Best Chromebooks 2025: The Ultimate Guide to Saving Money 💸
If you're looking for a budget laptop that's fast enough for personal use and office work, you've come to the right place! Only if you don't mind working within the Google ecosystem. 🌟
Chromebooks offer reliable performance and are largely virus-free. You can even play the latest AAA games via cloud gaming! But type "Chromebook" into any search bar and you'll be faced with countless options. If you're feeling overwhelmed, don't worry! Below is a carefully curated list. 📝
Lenovo Flex 5i – Best Chromebook Overall
Pros
- Good build quality
- Fantastic writing experience
- Vibrating touchscreen
Cons
- Average battery life for a Chromebook
- Stylus not included
Why we like the Lenovo Flex 5i
The Lenovo Flex 5i is the best overall choice thanks to its 2-in-1 design, snappy performance, exquisite typing experience, and more. Its understated aluminum finish makes it feel like a machine that costs three or four times as much. As for the convertible design, the 360-degree hinge feels incredibly solid, which is essential for a 2-in-1 laptop. Plus, the keyboard is a real pleasure to use, and the 1200p touchscreen delivers crisp, vibrant visuals. Best of all, you get all these great features for less than $14T500. 💰
Who should buy the Lenovo Flex 5i?
We think the Lenovo Flex 5i is a good Chromebook for most people. The touchscreen and 2-in-1 design give it the edge, as these features are typically found on much more expensive machines. While the nine-hour battery life is considered justifiable for a Chromebook, it's still a great all-day result. It's just not the dazzling 19 hours we got from the Asus Chromebook CM34 Flip. That said, the Lenovo Flex 5i's list of compromises is quite small.
Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 Chromebook – Best Budget Chromebook
Pros
- Lightweight design
- Excellent battery life
- Attractive color scheme
- 1080p display
Cons
- Only 4 GB of RAM
- The 720p webcam is disappointing
Why we like the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 Chromebook
For less than £14,300, the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 Chromebook offers decent performance, fantastic battery life, and a lightweight size. Inside, you'll find a MediaTek Kompanio 520 CPU, an ARM Mali-G52 2EE MC2 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC storage. On paper, those specs might not look impressive. However, in real-world use, everyday performance is perfectly reliable. The 47-watt battery also lasted 16 hours with only one It charges and weighs just under three pounds, making it a solid travel companion. Not bad for under $300, right? 💻
Who should buy the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 Chromebook?
Anyone looking for a cheap, functional Chromebook. It's not the most innovative Chromebook we've seen, but it doesn't have to be. It has enough power for light use, and the battery will keep you going long after your work or school day is over. The inclusion of a 1080p touchscreen is a nice touch, especially considering the machine's low price. The 720p webcam is disappointing, and you only get 4GB of RAM, but if you're willing to adjust your expectations a bit, then this machine is worth considering. 👍
Alternative option: If you're willing to spend a little more for a better-performing Chromebook, we recommend checking out the Acer Chromebook Plus 515, which costs $$399. Boot times are incredibly fast, and browser-based tasks feel appropriately snappy. Typing is also pleasant, and the battery can last up to 13 hours on a single charge. The only downsides are the dull aesthetics and thick bezels on the display.
Lenovo Chromebook Duet – More portable option
Pros
- Great value
- Flexible form
- Surprisingly good keyboard
- Incredible battery life
Cons
- Needs more RAM
- Android apps don't work properly
- Vertical support reduces horizontal options
Why we like the Lenovo Chromebook Duet
The Lenovo Chromebook Duet is remarkably light, at just 2.09 pounds—and that includes the keyboard and stand! We were impressed not only by its compact size but also by its long battery life. The 68-watt-hour battery can last 12 or 13 hours on a day of casual use, great for browsing the web and watching YouTube. That's a lot for a small 2-in-1 laptop! It also charges very quickly, which is impressive considering its battery size.
Who should buy the Lenovo Chromebook Duet?
Anyone looking for a lightweight laptop with good battery life. The keyboard is also great, although it sits "as flat as a pancake," according to our review. Compared to the previous version, the keys have "longer travel" and the alphanumeric keys are full-size; both of these factors contribute to a more natural typing experience. You can also detach the keyboard and use the screen as a tablet. 🥳
Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 – Best High-End Chromebook
Pros
- Great keyboard
- Good battery life and performance
- Beautiful screen
Cons
- Weak sound speakers
- The pencil is sold separately.
- It does not have a fingerprint reader
- More expensive than the average Chromebook
Why we like the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714
The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 offers a convertible form factor, a fast performance and a keyboard with plenty of travel. The 14-inch touchscreen also has a 1920x1200 resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio, and 340 nits of brightness. It's a great display for watching media, but it's somewhat dimmer, and the glossy surface makes it difficult to use on a sunny day. That said, the multi-touch touchscreen works very well. 🌞
Who should buy the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714?
