The best Chromebooks

Are you looking for a new Chrome OS laptop? We’ve put together a list of the very best Chromebooks available today. And there is something for everyone here. Chromebooks are perfect for run-of-the-mill home, office, and educational use. There are even some great options for gamers and creatives. You can find affordable Chromebooks, high-end ones, tablets, and more.

The best Chromebooks to buy in 2024

• The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is the best Chromebook overall, with a solid build, punchy keyboard, excellent performance, and battery life.
• The ASUS ExpertBook CX54 Chromebook Plus is the best Chromebook for professionals, with an elegant design, capable specs, a solid experience, and great build quality.
• The ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 is the best mid-tier Chromebook, packing a great design and feel in a lightweight chassis. Its specs are also impressive for the price point.
• The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is the best Chromebook for students and professionals who want a good design, build, and a reasonable price.
• The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is the best gaming Chromebook. It is powerful, has a great screen, good audio, and fun gaming design.
• The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook is the best Chromebook tablet you can buy, with an excellent battery life packed into a flexible form factor.
• The ASUS Chromebook CM30 Detachable is the best budget Chromebook tablet, mixing an excellent design, fair performance, and a lower price.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714: The best Chromebook overall

Everyone is jumping on the Chromebook Plus ship. This new generation of Chromebooks will offer a minimum set of specs, better AI support, improved software, and more. Of course, Acer couldn’t fall behind. We used to have the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 as the top contender on this list of the best Chromebooks, and its natural successor has taken its place. Enter the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714.

It offers much of what the previous iteration offered, including a MIL-STD-810H rating and a gorgeous aluminum design. This means the laptop will be very resistant while looking great. Some design elements have been changed, such as the golden accents on the hinges. We believe it looks pretty nice!

It’s a rather capable machine that packs an Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 1 processor (Ultra 7 and Ultra 9 variants coming), up to 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and as much as 512GB of storage. The screen is also good, with a 16:10 aspect ratio display running at 1,920 by 1,200 pixels. It also features 340 nits of brightness and covers 100% of the sRGB color spectrum. As the name implies, it has a flip design, which means you can turn this device into a tablet with a “spin.” You’ll also enjoy a backlit keyboard and 10 hours of battery life.

And if you care for ports, this one comes with plenty. There are two USB-C ports (both Thunderbolt 4), A full USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB-A port, an HDMI 2.0 connection, and a 3.5mm headset jack. This is a breath of fresh air, considering most modern Chromebooks are lacking in this department.

All things considered, it seems like a pretty fair deal at $700.

ASUS ExpertBook CX54 Chromebook Plus: The best Chromebook for professionals

Here’s another great Chromebook Plus proposition, and this time it’s specifically made for the office dwellers, businessmen, and professionals among you. It’s right in the name, actually. The ASUS ExpertBook CX54 Chromebook Plus Enterprise is quite the laptop, offering a great experience, packaged in a high-quality, elegant design.

This laptop is only 1.69cm thick, so it will be easy to carry around. The all-metal chassis will also warrant a premium look and feel, while keeping the weight down at 1.3kg. Front and center is a 14-inch 2,560 x 1,600 display.

You need not worry about performance, either. The unit can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 7, as much as 16GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage. And if you care for ports, there are also plenty of them here. There are two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an HDMI 2.1 connection, a 3.5mm headset jack, and even a microSD card reader. Everything a working professional would need!

This one is also $700, and so it’s a matter of preference when picking between ASUS and the Acer model above.

ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34: The best mid-tier Chromebook

Plenty of affordable Chromebooks are out there, but you don’t want to get one of the absolute cheapest either. All things considered, the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 is surprisingly good for a device that starts at $600.

This is a Chromebook Plus device, so you know specs need to meet certain minimum requirements. This laptop comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. Battery life is estimated at 10 hours, making it a great on-the-go device. And if you’re worried about damaging it on your adventures, this unit has a MIL-STD 810H certification.

