Chrome OS powers so much more than basic budget laptops these days. From tablets to desktops and All-in-Ones, this cloud-oriented system has given rise to the only mainstream alternative to Windows laptops and Macbooks. Over 40 million students use Chrome OS for Education, and millions more adults turned to them during the pandemic for effortless, "it just works" laptops that handle remote and hybrid work like a champ. Deepening integration via Phone Hub also makes Chromebooks an excellent laptop choice for Android phone owners.
And while Chromebooks may have started as budget-minded netbooks, there are powerful and premium Chromebooks aplenty these days. So whether you need a powerhouse to work on, an affordable kid-proof laptop, or even a Chrome OS tablet as a longer-lasting alternative to the best Android tablets, we'll help you find the best one for your needs. Before we get started, here are three things you'll want to keep in mind when researching the best Chromebooks.
While the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (2021) debuted a little bit on the expensive side at $700, a year of deals and discounts has routinely the price down to the $450-$550 range. That makes right now the best time to grab the single-best Chromebook on the market, giving you ample power and a dazzling display without going into the $800-$1800 range where the Pixelbook Go, Asus CX9, and HP Dragonfly Elite Chromebook fat cats live.
The 13.5-inch 2K touchscreen on the Spin 713 boasts a 3:2 aspect ratio, allowing you to see further down a page on a single screen. Some people live by this aspect ratio - the original Google Pixelbook used it, too - but I'm just happy for the 400-nit max brightness that allows me to take it out on the porch and keep working while enjoying some fresh air. The USI stylus compatibility allows you to grab a stylus for precision tapping, easier document signing, or just doodling during meetings. The screen itself has fantastic touch response even when playing games.
Speaking of gaming, the Acer Spin 713 is one of the lucky models chosen for the Steam on Chrome OS Alpha test. It won't load Civ VI - again, early-stage testing - but games like Catan, Stardew Valley, and Civ V play smoothly (though Civ V will start to lag after about 300 turns). Steam does require that you hop to the Dev channel, which may not appeal to new owners or anyone using this as their only computer. Still, the Spin 713 is just a great everyday laptop, too. Gaming makes the battery life take a big hit, but if you're not constantly playing Steam games, it should last about 7 hours with over a dozen tabs and the display set to around 40% brightness.
Speaking of tabs, feel free to hoard them; unless you perpetually keep hundreds open in a dozen different windows - I love you, dad, but that's monstrous - the Spin 713 will handle even heavy workloads easily. Most configurations come with 8GB of RAM, but if you find one with 16GB, snag it immediately before it vanishes back into the digital shadows. Once work is done, you can also flip the keyboard back to act as a stand while you tap your way through Android games (Steam needs a mouse/keyboard for now) or watch a few seasons of your latest guilty pleasure with ease. Since the speakers are down-firing under the keyboard, flipping over into stand mode or tent mode makes things much easier to hear.
The original Lenovo Chromebook Duet remains one of the best tablets under $300 a full two years later. Not only can it run Android apps, but it also has the full desktop version of Chrome and will be getting eight years of system updates. But it wasn't all that powerful, the speakers were quiet, and the keyboard was uber-cramped, given the ultra-compact 10.1-inch size. Lenovo fixed every one of those complaints with the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook.
Sporting a 13.3-inch, 16:9 touchscreen with 1080p resolution and 400 nits of brightness as well as four much louder speakers, the Duet 5 is an even better tablet for content consumption than its predecessor. The full-size keyboard now magnetizes to the screen when closed instead of flopping around. Plus, we have the option for 8GB of RAM instead of being stuck with 4GB, a real boon for multitasking.
While the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 compute platform may not be the most powerful processor, it knows how to sip battery like 50-year-old whiskey. I've gone two light workdays on the Duet 5 before, and on weekends of e-reading and solitaire, I've managed to eke it out to 2.5 days. You can do light-to-medium work on the Duet 5, but know upfront that the 7c Gen 2 will not match an Intel Core i3 - and it isn't trying to. This is more of a leisure/tertiary device that can double for a laptop in a pinch.
Power, performance, and prestige make the Asus Chromebook CX9 your pricey-but-perfect laptop. Thanks to the 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and the 16GB of RAM - there's an i3 option, but there are much more affordable premium i3 Chromebooks, like the Flex 5i and the ASUS Flip C536 - the CX9 is the cream of the crop for gaming on a Chromebook.
Only a select few Chromebooks with an 11th Gen Intel i5 or i7 can join the current first-stage Steam on Chrome OS Alpha test and install/play games from the Steam store. It can also run them locally rather than relying on streaming platforms like Stadia and GeForce Now. While our Editor's Choice, the Acer Spin 713, can run Steam - it's what I've been using myself - the i5 and 8GB of RAM on the Spin 713 can struggle with larger games. For games like The Witcher 3 or even Civ VI, you NEED the i7 and its half-terabyte of storage for all those ridiculously large game files. Even if you're not looking to game, the CX9 still makes a wonderful case for itself as a Chromebook as premium on the outside as it is powerful on the inside.