Anyone looking for a more premium Chromebook. The 2-in-1 format allows you to rotate the screen 360 degrees and use it as a tablet, which is great for those who like to take notes or doodle. Plus, many Android apps are optimized for use as a tablet, so using this Chromebook in tablet mode should be easy. The price tag ($699) may deter some, but if your budget is limitless, then the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is a fantastic choice! 🎉
Alternative option: The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus ($699.99) is another good option to consider. The AMOLED display is absolutely gorgeous, and it's one of the thinnest Chromebooks currently available, which is perfect if portability is high on your priority list.
Acer Chromebook 516 GE – Best Chromebook for Gaming
Pros
- Attractive design
- Excellent CPU performance
- Great wired and wireless connection
- High-resolution 1600p display
Cons
- Mediocre keyboard and touchpad
- Disappointing speakers and microphone
- The screen falls short in contrast and color vibrancy
Why we like the Acer Chromebook 516 GE
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a good machine for gaming and everyday tasks. Its Intel Core i5-1240P CPU is powerful enough for office work and everyday activities, and the 120Hz display will produce smooth visuals. You can't run games locally on this laptop, but you can use a cloud gaming service like Nvidia GeForce Now or Amazon Luna. According to our review, "gameplay felt perfectly smooth," and the display panel GeForce Now diagnostics showed no problems. Make sure you have a stable internet connection. Fortunately, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE has an Ethernet port, which is just about as stable as you can get! 🎮
Who should buy the Acer Chromebook 516 GE?
Anyone who wants to game on a reliable Chromebook. The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a joy to play on and is fast enough for productivity and everyday use. Plus, it features a 1080p webcam, a 65-watt-hour battery, and an attractive design. At a list price of £14T650, it's a bit pricey for a Chromebook, but it outperforms the average Chrome OS machine and is specifically designed to deliver a high-quality cloud gaming experience.
Alternative option: If you are looking for a Windows alternative that can run local games, you should check out the Asus laptop TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition. It's currently our top budget gaming pick, and for good reason. Our reviewer blasted through the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark at 123 frames per second thanks to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. This laptop also achieved an impressive 11 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is unheard of for gaming laptops.
Framework Laptop Chromebook – Best Chromebook for Customization Enthusiasts
Pros
- Upgradable
- Interchangeable ports
- Webcam 1080p
- Reliable performance
Cons
- Expensive
- It does not have a touch screen
Why we like the Framework Laptop Chromebook
The Framework Laptop Chromebook is one of the more unusual entries in this roundup because it's a modular laptop, meaning you can replace or upgrade any part of it. Our reviewer, unsure of her disassembly skills, was able to open the laptop in a few simple steps. The hardware is marked with QR codes that you can scan with your phone to be directed to the right place on the Framework website. The 1080p display is also a big draw, and the interchangeable ports allow you to mix and match where the ports connect on the laptop.
Who should buy the Framework Laptop Chromebook?
Anyone who likes to experiment and extend the life of their laptop. The Framework Laptop Chromebook is designed with the customization and upgradeability in mind. It's worth mentioning that it's aimed at a specific niche of people, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Performance is solid thanks to the Intel Core i5 processor. Our benchmarks show it handles everyday tasks like web browsing and streaming like a pro. The only caveat is that it's expensive for a Chromebook. The Acer Chromebook Vero 514, for example, is just as fast as the Framework Laptop Chromebook and is hundreds of dollars cheaper.
Recent Laptop Reviews
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 13 Aura Edition is sleek and feels great to use. But Lenovo should have upped its game, as the system lags behind in performance and battery life compared to several cheaper competitors, and it's not the only brand making systems with a great feel.
- Lenovo LOQ 15: The Lenovo LOQ15 has better build quality than the average gaming laptop in this price range, but its performance is still low.
- Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 (Qualcomm version): This budget business laptop offers surprising battery life and snappy desktop application performance. But the display isn't great, and this is the lowest-performing Snapdragon X Plus SKU available.
- Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: The bargain-priced Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 has enough power to handle spreadsheets and video calls, but it may not stand up to the demands of travel.
- Asus Vivobook S 14: The Asus Vivobook S 14 combines Intel's latest Lunar Lake CPU with plenty of RAM and storage at a very reasonable price. It's a good machine, but Lunar Lake's multithreading performance will be a problem for some tasks, and this design won't turn heads.
How we test Chromebooks
The team puts each laptop through a series of benchmarks that test GPU and CPU performance, battery life, and more. The idea is to push the laptop to its limits and then compare it to others we've tested. Because of the cloud-based nature of Chromebooks, they go through a series of web-based tests. It wouldn't be fair or possible to run the same type of tests on a Chromebook that we use on laptops because the latter run on a operating system completely different.
Below, you'll find a breakdown of each test and the reasons why we perform them.
