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We’ve added new models announced at MWC 2022 to the What to look forward to section.
A good Chromebook can do almost anything a regular laptop can do, and the best ones feel better to use than their similarly priced Windows counterparts. After testing most of the Chromebooks released over the past seven years, we recommend the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 (13″) and the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook (13″). Both models are comparatively inexpensive, and they offer fast performance and an excellent keyboard and trackpad. They’re also compact and light, and their 1080p touchscreens are vivid and bright. While our other picks last a couple of hours longer, the battery in the Flex 5 and 5i should still survive a full day of work or classes.
Small, light, and ready to work in a flash, Chromebooks are great for pulling out of a bag and getting right to work.
Instead of Windows, macOS, or Linux, a Chromebook uses mostly web software and services to get things done.
We’ve found that Chromebooks tend to have a longer battery life than similarly priced Windows laptops.
If you already have a PC or laptop, a Chromebook makes an excellent and affordable secondary device.
With excellent performance for its low price, a great keyboard and trackpad, and a compact, light body, the Lenovo Flex 5 is the Chromebook to buy.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $330.
This model is identical to its predecessor, except for its newer processor. Both models perform the same, so get whichever is cheaper.
The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 (13″) and Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook (13″) are exceptional Chromebooks. In addition to being all-around great laptops, our recommended models offer faster performance than most Chromebooks under $500. Most cheap Chromebooks feel slow with just a handful of tabs open, but our picks can handle everyday workloads with aplomb. Lenovo also sells a slightly cheaper model with a Celeron 5205U processor and half the local storage, but most people are better off spending a little more for the faster performance and double the storage.
The Galaxy Chromebook 2 is smaller, lighter, and faster than the Flex 5 and lasts longer on a charge, but it’s quite a bit more expensive.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $550.
If you’re willing to pay more for a smaller, lighter, and faster Chromebook with longer battery life, get the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2. The Flex 5 is more than good enough for most people, but if you frequently have dozens of tabs open, run multiple Android apps, or use Linux on your Chromebook, the extra memory is worth paying more for—as a Chromebook enthusiast, I’d buy the Galaxy Chromebook 2. Unlike our other picks, this model has only USB-C ports. If you own older peripherals that use USB-A, you’ll need a dongle or dock to accommodate them. (We don’t recommend the Celeron model, it’s too slow for its price.)
The Flip C536 has a large, 15.6-inch screen and a built-in number pad, but it’s too big and heavy to travel with frequently.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $0.
If you need a bigger screen and a number pad, the Asus Chromebook Flip C536 (C536EA-BI3T3) is the best option. Its 15.6-inch touchscreen provides more room to do work or enjoy media, but it also makes the laptop bulkier. We don’t recommend this 4.3-pound laptop if you need to take it to work, class, or even a coffee shop—it’s best used around the house. If the C536 is unavailable, the virtually identical Asus Chromebook Flip CM5 (CM5500FDA-DN344T) is another great option.
It can be difficult to find a decent Chromebook in stock during the back-to-school shopping season. If none of our picks are available, we recommend setting up stock alerts using NowInStock.net or browser extensions like Keepa. If you can’t find a new Chromebook anywhere, consider a used Chromebook—but double-check the official end-of-support date before you buy. You can also turn an old Windows or Mac computer into a Chromebook, if you have an old system lying around.
With excellent performance for its low price, a great keyboard and trackpad, and a compact, light body, the Lenovo Flex 5 is the Chromebook to buy.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $330.
This model is identical to its predecessor, except for its newer processor. Both models perform the same, so get whichever is cheaper.
The Galaxy Chromebook 2 is smaller, lighter, and faster than the Flex 5 and lasts longer on a charge, but it’s quite a bit more expensive.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $550.
The Flip C536 has a large, 15.6-inch screen and a built-in number pad, but it’s too big and heavy to travel with frequently.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $0.
