Most schools are using $200-$300 Chromebooks, I don't think this $999 high performance alternative is really targeting that market.

This is a great point. Also, even if it is actually cheaper in the long term because they can just upgrade parts from the modularity of it, I somehow feel skeptical that a school IT unit is going to have that level of foresight. Even if they do, will they be able to successfully persuade the suits that control the budget?

Yup, you're right, this could be a very tough sell.

It would need to last 3 times longer before needing a single replacement part for the cost to lifetime ratio to even out. Each replacement part in that timeframe pushes the value time out further. I'm not convinced it would be cheaper in the long run.

>a school IT unit is going to have that level of foresight

You think those IT people don't read here too? Its a budget thing sweetie, once you get a real job you understand.

I wonder how often they have to replace those low priced chrome books, however. Maybe there is a good value proposition in buying a well powered machine that can be updated by an IT department in an age where laptops are never upgradable.

Dell released a "business class" 13-inch Chromebook (the Lulu platform) in 2015. It came with several options (e.g. Celeron vs i3 vs i5, 4GB vs 8GB RAM, choice of SSD storage size, touchscreen or not, etc). At the time it was released, the retail price for a non-touchscreen i3 was over $900. Again, that was not even the most expensive configuration, and that's 2015 dollars, not 2022 post-COVID inflation dollars. Many institutions went for the cheap Celeron-based models, but plenty others apparently opted for pricier ones (e.g. models with an i3 and a touchscreen, to give one example that I'm personally familiar with).