(Credit: PCMag / Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart)
If you're shopping for laptops but don't want to drop a lot of cash, consider the Chromebook. You may have some preconceptions that these aren't worth your time, but many of these devices hit a sweet spot between price and performance.
Google's lightweight and flexible ChromeOS is stable and efficient, especially for cloud-based tasks. Manufacturers are putting out Chromebooks at a bunch of different price points and power levels. Couple that with some deep discounts and you've got laptops that you can buy with the change you dig up from the couch. Here are the best Chromebook deals we’ve found for May.
HP Chromebook 11A G6 Education Edition
$244.00 Save $205.00
There are discounts and then there are discounts, and being able to take home a totally serviceable HP Chromebook for under $40 is the latter. That's just an absurdly low price for a portable computer at any level, especially at over $200 off. The specs aren't anything to write home about, with an AMD A4 9120C processor capping out at 2.4GHz, 4GB of RAM and a paltry 16GB of storage, but at this price it's almost disposable. Build quality is decent and the battery can run up to 10 hours between charges.
Acer Chromebook Spin 311
$289.99 Save $95.00
The Acer Chromebook Spin 311 tries to give you the best aspects of a laptop and a tablet, with a 360 degree rotating hinge that lets you fold it flat while still using the touchscreen. When we reviewed it, we called it "a diminutive, spiffy Chromebook convertible," saying that it's an affordable unit that's great for students. This configuration ships with an Intel Celeron N4020 processor, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and 32GB of eMMC internal storage. Battery life is also respectable, with 10 hours between charges.
HP 14" 2-in-1 Wide Ultra XGA Touch-Screen Chromebook
$699.00 Save $250.01
Here's a nice price cut on a Chromebook that's powerful enough to tackle most productivity tasks, stream media and even a little gaming if you adjust your expectations. Built around a 12th Gen Intel Core processor clocked at 3.2GHz, coupled with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, it's not cutting-edge but more than good enough. The Corning Gorilla Glass screen repels fingerprint smudges, and the 1920 x 1200 resolution and 178-degree wide-viewing angles look great. HP Fast Charge technology gets the battery from empty to 50% charge in just 45 minutes.
Best Buy has a few Chromebooks on clearance right now, but the absolute best deal sees 50% shaved off this solid performer from Asus. With a reasonably peppy MediaTek Kompanio 500 CPU at its heart, it multitasks well. The screen is a 1920 x 1080 FHD display that's reasonably bright and blur-free, and 64GB of internal storage is more than you'll see on most Chromebooks at this price. At just a little over 3 pounds, it's lightweight and portable, and it supports Wi-Fi 6 for speedy connections.
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook
$499.00 Save $100.00
The sheer number of Chromebook configurations available can get pretty overwhelming, but if you ask us, the IdeaPad Flex 5i hits a real sweet spot. In our review, we said that the portable was "a solid choice for 2-in-1 buyers on a budget," thanks to a bright 14" screen powered by an Intel 13th Generation Core i3 processor and 8GB of RAM. The 360° flip-and-fold design lets you position the screen in the best position for the task and adjust it easily. Storage is the seemingly Chromebook-standard 128GB SSD, and battery life is very solid, lasting up to 10 hours on a single charge.
If you ever wondered how we test laptops, wonder no more! We wrote a deep dive into our extensive process.
More Chromebook Deals To Explore
- HP Chromebook Plus x360 Intel i3 128GB SSD 14" Touch Laptop for $519.99 (List Price $789.99)
- Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 Intel i3 128GB 13.3" Touch Laptop for $329.00 (List Price $699.00)
- HP Chromebook 15 Celeron N45000 64GB eMMC 15,6" Laptop for $229.99 (List Price $329.99)
*Deals are selected by our commerce team
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