A Chromebook is a laptop that runs Chrome OS, an operating system that uses the Chrome web browser as its primary interface. Chromebooks are ideal for students and kids, but you should also consider one if you spend most of your computer time in a web browser, if you’re on a tight budget, or if you already have a decent desktop PC. A good Chromebook can do almost anything a regular laptop can do—as long as that task is possible in a web browser or in Android apps. And Chromebooks are cheap: A $400 Chromebook is faster, lighter, and sleeker, and blessed with better battery life, than a $500 Windows laptop. Chromebooks are also secure and easy to maintain.
But Chromebooks can’t run Photoshop, Windows-specific games, or many of the programs you might be used to having on your Mac or Windows computer. They don’t have much local storage, and they work best with a full-time internet connection—though there are offline options for Gmail, Google Drive, and other apps. If you use web-based email, if you can get by with Microsoft’s Office 365, Google’s office web apps, and Android app alternatives, and if you stream your music and movies over the internet, a Chromebook should do just about everything you need it to.
Most Chromebooks have 32 GB or 64 GB of onboard storage, but Google also provides 100 GB of free online Google One storage for one year. (Once your year is up, you’ll need to pay to keep that cloud storage. Right now, 100 GB costs $2 per month or $20 per year.) Most Chromebooks also include USB ports and a microSD card slot that you can use to expand the storage.
If you’re on a budget, these are the best cheap Windows laptops and Chromebooks we recommend after extensive research and hands-on testing.
Senior staff writer Kimber Streams has tested most of the Chromebooks released since 2014, when they began researching and testing Chromebooks for Wirecutter. They’ve tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops, including Chromebooks, cheap Windows laptops, gaming laptops, and fancy ultrabooks.
A Chromebook doesn’t need to be exceptionally powerful or look fancy. But if slow performance, poor battery life, a horrendous screen, or a bad keyboard or trackpad gets in the way of your using the internet, the Chromebook has failed at its only job. Here’s what we looked for:
Performance: A decent processor and enough memory (RAM) together make the difference between a Chromebook that feels quick and responsive and one that suffers from slow load times and frustratingly laggy inputs.
Good-enough performance, for a Chromebook, requires 4 GB of RAM and at least a 10th- or 11th-generation Intel or 3000-series AMD Ryzen processor.1 People who work with lots of tabs, frequently work in large documents while on Zoom calls, or use Linux apps on their Chromebook should spend more for 8 GB of RAM and at least an Intel Core i3 processor. Some low-end processors are fast enough to get by in a budget Chromebook—we’ve found in our testing that processors with at least 4 threads can handle running Zoom video calls and other tasks simultaneously.
Avoid most Chromebooks that run on Intel's N-series Celeron or Pentium processors, on ARM-based processors from companies like MediaTek or Qualcomm, or on AMD's Athlon A4 and A6 processors; in our testing over the years, we’ve come away frustrated by their laggy, inconsistent performance. Also avoid any Chromebooks with less than 4 GB of memory, regardless of the processor they use.
Price: As of mid-2021, Chromebooks that meet our performance requirements typically cost at least $400, and you can get a great one for less than $500. Options with better performance tend to cost at least $600.
Keyboard and trackpad: A keyboard and trackpad should be good enough not to get in the way of your work. A backlit keyboard is a nice luxury, and most Chromebooks priced over $400 have them.
Battery life: A Chromebook should last for a full eight-hour day of classes or work so you don’t have to hunt for an outlet or be stuck with a dead laptop.
Size and weight: The lighter and more compact a laptop is, the easier it is to lug on a plane, to a coffee shop, or to class. And for Chromebooks with 360-degree convertible hinges, being lighter makes them easier to hold in tablet mode—less than 3 pounds is ideal.
Screen: We recommend a 1920×1080 resolution for a 13- to 15-inch screen—any higher isn’t worth the trade-off in battery life, and any lower looks noticeably worse. A 1366×768 resolution is acceptable on a smaller screen in a cheaper Chromebook.
Ports: We appreciate when a Chromebook includes both USB-C ports and traditional USB-A ports to connect older peripherals.
Touchscreen and 360-degree hinge: A touchscreen and a 360-degree hinge are nice perks since Chromebooks also run Android apps, and an included stylus is a bonus. Since those features add cost, we don’t require them for all of our picks.
