15 Best Chromebooks You Can Buy Right Now
Nov. 16, 2021And if you are a power user then get the Intel chips preferably the 8th or 10th-gen i3 and upwards. The newer 11th-gen Tiger Lake Intel processors are great. By the way, many OEMs have partnered with Qualcomm and AMD and are in the process of releasing Chromebooks with Snapdragon and Ryzen chips.
As far as storage and RAM are concerned, I would say, 64GB onboard storage and 4GB RAM should be the bare minimum. As it’swith storage and RAM, the more the merrier. And now that Linux apps are available on Chromebooks, you need more storage, RAM (8GB would be great), and processing power to perform all kinds of tasks.
Besides that, if you getSSD storage, then that is a huge bonus, more so when it’s NVMe SSD. You will find the performance blazing fast. That said, eMMC is not bad either.
Coming to display, you should pick a Chromebook that has anFHD panel. And if it features a touchscreen panel and has a convertible body then that is even better. So these are the fundamental things that you should keep in mind before buying a Chromebook.
Buy Duet 3 from Best Buy:$329
Buy Duet 5 from Amazon:$349
After Lenovo, HP has also introduced a detachable Chromebook in the market and it’s already getting great reviews from critics. The HP Chromebook x2 11 is powered by the1st-gen Snapdragon 7c processor, which is a notch below the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chip available on Duet 3 and Duet 5. It has an 11-inch FHD+ touch display with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage. Not to mention, you get both the detachable keyboard and USI pen within the box which is great. At $224, I think the HP Chromebook x2 11 is a great deal and you should definitely consider it.
Buy from Best Buy:$224.99
Buy from Walmart:$279
If you are looking for an affordable Chromebook under $300, the Asus Chromebook Flip CM3 is a worthy choice. The device is powered by aMediaTek 8183 processorhaving a Mali-G72 MP3 GPU with 32GB of onboard storage and 4GB of RAM. The best part is that even at such a low price, you get a 12-inch touchscreen display. The display also folds to 360-degree which is great given the price. For kids and school students, the Asus Chromebook Flip CM3 is a decidedly good Chromebook you can get behind.
Buy from Amazon:$249.99
Buy from Amazon:$183
A little upwards of $300, the C13 Yoga Chromebook by Lenovo is powered by an AMD processor. It houses the performantAMD Athlon Gold 3150C processorwith 4GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage. The 13.3-inch FHD touchscreen display is also pretty good and it comes in a convertible 2-in-1 form factor. The best part is that the display can go up to 400 nits which should make the display readable even outdoors. Except for sub-par battery life, the C13 Yoga Chromebook is a very good performer for day-to-day tasks.
Buy from Walmart:$329
If you have to pick just one Chromebook from this list, I would strongly suggest getting the Lenovo Flex 5i. It’s one of the best budget Chromebooks under the $500 price segment. You get an11th-gen Intel i3 processor (i3-1115G4)with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. The 13-3-inch display is also FHD with touchscreen support. And yes, it folds 360-degree for comfortable viewing at any angle.
Buy from Amazon:$377
The Acer Spin 514 packs 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage. It has a 14-inch FHD touchscreen panel with a claimed battery life of 10 hours. On top of that, the Acer Spin 514 also supportsWi-Fi 6which is amazing. I would say if you can sacrifice a bit of battery life for better performance, you can go with Acer Spin 514.
Buy from Best Buy:$429
HP x360 is one of the most successful Chromebook series by the company and it continues to offer great specs and experience. The HP x360 14C Chromebook is slightly above the $500 mark, but it’s well within the reach, and it’s almost similar to the Lenovo Flex 5i (which is also great). You get the sameIntel 11th-gen i3 processor(i3-1115G4), 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of NVMe SSD which is new in this price segment. Further, the display is a 14-inch FHD IPS panel with touchscreen support.
Not to mention, you can convert the Chromebook into tablet mode, tent mode, or just use it as a normal laptop. I have been using its old-gen model that comes with an 8th-gen Intel i5 processor and I absolutely love it. You get a backlit keyboard, fast charging, Linux support, and afingerprint readeras well.
Simply put, if Lenovo Flex 5i or Acer Spin 514 does not cut it for you then you can pick HP x360 14C without any second thoughts. Keep in mind, that you will have to shell outmore money for better storage, but if you are going to use Linux orplay Steam gamesthen it’s well worth the price.
Buy from Amazon:$549
Among other things, it features a 14-inch touchscreen display having a resolution of 1920 x 1200, with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The max display brightness is around 340 nits which is pretty decent. Not to forget, you get a premium body with analuminum chassis, a glass trackpad, a backlit keyboard, and fast charging support. To conclude, if you want a Chromebook with a powerful processor at an affordable price then the Acer Spin 714 perfectly fits your bill.
Buy Acer Spin 714 from Best Buy:$729
Buy Acer Spin 713 from Amazon:$599
Do note that you won’t get the powerful Iris Xe graphics on this Alder Lake processor, but IntelUHD Graphics 630is available. As a result, you might not be able toplay Steam games (based on Borealis)on this Chromebook, since only Intel i5 and i7 Chromebooks are allowed. Nevertheless, it’s a powerhouse of a Chromebook and also priced well so do consider it if you are a moderate to heavy user.
Buy from Best Buy:$649
The 13.3-inch FHD LCD touchscreen display is vibrant and offers rich colors. Bear in mind it’snot a convertible Chromebookso you can’t use it in tablet or tent mode. All in all, with excellent 12 hours of battery life, the Pixelbook Go is a solid choice at $709.
Buy from Amazon:$709
Buy from Amazon:$699
In line with Acer and Asus, Lenovo has also launched a Chromebook powered by an Intel Alder Lake 12th-gen processor. The ThinkPad C14 Chromebook packs the12th-gen Intel i5-1245U processorwith Iris Xe graphics in tow. Apart from that, it houses 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB of PCIe SSD (Gen 4). It has a 14-inch FHD IPS screen with an anti-glare coating and the maximum brightness is 250 nits.
Acer Spin 713 or Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 are the best Chromebooks you can buy right now. These Chrome Os laptops are packed with premium features and cost almost half of what some other manufacturers charge. Apart from that, you can take a look at Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 or HP x360 14C.
Laptop is a general terminology for mobile computers that has desktop-level features. Be it a MacBook, Windows laptop, or Chromebook — all are basically laptops. However, due to the device’s popularity and the distinct OS it runs, products carve a name for themselves.
That said, in popular parlance, a laptop is generally referred to as a Windows laptop. In that case, a laptop and Chromebook would be two different things. Windows laptops run Windows and Chromebooks run Chrome OS. You can learn more about the comparison betweenWindows laptops vs Chromebooksfrom our detailed article.
If you are looking for the best affordable Chromebook under $300, go for Acer 317 Chromebook as it is priced at just $189. And if you can afford to slightly increase your budget then pick the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 or Lenovo Flex 5i.
The main disadvantage of a Chromebook is that it does not have native app support, meaning you won’t find as many apps as you do on a Windows or macOS laptop. Apart from that, gaming is a pain point on Chromebooks if you generally download and play games. That said, if you can adapt yourself to Linux, most of your issues will be resolved.
Passionate about Windows, ChromeOS, Android, security and privacy issues. Have a penchant to solve everyday computing problems.
