Would a chromebook be able to fiulfil my needs

[MNichael4991]

I'd like to get a cheap laptop for school, but I also would like decent battery life and a FHD screen since i have a few ebooks. I was looking at the new 13" Samsung Chromebook coming out and it looks really nice for the price. I'd mostly be using it for school so it has to be able to run excel properly with the extensions and plug ins for it. The excel spreadsheets aren't large so the ram will be enough. I've used Google docs and their version of excel and both feel very crippled when compared to Microsoft's offerings.

 

[s4in7]

You can't use Microsoft Office on a Chromebook unless you're streaming it from a PC, but here are viable alternatives available for Chromebook. I think that model will suit your needs perfectly, if you can find an Office alternative that you like.

 

[Onus]

I just bought a Thinkpad X140E. Its screen is only 1366x768, but I think its other features might readily make up for that. For one, it's got 8 hours of battery life. The day I configured it (last Friday), I started ~9:00a, downloading and installing applications, and removing others. The whole time I was also streaming Uncle Sam's Misguided Children Internet radio (using RealPlayer Cloud). I stopped listening and shut down around 3:00p, and the battery meter was still showing I had another two hours.
It is also very durable, which might be good in your environment, and with the screen only being 11.6", it is small and light. I've not done a lot of gaming on it, but I loaded the original Guild Wars on it, and in my brief test in unpopulated areas I could max everything (I suspect the CPU will hold it back some in a crowd). I suspect gaming battery life will be considerably shorter, but I'd expect at least 4-5 hours.
At $540, it may be a little more than what you want to spend (and I also added another 4GB of RAM; you won't have to do that), but it looks like a good choice.

 

[MNichael4991]

Well I found that Microsoft has their office suite online but it has no way for plugins to be installed. I guess I will have to join the Mac users in the computer lab. As for your suggestion Onus, I need a larger screen and FHD since I have a few etext books I use. The battery life sounds great though.

 

[PepitoTV]

You may want to point out how much are you willing to spend so people can give you more specific suggestions.

 

[Onus]

Unfortunately, increasing battery life is one of the things that rapidly increases costs. I do believe the E and T series Thinkpads both have some good battery life (and screens that are 1600x900 or even 1920x1080), but then you'll be looking at a price closer to $1K. These are Lenovo's business lines. The Ideapads are their consumer line, and are not as good in a variety of ways. You could probably get most of what you want if you give up the battery life though.

 

[MNichael4991]

Yeah I wasn't looking to spend more than $500 Can on the laptop. At that pricepoint I won't be able to get FHD and decent battery life. I guess I can buy the chromebook upon release and return it if it doesn't fit my needs. Thanks for the suggestions.