Support: Google guarantees eight years of software updates—including new features and security fixes—for every new Chromebook released after 2020.2 We don’t recommend any Chromebooks with a support date that expires before 2025. You can check how long each Chromebook model has guaranteed support on Google’s support site or check on your Chromebook itself by following these steps. (This support is separate from a hardware warranty provided by the laptop’s manufacturer.)
From budget-friendly options to thin-and-light ultrabooks to powerful gaming laptops, we’ve spent hundreds of hours finding the best laptops for most people.
We lived with each Chromebook for at least a full day of work to get a feel for the keyboard, trackpad, screen, and speakers, as well as for each laptop’s real-world performance. We checked Gmail and Google Calendar, ran Slack, streamed music, worked in large Google Drive spreadsheets and text documents, chatted on Zoom, and paid attention to input lag while typing in Google Docs. We also watched streaming video on Netflix, Hulu, or YouTube.
To quantify how fast a Chromebook felt to use, we gathered results from the JetStream 2 benchmarking tool to measure performance, combining those results with what we saw in our real-world testing. This step also highlighted the performance gap separating models with Intel and AMD’s typical laptop processors from those with low-budget Intel or AMD chips, as well as ARM-powered Chromebooks.
To test the battery life of each Chromebook, we used a customized version of the Chromium battery test designed to emulate normal browsing behavior. The first 60% of the test involves loading a new website every minute, scrolling down and back up the page. The next 20% of the test loads a Gmail tab with audio streaming in a background tab. For the next 10%, the Chromium test loads various Google Docs items; the final 10% of the test plays a full-screen YouTube video. We ran the test until each Chromebook died.
With excellent performance for its low price, a great keyboard and trackpad, and a compact, light body, the Lenovo Flex 5 is the Chromebook to buy.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $330.
This model is identical to its predecessor, except for its newer processor. Both models perform the same, so get whichever is cheaper.
The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 (13″) and Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook (13″) are very similar, exceptional Chromebooks—they’re fast, they have excellent keyboards and trackpads, they’re compact and light, and they have bright 1080p touchscreens with rich colors. And somehow, they’re still comparatively inexpensive. The battery life of both models is just long enough to last through a day of work or classes, but it can be a tight squeeze, and it’s the one area where our other picks do better. Lenovo also has a slightly cheaper model with a Celeron 5205U processor and half the local storage, but most people are better off spending a little more for the performance and storage bump.
Many Chromebook keyboards are merely serviceable, and others feel stubborn, mushy, and unpleasant to type on. But the backlit keys on the Flex 5 and Flex 5i offer deeper travel than those of many laptops and feel comfortable to type on, and the keyboards on both models are the best we’ve seen on a Chromebook in years. The trackpad, like most Chromebook trackpads nowadays, is accurate and reliable.
The Flex 5 and 5i are much lighter and more compact than most Chromebooks in this price range. In fact, at around 3 pounds and 12.2 by 8.4 by 0.7 inches, they’re closer in weight and size to our upgrade pick, though the Flex 5 and 5i are a bit thicker.
In our productivity and media testing, the 13.3-inch 1920×1080 touchscreen display on both models looked good. Light colors in spreadsheets appeared distinct and weren’t washed out on either screen. The reviewer for Android Police experienced significant light bleed at the edges of the screen on their Flex 5 review unit, but we didn’t have the same problem on either of our picks; in our tests blacks looked dark in movies and TV shows. (If you do encounter this problem, we recommend returning or exchanging your Chromebook.) Our picks have a 360-degree hinge, but these models are too bulky to hold comfortably in tablet mode, despite being smaller and lighter than most Chromebooks.
The Flex 5 and 5i have a mix of new and old USB ports, so they should accommodate most of the accessories and cables you already have. That mix includes two USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 ports, one USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 port, an audio jack, and a microSD slot for additional storage. The webcam is about as good as that of most laptops, and our picks have a handy, physical privacy shutter that you can slide across the lens when not in use to ensure no one can see you. The Flex 5 and 5i also support the latest Wi-Fi standard, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). Each come with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty and 100 GB of Google One storage for one year (which normally starts at $20 per year). The Flex 5 has update support through June 2028; the 5i has update support through June 2029.
