 3180
- $259.00 Chromebook 3180
- $299.00 Chromebook 3380
- $429.00 Chromebook 3380
Basically all non-touch models. So I may be able to track down a reseller which is willing to ship internationally/I can smuggle a Chromebook, a more than 5-year old concept into a major European country. (Truth to be told, I'm not really keen on touchscreen laptops. With respect to your business, I find it a stupid idea to begin with. You may want to consult Apple Industrial Design on this one.)
3. Hacking.
I'm looking the service manuals. Namely, the service manual for model 3180, as the service manual for model 3380 isn't uploaded to the support page yet. I want to add a drive of adequate capacity to convert it to an ultrabook. If I understand correctly, model 3180 has a soldered-on eMMC flash storage, and a single M.2 occupied by the audio card, which may be replaced by a bootable M.2 SSD. Is that correct? The RAM is also soldered to the motherboard, non-upgradeable - correct? What about the Wi-Fi module? Isn't it a removeable M.2 slot as well?
Lastly, can we expect a 8 GB Chromebook anytime soon by Dell? Other companies already came out with their latest 8 GB Chromebooks, and Dell had such a model in the past, too. And according to this Reddit post, these previous Dell Chromebooks - unlike the new ones -, were available in Euroland, too.