Longtime readers of this column know of my fondness for Chromebooks as my go-to utility tool for general computer work. It’s been that way pretty much since 2012, when I ordered the first units to be used at a school in Canada.
Last year, I wrote about how my then-current Chromebook, a workhorse Acer 738T, had reached its end of life. Not so much its physical end of life, mind you, but a stipulated end of life by the gatekeeper of all things Chromebook, Google.
Since the first Chromebooks appeared a dozen years ago, Google has spelled out a so-called auto-update policy, AUP, which identifies an end-of-life date for browser-based machines. Initially, that was as little as just three years. Over time, this has increased, and for the most recently released machines, it is now ten years.
Think about that from the perspective of your cell phone. Will your mobile receive a decade’s worth of updates? Not likely, but even that technology is feeling pressure from consumers tired of replacing their handsets every couple of years.
In my own case, the 738T had an end-of-life date of June 2022. This meant that shortly after that month, it stopped receiving automatic updates of ChromeOS, the operating system that runs Chromebooks. Since Google has been releasing such updates about every month or so, my Chromebook has quickly begun to fall behind. After a few months, I noticed some odd behaviour in a Google Docs spreadsheet. That was the moment I decided to begin my hunt for a replacement.
My 738T was a heavily used device. Multiple hours of usage every day, recharged every day, for more than seven years. The screen was beginning to dim, and battery usable time had fallen from more than twelve to under two.
I decided I wasn’t going to buy new. A replacement would come through the Facebook Marketplace. I’ve noted before that the Marketplace always has many local Chromebook listings, dozens typically. Some are old machines that have been heavily used. Some are billed as new but have actually received little or no use and have sat in a cupboard for years. And others are actually nearly new with little real use. This latter category was what I set my sights on.
Chromebooks are a frequently misunderstood technology, and as a result, they are often returned to the point of purchase with virtually no use. Some think they are a straight replacement for a Windows laptop. They aren’t, and they should not be expected to be.
In addition, I set some criteria for the replacement machine over and above age: backlit keyboard, USB-C charging (no more oddball charging pins, thank you, European Union), a 1080 screen, more than five years of update life, big battery capacity, at least one USB-3.0 port, HDMI port, and a beefy processor that would let me work with the dozens of tabs I always have open.
Patience is important when buying through Facebook Marketplace. Sometimes, sellers don’t really understand what they are selling. Sometimes, sellers deliberately mischaracterize a listing. Sometimes, a great listing is gone before you notice it. No need to panic. Another is surely around the proverbial corner.
When buying a Chromebook, the key information you need is the full model name and number. Only with that can you determine how many years of use remain before automatic updates cease. As I began following Marketplace Chromebook listings, I began writing sellers to get the full actual name. Many didn’t know where to look. Almost none had heard of the AUP. There were numerous listings for Chromebooks well past the AUP expiry date.
Eventually, I zeroed in on models from Lenovo and from Acer. I was close to completing a deal on a fine Lenovo model that satisfied my criteria. I pressed the seller for additional confirmation on some of the listing’s parameters. Unfortunately, neither the amount of RAM nor the processor type matched the listing. That sale was off.
As part of my search process, I decided to educate sellers if they knew the AUP expiry date for their listings. Invariably, no one knew the term. I contacted dozens of sellers through their Facebook Marketplace listings. Around 90 per cent of the Chromebooks for sale here in Metro Vancouver were already past their AUP expiry date or had just a few years to go.
Eventually, I hit paydirt, so to speak. A Chromebook billed as new, checking off all my requirements. In fact, it is better than I could have specified. An i5 processor, a 128 GB SSD storage drive, and 8 GB of RAM. And a bonus, if you will, in the screen form factor. Instead of the typical 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio, this listing was for a rare 3:2 aspect ratio. Perfect for a writer: more lines of text on the screen and a correspondingly deeper keyboard base.
I used Facebook Messenger to establish and confirm the listing details. Yes, new. Received from work as a bonus gift but never used. Yes, just $200. And, yes, Acer Spin 713, model CP713 2W, which checked out on Google’s AUP list as good through June 2030. For good measure, I had the seller send me a photo of the label from the bottom of the machine. It’s really the only way to be sure of what you are buying.
A deal was struck. I agreed to the listing price, which was far below the store price for that machine when it last appeared at retail about a year ago. Since the pickup was to be at a residence in the Olympic Village, I went with two others. A quick look at the unit to confirm it indeed looked completely new, and the sale was complete.
It’s been four months now with the replacement Chromebook. It’s been terrific. The machine has been perfect. It has a silky smooth trackpad, a terrific keyboard, and a superb screen. It has sped up my work, especially anything involving graphics and cross-posting to various social media sites. And of course, it has seen heavy use for the writing of this column over that time.
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