In our mid-2021 web-browsing battery test, the Flex 5 lasted 10 hours, about two to three hours short of most Chromebooks we tested in 2020 and 2021. The Flex 5i lasted about half an hour less when we tested it in late 2021. Both models still have enough battery to make it through a full day of work or classes, but that’s pushing it, especially if you crank up the screen brightness. We’d prefer a couple more hours of battery life, but our picks excel in so many other ways that we think it’s worth this small trade-off.
The lid can be a little tricky; I frequently found myself needing two hands to open the Flex 5 and Flex 5i. We wish our picks had a lip, as some of Lenovo’s Yoga models do, to make the laptop easier to open. Otherwise, the Flex 5 and 5i offer excellent build quality.
The charger that came with our Flex 5 review unit emitted an annoying coil whine when it was plugged in and charging. While irritating, this isn’t a dealbreaker, and we didn’t encounter the same issue with the Flex 5i’s charger, nor see widespread reports of other people having this issue.
The Galaxy Chromebook 2 is smaller, lighter, and faster than the Flex 5 and lasts longer on a charge, but it’s quite a bit more expensive.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $550.
As someone who tests laptops for a living, I’d get the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 with the Core i3 processor, and if you’re willing to pay more for a smaller, lighter, and faster Chromebook with longer battery life, you should too. Most people don’t need to spend more over the Flex 5, but if you frequently have dozens of tabs open, work in large documents while on Zoom calls, or use Linux, the extra memory is worth paying extra for. Unlike our other picks, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 lacks USB-A ports for connecting older peripherals; you’ll need a dongle or dock to attach those. (We don’t recommend the Celeron model, it’s too slow for its price.)
The Galaxy Chromebook 2’s backlit keyboard is shallow, but it’s still satisfying to type on. And while some laptop keyboards emit a clacking noise as you type, the Galaxy Chromebook 2’s keyboard is quiet, which makes it ideal for a shared workspace. The trackpad is smooth and accurate, and though it’s a bit smaller than the Flex 5’s trackpad, we didn’t run into any issues with its size.
In our mid-2021 battery life tests, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 had solid battery life—the Core i3 model we recommend lasted 11 hours 8 minutes in our tests. We expect it will last a full day of work or school without needing to be plugged in. The Galaxy Chromebook 2 is just a bit smaller all around than the Flex 5, and it weighs just 2.71 pounds. It’s not quite the lightest and most compact Chromebook we’ve tested—that honor goes to our previous upgrade pick, the Google Pixelbook Go. But the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is light enough to use comfortably in tablet mode, unlike any of our other picks.
The 13.3-inch display looks crisp and vibrant, and because it gets a bit brighter than the Flex 5’s screen on the highest settings, it’s better suited for working outdoors in sunlight. The Galaxy Chromebook 2’s touchscreen offers the same 1920×1080 resolution as on most of our picks, plus it has a 360-degree hinge for tent and tablet modes, unlike the Pixelbook Go, which only works as a regular ol’ clamshell laptop.
The Galaxy Chromebook 2 has two USB-C ports that carry data at 5 Gbps, power, and display, as well as one 3.5 mm audio jack and a microSD slot. It doesn’t have any USB-A ports for connecting older peripherals; if you want to do that, you need to attach a dongle or dock. The Galaxy Chromebook 2’s webcam looks a bit better than the Flex 5’s, but it’s still not as sharp as the Pixelbook Go’s excellent 1080p webcam. Like our top picks, it supports Wi-Fi 6 and it has guaranteed update support through June 2028, a one-year warranty, and 100 GB of Google One storage for one year.
If you want a larger screen and a number pad, we recommend the Asus Chromebook Flip C536 (C536EA-BI3T3). Its 15.6-inch touchscreen provides more room to get work done or enjoy media, and the number pad is useful if you perform a lot of data entry. This big screen makes the whole laptop heavier and bulkier, so the C536 is much less portable than our other picks—we don’t recommend it if you need a laptop to take to work, class, or even a coffee shop. If the C536 is unavailable, the virtually identical Asus Chromebook Flip CM5 (CM5500FDA-DN344T) is also a great option.
