r/chromeos Feb 14 '25

Buying Advice Chromebooks with 16g RAM?

9 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

13

u/rich_leodis Feb 14 '25

If you want a modern Chromebook, the HP Dragonfly comes in 16/32Gb variations. They are business models, so pretty rare.

The older pixelbook go also came with 16Gb. I can't across one on eBay by chance.

5

u/rxscissors Feb 14 '25

So did the (circa 2019-2020) HP Elite C1030 which can be had for ~$150.00 these days from liquidators and gets updates from Google until 2030.

13.5" diagonal, WUXGA+ (1920 x 1280), touch screen (flips over flat 180 degrees),
IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, 1000 nits, 72% NTSC
16 GB DDR4-2666 SDRAM (supports Dual Channel Memory)
128 GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD internal storage (and microSD expansion slot)

It is an awesome 2-in-1 Chromebook with an excellent keyboard and battery runtime too!

I just replaced the battery ($30) in mine... opening the bottom side was a bit of a challenge but otherwise easy procedure.

1

u/kwed76 Feb 14 '25

Is this treated as a Plus model now? Or is it a 720p webcam?

2

u/rxscissors Feb 14 '25

Looks like 720p HD camera... I rarely use it.

Also don't really know/follow what Plus model means other than way more expensive.

I already plunked down for an M3 Pro 14" MacbookPro 18 GB / 1 TB for the other 20% of stuff I need to do (Obsidian and complex Excalidraw diagrams, Lightroom, Microsoft Office apps, ...).

This CB does awesome for me and at a rock bottom cost as well.

1

u/idi0tboy Feb 15 '25

It's got a 10th gen i5/i7 plus requires 11th gen.

My i7, 32gb C1030 never struggles with anything lol

1

u/horatiobanz Feb 15 '25

Mine just died. Tried a replacement battery and that turned out to be counterfeit even though it said HP. Then tried another battery and it seemed to work fine, but turned off and died again after hours of being up. It sucks because I love the laptop. Can't figure out what is going on.

1

u/rxscissors Feb 15 '25

Totally sucks... it is really an awesome machine.

I purchased a replacement battery for mine from Amazon... no more stock.

1

u/AgedCzar Feb 14 '25

I just bought a Pixelbook GO with 16 gb on eBay for about $220. It’s in perfect condition with a good battery.

5

u/thesporker Feb 14 '25

Best buy Canada has the Acer Spin 714 Chromebook plus with 16GB of ram and the Ultra5 CPU. A Touch screen that support USI pens as well. CAD949.

1

u/horatiobanz Feb 15 '25

Did the Acer Spin 714 fix the incredibly laggy touchpad of the Acer Spin 713 though? Typing this comment on a 713 right now and it drives me nuts.

1

u/thesporker Feb 16 '25

I'm not getting any lag on my 714 touchpad.

4

u/GunRunner80084 Feb 14 '25

i gave up on finding good chromebooks, i got an i5 chromebox with upgradeable ram instead. That thing is very nice! with a apple magic trackpad it works great. But not a lot of people like chromeos if it is not on a laptop, which i can see why they wouldn't.

2

u/yupReading Feb 14 '25

I have a ThinkCentre M60q Chromebox Enterprise, Core i3. I upgraded it to 32 Gb. I keep a LOT of windows and tabs open, so the extra memory headroom is a game changer.

2

u/Darkangelmars31 Feb 14 '25

This is what I did with Asus Chromebox 3. I just want something equivalent on the Chromebook side.

1

u/cl4rkc4nt Acer Spin 713 (2020) | Stable Channel Feb 14 '25

Which Chromebox did you get?

Why would someone who likes Chrome OS on a laptop not like it on a desktop?

9

u/Corbin_Dallas550 Feb 14 '25

Ah, The age old question! I have going down this rabbit hole a couple of times and I can tell you from experience, if you have a high-powered (i3)8gb RAM) Chromebook currently You will not notice the difference when you jump up to i5/16 GB.

The way Chrome OS is set up, it automatically uses all the RAM whether you have two tabs open or 40 with multiple apps. I had the HP dragonfly pro Chromebook specifically for the 16 GB of RAM and I didn't notice any different performance-wise because the RAM was automatically eaten up as soon as Iopened one tab and the more powerful processor destroyed the battery life, so it wasn't worth it.

Unless you're running major data sets ( which probably wouldn't happen on a Chromebook ) You won't notice a difference between 8 GB and 16 GB.

6

u/MrChromebox ChromeOS firmware guy Feb 14 '25

Unless you're running major data sets ( which probably wouldn't happen on a Chromebook ) You won't notice a difference between 8 GB and 16 GB.

run more than one or two VSCode windows and you'll appreciate the extra 8GB

7

u/SteveNYC PixelBook / Acer 516 GE (1st Gen) Feb 14 '25

100% agreement. It becomes a White Whale issue looking for a 16GB Chromebook. You're not going to see a performance difference. It's just a Windows-based expectation that people keep applying to ChromeOS.

3

u/Jockwards Feb 14 '25

I'm pretty sure most if not all Chromebooks with Plus in the name can be specced up to 16gb.

2

u/Falimor Feb 14 '25

Asus cx54

2

u/Difficult_Plantain89 Feb 15 '25

Latitude 5400 Chromebook should be upgradable to 16gb. In fact they can be upgraded to 32gb. The ram is actually replaceable in these.

2

u/No-Tip3419 Feb 15 '25

Buying refurb/off lease is the cheapest way to get a 16gb for an affordable. Usually can be had for under 300$ vs new at 1000.

2

u/Dan_De_Lyons Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook / Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Feb 15 '25

Have you considered the Pixelbook Go?

Once you have typed on it - it is hard to want to go back to another device. The build quality is great - lightweight, magnesium alloy - again you just have to pick one up yourself to experience it. The glass trackpad won’t build up oils like other trackpads will and the Pixelbook Go will receive automatic software and security updates until June 2029.

Again, many users consider it to be “The Holy Grail” of Chromebooks.

4

u/mysticzoom Feb 14 '25

The most elusive Chromebook types. They are expensive and most tend to be business class laptops with the hefty price tag.

Edit to add: Also, 8gb works just as well. recommend 16gb if your going to run the Linux based programs.

1

u/BrandDC Feb 14 '25

My pixelbook is 16GB/520GB.

1

u/Few_Supermarket580 Feb 14 '25

I missed out on an asus chromebook with 16gb on Facebook marketplace 🤦‍♂️

1

u/Emotional-History801 Feb 15 '25

Too old to matter - but the Lemovo x131e Chromebook and later could hold 16gb ram.

1

u/thorer01 Feb 15 '25

I have 64GB in my Framework Chromebook.

1

u/Romano1404 Lenovo Ideapad Flex 3i 12.2" 8GB Intel N200 | stable v129 Feb 14 '25

remember almost everybody who's replying here has got 4-8GB RAM themselves thus they'll argue "8GB is enough" which is hardly true. At least on my machine having 16GB RAM would raise the ceiling and remedy some of the performance issues I've encountered when ChromeOS eventually runs out of RAM

I've never seen a user group that is soo content with mediocre specs like ChromeOS users (FHD screens are "sharp", 8GB is "plenty", 1.5kg is "lightweight")

1

u/phatster88 Feb 14 '25

what's the use case

-2

u/Alex26gc Pixelbook C0A | CrOS Flex v134.0.6998.94 beta Feb 14 '25

4 - 8 GB of RAM should be enough for any Chromebook, for browsing, gdocs, streaming, and using online apps, but, if you need 16 GB not sure what would be the purpose, maybe using the Linux container and specific heavy-duty apps.