Several years back I did an exhaustive review and search for a great $500 laptop. Today, I was reminded why the cheap plastic computers are fine for kids, but not great for someone who knows how to touch type, uses more than a browser, and enjoys the finer features of a $700 MacBook Air. ($580 Trade-in value, today)

I had a $50 credit and it was a pre-black-friday price. I’ve already printed the return label and put the nice big plastic machine back in the packaging. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Everything about this laptop was bad. The trackpad was inaccurate and hard to get a “click” to take. No back-lighting on the keyboard was hard for someone who writes in low-light situations frequently. Overall, the texturing of the plastic and the Abyss Blue case was pleasing. It was a bit lighter than my Air, primarily formed from machined aluminum. Just like the cheaper Dell and HP laptops before, the plastic and cheap parts really announce that this is not a computer that is going to last.

Chrome Only.

I was okay with the Chromebook idea. In practice, this machine might have worked for me, but probably not once I knew what I was missing. This would be a fine computer for a kid to play Roblox, a student to write their homework in Google Docs. Nothing wrong with it.

A cheap plastic device. I don’t know how anyone makes money on a $150 computer. Free shipping. Free returns. Amazon is going to lose money on this one.

Oh well, I did want it to be cool. It was not.

John McElhenney — LinkedIn