- Chromebooks that have crossed their update lifecycle continue to be on sale on platforms.
- Consumers buying these Chromebooks will not receive any further security or platform updates.
Chromebooks are great for what they are: inexpensive laptops that rely on cloud-oriented Chrome OS to get the job done. So if you spot a Chromebook on sale, you should definitely buy it, right? Wrong. It turns out, some old Chromebooks are still on sale on various platforms without necessary disclaimers on their end-of-life status, making you pay money for what is practically e-waste.
The US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) (via ArsTechnica) pointed out how end-of-life Chromebooks are still sold on various marketplace platforms, like Amazon, Walmart, and possibly others, in new and unused conditions. These include devices like the ASUS Chromebook Flip C302, which was launched in 2018 and reached its Automatic Update Expiration (AUE) date on June 1, 2023. This means the laptop will no longer receive any security or platform updates for its Chrome OS from Google.