The Flip C536’s biggest appeal is its spacious 15.6-inch 1920×1080 touchscreen, which is ideal if you want more space to work on documents and spreadsheets, or if you simply prefer a larger screen for watching shows and movies. Its colors are vibrant, and we didn’t see any noticeable color tints. For some reason the C536 also has a 360-degree hinge, but it’s way too heavy and bulky to flip around and use comfortably in other modes.
The Flip C536’s backlit keys are enjoyable to type on, with deep travel and springy feedback. It’s the only one of our picks with a number pad, so if that’s a must-have for you, this is the Chromebook to get. The extra-wide trackpad is responsive and accurate, too.
Even though the C536 will last a long time away from an outlet—we recorded 11 hours 38 minutes in our battery test—it’s too large and heavy to carry around on a regular basis. At 4.3 pounds, it’s by far the heaviest of our picks, and compared with the Flex 5 and 5i, it’s about 2 inches wider, an inch deeper, and a bit thicker. If you need a portable Chromebook to take to classes, commute or travel with, or occasionally cart to a café, you should consider our other picks instead.
Like our top picks, the C536 has two USB-C ports that carry data at 5 Gbps, power, and display. It also has a USB-A port (3.2 Gen 2), a microSD slot, and an audio jack. The HDMI port supports the 2.0a specification, while the Flip CM5 model has HDMI 1.4. The webcam is about as good as that of our other picks, and the C536 supports Wi-Fi 6 and has guaranteed update support through June 2029. It comes with a one-year warranty and 100 GB of Google One storage for one year.
The Lenovo 5i Chromebook (14″) has a 14-inch 1080p display, a good keyboard and trackpad, battery life similar to that of our top picks, and fast-enough performance for most tasks. But compared with the Flex 5 and Flex 5i (13″), this model is a bit bulkier and heavier, its performance is slower, and it lacks the convenience of a touchscreen. If our top picks are unavailable, or if the 5i Chromebook (14″) is on sale for significantly less than our faster, more portable recommendations, it’s a good option.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (CP514-1H-R4HQ) is an all-around solid Chromebook, with a comfortable keyboard, a responsive trackpad, and 11 hours of battery life. But it’s larger and heavier than our top picks, it typically costs a bit more, and its processor has lower performance when the laptop is unplugged. It’s still fast enough for typical computer tasks, but we recommend our top picks over this option if they’re available.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W) is an excellent Chromebook, with long battery life, a reliable keyboard and trackpad, and a vivid display. Compared with the similarly priced Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2, the Spin 713 has a taller screen, more ports, and a 360-degree hinge. But it’s noticeably heavier and bulkier, and the other premium options have better build quality. If you find the Spin 713 on sale—or if you don’t mind the extra weight—the Spin 713 is worth buying.
If you can find it in stock, the Acer Chromebook 712 (C871-C85K) could be a good option for young kids, thanks to its durable body and spill-resistant keyboard. But it’s a bit slower than our top picks—it can handle remote schoolwork or a video chat, but it can’t do both at the same time gracefully. It also suffers from a terrible, low-resolution, non-touch screen, and its keyboard is mediocre.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 512 (R853TA-C7KT) and Chromebook Spin 511 (R753T-C59J) are both very similar to the 712, but with faster processors that will feel better for school work and video calls. Both have durable bodies, spill-resistant keyboards, and small, low-resolution displays. At their current prices of $480 and $450, respectively, we wouldn’t recommend them over our top picks. But they’re both good options if you can find one at or below $350, or if you value that spill-resistant keyboard above faster performance and a larger, better-quality screen.
At CES 2022, Acer announced the Chromebook Spin 513 (CP513-2H), a 13.5-inch Chromebook with a new MediaTek 1380 processor that will start at $600. We’re looking forward to testing out this new processor’s performance when this model is available in June.
Acer also announced two budget Chromebooks, the 15-inch Acer Chromebook 315 (CB315-4H/T) and the 14-inch Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-3H/T). We’ll see how they stack up against our picks when they’re available in January and June, respectively.