Chromebooks
- CrXPRT 2: The benchmark CrXPRT 2 measures the battery life of a Chromebook.
- Speedometer 2.0This test determines the performance of a Chromebook's web browser. It simulates adding, completing, and deleting a task list.
- Basemark Web 3.0: This benchmark evaluates how well a Chromebook can handle web-based applications.
- Kraken 1.1: Kraken 1.1 is a JavaScript performance benchmark that measures browser speed.
- Jetstream 2Jetstream 2 is a combination of WebAssembly and JavaScript benchmarks. This is a way to evaluate how well a Chromebook runs advanced workloads.
What should you look for in a Chromebook?
If you're looking for an alternative to Windows or a MacBook, you might want to consider a Chromebook. Equipped with low-power processors, they generally have good battery life and are quiet in operation. They're excellent productivity machines, as they're specifically designed for light tasks like web browsing, watching Netflix, and so on. Plus, they're mostly virus-free. However, most Chromebooks have minimal RAM and storage. If you're a hardcore gamer or video editor, you'll want something with much more power than a Chromebook can provide.
- Operating system: While every operating system has its pros and cons, I'd say Chrome OS is one of the most user-friendly. That said, with Chromebooks, you don't have the option to choose another operating system, as they run exclusively on Chrome OS. You're stuck with that, my friend.
- ProcessorAim for a mid-range Chromebook if you can. They cost around $1400 to $1600, and many come equipped with Intel Pentium processors. These Chromebooks perform better in browsers and are capable of running more intensive gaming applications. It's the best you can get for your money. Higher-end Chromebooks sometimes use Intel Core or AMD Ryzen processors, which are more powerful.
- RAMMany Chromebooks have 4GB of RAM, which isn't much. Chromebooks are web-based machines, so you need a reasonable amount of RAM to keep those tabs open and running smoothly. If you can spend a couple hundred more, you can find a mid-range Chromebook with 8GB of RAM.
- StorageI recommend at least 64GB of storage. Since you'll primarily be storing things in the cloud, you don't need that much local storage.
- DurabilityChromebooks are popular in the education market because they're quite rugged. I'm not saying you should hit them with a baseball bat, but they're durable enough to handle life's daily abuses.
FAQ
1. What's the difference between a regular laptop and a Chromebook?
When people talk about regular laptops, they're usually referring to a PC or a Mac. A Chromebook is still a laptop, but it differentiates itself from either of those two by using a unique operating system called Chrome OS, created by Google. Think about it: all Chromebooks are laptops, but not all laptops are Chromebooks.
Unlike other operating systems like Windows or macOS, Chrome OS is optimized to run Google apps like Google Drive, Google Docs, YouTube, and other Google services. Because most Google apps are online, Chromebooks typically require an internet connection to use most of their key features.
Finally, Chromebooks have historically been designed with portability, ease of use, and affordability in mind, rather than superior performance. Chromebooks typically eschew the faster, higher-end hardware that PCs or Macs can use, offering a more minimalist and lightweight approach to computing.
2. Can you use integrated graphics for gaming?
No, you can't play games on a Chromebook because they can't run local EXEs, other than Android apps. However, you can play modern games on a Chromebook that supports cloud gaming, such as Lenovo IdeaPad 5 GamingYou must have an Ultimate membership with Nvidia's GeForce Now to play the games, though. The Ultimate tier costs $19.99 per month or $99.99 for six months. It's a fairly smooth experience, and Nvidia also offers a free unlimited tier so you can stream games with session time restrictions.
3. What's the difference between a budget laptop and a tablet?
Increasingly, the line between a laptop and a tablet is blurring as companies integrate features from both into their latest devices. But there are still some key distinctions between the two. Laptops are typically larger, have more storage, and have better performance and productivity features. Tablets, on the other hand, are smaller and more portable, have longer battery life, and are usually a bit more affordable.
When choosing between a budget laptop and a tablet, you should first ask yourself what your primary use for the device will be. Do you need something for productivity with lots of storage? Then a laptop, even a budget model, is probably the way to go. Or, do you need something small, travel-friendly, and have a long battery life? Then you might consider a tablet.
4. What are the disadvantages of a Chromebook?
Chromebooks are designed for everyday tasks, which is fine if all you do is browse the web and check email. They can't handle intensive design work, video editing, etc. You'll also need a strong internet connection because if you're not online, there's only so much you can do with a Chromebook. Chromebooks can't install local programs like Windows PCs can. You also can't install Microsoft Office, which can be a big problem for some people, especially those who rely on those programs for work.
5. What is a Chromebook good for?
Chromebooks are good laptops for those who need the basics. If all you need is a reliable internet connection to do your work and nothing else (like resource-intensive programs), then you're fine. I use my own Chromebook for writing and editing, as well as proofreading. social networks and watch YouTube. You can even play them with a cloud gaming service like GeForce Now, if that's what you like to do in your free time (no judgment here).
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