Best Chromebook deals for students
Schools are planning to return to in-person learning this fall, but that doesn’t mean your kids will stop doing much of their school work on a laptop. Many districts supply students with Chromebooks, but they are usually undersized and underpowered models. If you can afford it, you may want to invest in a larger, more powerful laptop for the upcoming school year.
The most affordable option is a Chromebook laptop. Not only do they cost hundreds less than a traditional laptop like a Windows machine or a MacBook, but they’re also easier to use, thanks to the streamlined Chrome OS software. And you can find Chromebook models with displays larger than the tiny, 11-inch Chromebooks that school districts typically issue. The picks here all have larger, 12.2to 15.6-inch displays.
Chromebooks range in price from less than $100 to more than $1,000, but you don’t need to spend that much to get up and running for distance learning. Our favorite Chromebooks fall mostly in the $400 to $700 range. If those don’t suit you, here are three budget Chromebook models that are currently priced at less than $550. We took into account factors and features such as cloud storage, the quality of the keyboard, battery life, ease of web browsing and even the inclusion of a headphone jack. If you’re looking to find the best Chromebook for students, this list should help.
CORE I3 POWER Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5
The big highlight of this Lenovo two-in-one Chromebook is its 10th-gen Intel Core i3 CPU, which is common to many budget Windows laptops and has more than enough oomph to power the lightweight Chrome OS. The Flex 5 features a 13.3-inch touchscreen display with a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel resolution. It offers pen support, but you’ll need to buy a stylus separately.
BIG SCREEN POWERED BY CORE I3 Lenovo Chromebook C340
This convertible Chromebook features a 15.6-inch touchscreen that can rotate into tablet mode, and is powered by an eighth-gen Intel Core i3 CPU. It’s an older Core i3 part than you get in the above Lenovo model, but more powerful than Intel Pentium and Celeron chips commonly found in Chromebooks. The C340 also offers 4GB of RAM and 64GB of flash storage, both average for the price.
A TABLET, TOO Samsung Chromebook Plus V2
This Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 has a smaller display than the above models at 12.2 inches, but the touchscreen display can rotate 360 degrees into tablet mode so you can play Android games — once homework is done, of course. The display boasts a sharp 1,920-by-1,200pixel resolution and pen support for the included stylus. Inside, the system features an Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.