We haven’t yet tested a Chromebook with a 16-inch screen, like the newly announced Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5601), so we’ll update this guide with our impressions as soon as we’ve spent some time with it. Asus has not yet announced pricing or availability.
The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook announced at CES 2022 looks like a promising high-end Chromebook, but HP has not yet revealed pricing for this model. We’ll keep an eye on it when it launches in April.
At Mobile World Congress, Lenovo announced the IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook (14”), IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook (15”), and IdeaPad Duet 3 Chromebook (11”). We’re looking forward to testing these when they’re available in May and June.
Companies have also announced a slew of education-focused models, and we’ll be keeping an eye on which models are widely available and which are limited to bulk purchases by school administrators. The Asus Chromebook CR1, Chromebook Flip CR1, and Chromebook Flip CM1 (CM1400) appear to be education-only, and we’re watching Acer’s Chromebook 314 (C934/C934T), Chromebook 511 (C734/C734T), and Chromebook 512 (C852).
The HP Chromebook x360 14c (ca0065nr) and (ca0053dx) were previous picks because of their great keyboard and trackpad, fast performance, and 14-inch touchscreen, but they’ve been discontinued. HP has replaced these models with the updated Chromebook x360 14c-cc0013dx, but this new version’s screen has a noticeably yellow-green tint. We don’t recommend it unless it’s on sale and none of our other picks are available.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 with a Celeron 5205U is too slow for its $550 full price, or even its $450 sale price. Our top picks have better performance for a similar price, and our budget pick with the same processor costs around $300.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 513’s ARM-based processor struggled to run a Zoom call and work on a spreadsheet at the same time. Its screen also had a blue cast and looked washed out.
The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 13″ and HP Chromebook x2 11 are both detachable ChromeOS tablets that come with keyboards. But both models rely on too-slow processors, and they aren’t any cheaper than our top picks.
The Asus Chromebook Flip C433TA is a great Chromebook with one extremely frustrating flaw: The lid is held shut by surprisingly aggressive magnets. Even with two hands, I found it a struggle to open the lid every single time, and when I asked others to use the laptop, I overheard some choice words from them (I used plenty of my own each time I tried to pry it apart). The reviewer for Chrome Unboxed encountered the same issue, calling this Chromebook “by far the most difficult laptop I’ve ever tried to open”; we also tried a floor model at Best Buy, and it had the same problem. Its support runs out in June 2026, so we don’t recommend it over newer models with years more support.
The Asus Chromebook Flip C434 was a former pick because of its solid performance, reliable trackpad and backlit keyboard, excellent battery life, and spacious 14-inch screen with tiny borders. But we no longer recommend the C434 because we’ve seen a higher-than-typical number of owner reports of hardware issues, including reports of unresponsive touchscreens, displays that won't turn on, defective keyboards and trackpads, and Bluetooth problems. We’ve also encountered display glitches on our own review unit. Its support also runs out in June 2026.
Google’s Pixelbook Go was our previous upgrade pick because it’s compact and light, and has top-of-the-line build quality and long battery life. We still love this model—and it has a better webcam than that of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2—but its support runs out in June 2026, two years sooner than the Galaxy Chromebook 2. Five years is the minimum lifespan we expect from a laptop, and we can’t recommend a high-end Chromebook with a shorter lifespan unless you feel comfortable installing CloudReady.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook (13″) is a great Chromebook, but costs around $650 for a fast-enough processor and is heavier and bulkier than our similarly-priced upgrade pick. (We don’t recommend the model with an AMD Athlon processor, it’s too slow.)
The HP Pro c640 Chromebook costs about as much as the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 with similar specs, but it’s heavier, it had shorter battery life, and its white-backlit silver keys are difficult to read.
The Asus Chromebook Flip C436 is a good Chromebook, but it’s way too expensive. Our upgrade pick is cheaper, lighter, thinner, and blessed with longer battery life and a better keyboard.
The Dell Latitude 5400 Chromebook Enterprise is not a Chromebook for most people. This business-focused Chromebook has a powerful Core i5-8365U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage, as well as a ton of ports. But it’s bulky, it weighs 3.24 pounds, and it typically costs around $900.
