Thousands of Chromebooks bought by schools are breaking, beyond repair

Be careful if you give cane to your chromebook. It could break hopelessly. A report from the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund concludes that thousands of Chromebooks purchased by schools during the pandemic, they are breakingand they are very difficult to repair.

The coronavirus forced schools and institutes to close, so many of them chose to buy computers for their students, to teach from home. Most opted for a Chromebook, because they cost half as much as a Windows laptop, and are designed for online work.

But now, barely three years later, what seemed like a cheap option may turn out to be the most expensive: a public report that has analyzed this purchase has found that thousands of Chromebooks have started to break by the keyboard, the screen or the hinges, and they are very complicated to fix.

They have also encountered an additional problem: the Software updates expire in 2 or 3 years, and the Chromebooks they will be little more than a brick.

The unfinished business of Chromebooks

A chromebook it costs an average of about 250 euros, while a Windows laptop costs almost double.

The problem is that the build quality of cheap Chromebooks is lowand in environments of extreme use, as occurs with children, parts such as the keyboard, the screen waves hinges.

The public report He has detected than half of the replacement keyboards that brands offer they are not in stockand the ones that are sold cost 90 dollars, which is nearly half the cost of the entire Chromebook. Even more difficult is finding screens or hinges.

Another additional problem is that Google offers 8 years of automatic system updates ChromeOS operating system, and its applications. But the date begins to run from its manufacture. In the case of schools, they do not usually buy the latest generation models, and between the time they are purchased, configured for the school and delivered to the students, it can take years.

Many institutes have encountered Chromebooks that, when they bought them in the pandemic, they only had 4 or 5 years of updates leftand now they see that in one or two years those computers will be useless, due to Google’s planned obsolescence.

The report concludes that this early expiration of Chromebooks it will cost taxpayers $1.8 billionin addition to generating electronic trash unjustified, because the computers would still have the capacity to be used for many more years.

The chromebook bought by the schools during the pandemicthey are beginning to breakand they are difficult to repair. Be careful if you have one. Treat it well, because otherwise you will be left without a computer before your time.