It's not a 2-in-1 like most Chromebooks these days, but that means the hinge is sturdier and won't start going out after a year or so the way some convertible Chromebooks do. That 512GB of storage can store dozens of UHD movies for those long international flights, and the 400-nit 2K touchscreen will make them look awesome. All that power does lead to battery life that's only about seven hours on a charge, and that number goes down further while you're gaming. That said, nothing beats raw power, especially when it comes to gaming, Linux apps, and power users. The real trick is finding one, as not many retailers stock them.
Lenovo's Duet 5 might be stealing all the limelight with that 400-nit touchscreen and the detachable keyboard. That said, when you need to get down to business, that's when the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook shines with its power and practicality. The 2-in-1 convertible may not be as sexy as a detachable, but it's worlds better to use on the couch, the bed, the bus, and anywhere you aren't sitting immediately in front of a table or desk. Better stability and better backlit keys make for better productivity, which is further spurred by its 11th Gen Intel Core i3 processor and 8GB of RAM.
We warmly welcome the memory upgrade, as 8GB RAM models of its predecessor were notoriously hard to find. The extra memory comes in handy when you're trying to multitask during video calls or juggling multiple monitors, and even with the extra performance of the 11th Gen i3, battery life should last a full workday and then some. While an i5 model would have been nice to see - and would've been eligible for the Steam on Chrome OS Alpha test - the i3 is more than enough for most workloads. (While we're on the subject, please ignore any underpowered Pentium models you might come across; the i3 models are selling for about the same price these days.)
If you think the Lenovo Duet 5's 13.3-inch screen is just too big for a Chrome tablet, the HP Chromebook X2 11 keeps things rich and loud while being a much more comfortable size. The aluminum unibody design feels solid and rich, and the 11-inch touchscreen is 2K resolution with 400 nits of brightness. Whether you're out on the back porch for a perfect morning of news and email, watching videos on that cross-country flight, or reading in bed, this screen is unbeaten among Chrome tablets. In fact, it's the best screen I've used to date on an 11-inch Chromebook. The HP X2 11 also fits PERFECTLY in the iPad sleeve of my decade-old Dakine crossbody satchel - and every other travel bag, purse, or sling - proof positive that this beauty was tailor-made for travel and leisure.
It suffers from only two flaws: HP used the first Snapdragon 7c compute platform rather than the Gen 2 inside the Lenovo Duet 5, and the price. HP built a premium tablet and demanded a premium price tag at launch. The first you can't do much about - and 8GB of RAM helps offset some of the multi-tasking issues - but the second has been mostly resolved now. Best Buy has taken the X2 down to $300 and even as far down at $225 with near-constant sales. This makes the X2 great for leisure, some casual Android games, and light work. It can even make do as a backup computer should your pour coffee on your regular laptop, but this is a chip designed for efficiency, not power. Also, the keyboard can be a little cramped, but it's easy enough to adapt to for light emails and fighting on Reddit.
Large-screen Chromebooks are still a relatively small subset of the market - at least, once you get out of the sub-$400 budget models that spread 1366x768 pixels over an old 220-nit 15.6-inch non-touch display. That said, ASUS brought us a sharply-dressed one in the summer of 2021. The reverse-tuxedo colorway on the ASUS Chromebook Flip 536 starts things off smooth, and then the crisp 15.6-inch, 1080p touchscreen and full, backlit keyboard with number pad inside allow us to stretch and spread all of our tabs out.
Big screens mean more battery drain, but the decision to go with an Intel Core i3 rather than an i5 or i7 gives us a little more efficiency and will let you get 7-10 hours on medium-low brightness with 2-5 windows and 10-20 tabs open at a time. 8GB of RAM certainly helps out with the tabs as it can help avoid tabs dropping and refreshing once you start regularly switching between 6-10 tabs in rapid succession - like checking ten different retailers for a restock that almost never happens on time. The C536's big size makes it a bit big for an everyday carry laptop, but it's not in LINO territory yet (Laptop in Name Only).
I've carried it around in a backpack all day before without my shoulders screaming at me, and while you'll probably want to pack along a charger if you intend to use it anywhere outdoors. Unlike the Acer Spin 713 and ASUS CX9, the C536 is just the standard 250-nit brightness, so once you leave the great indoors, you'll be cranking it up to full brightness quickly.
Once upon a time, Lenovo ruled the cheap Chromebook market with the Lenovo C330 Chromebook. It was highly portable, dependable, and durable for less than $300. This led Lenovo to try and replicate that success in the following years with a small army of budget Lenovo Chromebooks: the C340-11, the IdeaPad 3, and the Flex 3. The Lenovo Flex 3 isn't just one single model, though; it's three.