The Acer Chromebook 13 and its convertible counterpart, the Acer Chromebook Spin 13, start at around $700. Our upgrade pick is smaller, lighter, and cheaper.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook has terrible battery life and costs $1,000.
The Acer Chromebook 317 (CB317-1H-C994) and Samsung Chromebook Go both rely on the Intel Celeron N4500 processor, which is too slow for even light use.
The Asus Chromebook Flip CM3 has a tempting price, but an abysmally slow MediaTek processor.
At around $500, the Acer Chromebook Spin 512 is too expensive for a Chromebook that has a 12-inch, 1366×768 resolution display and weighs 3.4 pounds.
Several different versions of the HP Chromebook x360 14b are available from various retailers. All of these models are similar to the x360 14—a now-discontinued model that we previously recommended—but Chrome Unboxed notes that they “sport lesser processors, not-so-premium displays and more budget-y build quality.” We couldn’t find any models with 1080p screens and fast-enough processors.
The Lenovo Chromebook Duet is an inexpensive Chrome OS tablet that comes with a keyboard and kickstand cover. But I found the cramped keyboard impossible to adjust to—even as someone who adjusts to weird keyboards for a living—and the processor a bit slow for everyday work. The Duet also lacks a headphone jack. Most people should spend a little more for the Flex 5, unless you just really want a Chrome OS tablet.
The Rockchip RK3399 processor in the Asus Chromebook Flip C101 is too slow for everyday use, and the C101 is too small to comfortably type on.
So far, Chromebooks with Intel’s N-series Pentium or Celeron processors feel too slow even in light use—we experienced delays with just a handful of tabs open. For the same reason, we don’t recommend any ARM-based processors like those from MediaTek, Qualcomm, Samsung, Nvidia, or Rockchip for the same reason. And we don’t consider any model with less than 4 GB of RAM.
A laptop should last at least five years, so we also don’t recommend any Chromebooks with a support date that expires before 2025. This includes formerly notable models like the Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA, Samsung Chromebook Plus V2, the Google Pixelbook, and Acer Chromebook 11 C771T. Even if you find a good deal on one of these models used, they’ll stop getting feature and security updates in less than five years, and you’ll need to install CloudReady or upgrade your laptop.
While Windows laptops are available with newer 4000- and 5000-series Ryzen processors, these 3000-series options are the newest AMD processors that are optimized to work with Chromebooks.
Google guarantees six and a half years of updates for models released prior to 2020. You can check your specific model’s auto-update expiration date by following these instructions.
Nathan Ingraham, Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook review: The best budget-friendly Chromebook, Engadget, June 25, 2020
Kimberly Gedeon, Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook review, LaptopMag, June 19, 2020
Robby Payne, Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook Review: the new measuring stick, Chrome Unboxed, June 9, 2020
Corbin Davenport, Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 review: So close to the perfect 13-inch Chromebook, Android Police, June 7, 2020
Power testing, Git repositories on Chromium
Auto Update policy, Google Chrome Enterprise Help (Google Support)
Chromebook security, Chromebook Help (Google Support)
Use your Chromebook offline, Chromebook Help (Google Support)
Kimber Streams is a senior staff writer and has been covering laptops, gaming gear, keyboards, storage, and more for Wirecutter since 2014. In that time they’ve tested hundreds of laptops and thousands of peripherals, and built way too many mechanical keyboards for their personal collection.
by Kimber Streams and Andrew Cunningham
From budget-friendly options to thin-and-light ultrabooks to powerful gaming laptops, we’ve spent hundreds of hours finding the best laptops for most people.
If you’re on a budget, these are the best cheap Windows laptops and Chromebooks we recommend after extensive research and hands-on testing.
The ZMI PowerPack 20000 is our favorite power bank for charging modern laptops at top speed while on the go—no need to hunt for a power outlet.
by Kimber Streams and Andrew Cunningham
Of all the laptops we recommend, these offer the best balance of performance and a low price—and that makes them our favorite laptops for college students.
Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing to save people time, energy and money when making buying decisions. Whether it's finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we'll help you get it right (the first time). Subscribe now for unlimited access.
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