One has the same MediaTek MT8173 processor, the same as the C330. Another has the Intel Celeron N4020 inside like the C340-11. A third has the MT8183, and that's the one you should be buying in 2022. The MT8173 models are on an older board that will stop getting Chrome OS updates around 2025, and the Intel version didn't handle apps quite as well as the MediaTek models. The version with the MT8183 will get Chrome OS updates until June 2028, and while it's not super-powerful, it's good for homework, casual computing, and a few hours of solitaire while you're bored between meetings.
It's a long-lasting Chromebook in every sense of the word. It can take a few small falls and bangs in stride. It'll get updates for six more years, and the battery usually lasts well over 9 hours on a single charge before it needs to find a USB-C power delivery charger. It's usually on sale in the range of $215-$280, but make sure the version you grab has the MT8183 and a touchscreen. Being popular also means you'll find hundreds of Lenovo Flex 3 listings on Amazon, so check who's selling and shipping the device and the specs to ensure that you're getting a real laptop - and the right Flex 3.
While the HP Chromebook X2 11 nails the premium compact segment, most of us looking for 11.6-inch Chromebooks need an inexpensive machine that our kids can use for homework, or we can use for emails and light work. Chromebooks are best when they're drop-dead simple; it doesn't get more simple than the HP Chromebook 11a (11a-na0xxx series). The HP 11a's MediaTek 8183 may not be the most powerful processor on the block, but it's one we know works well for Chrome OS for homework, casual browsing, and even light to medium workloads, so long as you don't go tab-crazy.
A sturdy body helps it weather the daily ear and tear of modern living, and the touchscreen allows for better interaction with Android apps and with many websites, too. You get the same 45W Power Delivery charging as the most expensive Chromebooks, but up to 15 hours of battery life between charges means you shouldn't have to drag a charger with you every time you go work at the coffee shop or the park. Most importantly, the HP Chromebook 11a will last you twice as long as its most popular budget competitors. Older, cheaper Chromebooks perpetually flood the market, but you have to be wary of older models because all Chromebooks come with an expiration date. That's the AUE date, after which Google no longer guarantees updates to the Chrome OS system.
Some budget Chromebooks have AUE dates of 2024, while others like this series of the HP Chromebook 11a have AUE dates of June 2028. This means you get three times the lifespan for about the same price. This lets your money go further while considering when and what you may update to next. But only if you make sure you grab the correct model number, so always double-check before checking out. If you've been hesitant about trying Chrome OS, thinking you need more than it can offer, the HP Chromebook 11a is an excellent trial device. It's inexpensive, durable, and has the same software and Android app support as more posh Chromebooks like the Acer Spin 713 and Lenovo Duet 5.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 started rather expensive when it first debuted, but Best Buy keeps deeply discounting it as it prepares for new models like the Spin 714 and the latest Acer Spin 514, meaning that you actually can grab the best Chromebook on the market for an entirely reasonable price. Usually, the Lenovo Flex 5i and Duet 5 have the Spin 713 handily beat on price, but the value argument has completely flipped with these deals. All three will get system updates until June 2029 - assuming you can keep it safe and unbroken that long - but the 2K screen and 11th Gen i5 processor give the Spin 713 a clear advantage over the Flex 5i's i3 and Duet's Snapdragon 7c Gen 2. However, both Lenovo models absolutely trounce Acer on sound quality.
The i5-powered Acer Spin 713 and the i7-powered Asus Chromebook CX9 feature more future-proofing in their premium builds, which offers the best investment long-term if you're looking for your one laptop to rule them all. They're also your surefire bets for gaming, as they are two of the very, very few Chromebooks you can try out Steam on Chrome OS during its alpha testing period.
If you're on a budget, the Lenovo Flex 3 and the HP Chromebook 11a (na0 series) have list prices of $300-$380 from 2020, but why pay 2022 prices for 2020 Chromebooks? There's almost always a sale on one or both of these models. The Lenovo Flex 3 especially gets deals at least twice a month, like clockwork. Just be careful; both the Flex 3 and HP 11a have over a dozen variants with basically the same name and constantly shifting prices, so double-check the processor, the touchscreen, and the AUE date to ensure you get the best value and not an old dud.
For kids that you trust to take care of their laptop or in middle/high school, seriously consider the Lenovo Flex 5i over the 11-inch models. It's usually less than $100 more, has a significantly better screen and processor, and is a solid Chromebook they can feasibly use throughout middle school and high school before it stops getting system updates. (Again, assuming they don't break the screen or the battery before that.)
One final Chromebook buyer tip: leave the in-box 45W charger at home and buy a more compact Chromebook charger. 45W Power Delivery chargers are used for everything from Chromebooks to power banks to phones and even wireless earbuds. You can even find 65W two-port chargers pretty easily that will charge your Chromebook and your phone simultaneously. So treat that ugly two-piece adapter as an in-case-of-emergency charger while using something more efficient and adaptable.