Any downsides? There is no touchscreen, but the 14-inch Full HD display is pretty nice. It also doesn’t flip all the way, which would have been nice.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus: The best Chromebook for students

Lenovo has a strong presence in offices and schools, and the tradition continues with the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus. Though it’s pretty affordable, it touts a great-looking design that will look at home in any educational setting.

The unit has a fair $500 price. And because it is a Chromebook Plus, it has some pretty nice specs and a pleasant overall experience, without going overboard. You’ll get an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 14-inch FHD display. The screen also flips all the way back, so you can use it in multiple modes.

Overall, it is a capable Chromebook that should be great for most office tasks or homework. The design won’t stick out like a sore thumb, and it looks professional enough for any setting. You can definitely have some fun with it, too, though. The large speaker grills, Full HD screen, and cloud gaming will work together awesomely.

Pros

• Solid design and feel
• Fair price
• Good display and speakers

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Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: The best gaming Chromebook

Acer was one of the first to enter the gaming Chromebook game, and now it’s also bringing one of the first Chromebook Plus gaming laptops. The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is very similar to a model that goes by the same name, save for the “Plus” section. It has a very similar design, along with an RGB keyboard and even trackpad edge lighting. It looks really cool if you’re into the gaming aesthetics. It’s also balanced, though, as the external design won’t look too gamey compared to other gaming Chromebooks.

You also get other gaming-focused enhancements. For example, the screen is larger at 16 inches, and it has a higher-resolution 2,560 x 1,600 panel that can handle 120Hz refresh rates. Cooling has also been overcharged with a twin air-cooling system.

As any gaming device should, this laptop offers some pretty powerful specs. The version currently available in the US has an Intel Core 5 Series 1 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, but other versions are planned, likely for different markets. Regardless, the specs don’t matter too much, as gaming Chromebooks mainly focus on cloud gaming.

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE costs $649 in the US. It does not have a touchscreen, so keep that in mind.

Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook: The best Chromebook tablet

The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook is a sequel to the Lenovo Chromebook Duet. The company has upgraded the display from a 10.1-inch to a 13.3-inch screen, and it is one of the best things about this Chromebook tablet. It’s a solidly built Chromebook tablet that uses good-quality hardware and gets a performance boost thanks to the upgrade to Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 SoC.

You can get 4-8GB of RAM with 64-128GB of storage. Both variants get eMMC 5.1 storage. Despite having a bigger footprint, it carries the same superb usability that the Chromebook Duet did. It also has a 42Wh battery that gave between 11-12 hours of battery life during our testing, which is rather impressive for a device of this class.

You also get the promise of eight years of Chrome OS updates, so it’s safe to say this is a future-proof Chromebook tablet as well.

ASUS Chromebook CM30 Detachable: The best affordable Chromebook

There are plenty of affordable Chromebooks out there, but they can be pretty bad. If we were to recommend a cheap Chromebook, it would be the ASUS Chromebook CM30 Detachable, which also happens to be one of the best Chromebook tablets. At $299, it isn’t exactly the most affordable, but it’s still on the lower end, and we believe it’s the Chromebook with the most balanced bang-per-buck ratio.

For starters, the design is very nice, offering a detachable keyboard. You can use it as a tablet or as a laptop replacement. It weighs just 2.18 lbs and has a pretty clean, minimal design. It’s also pretty slim and portable, featuring a 10.5-inch screen. That said, the specs are pretty modest. You get a MediaTek Kompanio 520 CPU and 8GB of RAM.

There are other things to love here. Despite the lower price, it still has a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution, a 12-hour battery life, an integrated stylus, and an aluminum chassis that feels very nice.

The best budget Chromebooks

We know many of you are specifically looking for the best Chromebooks at a lower price. Most options listed above are relatively expensive, so we thought creating a specific section for affordable Chromebooks was important. Here are some of our favorite picks.

• Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 ($379 at Best Buy): The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 is no powerhouse, and it is not the fastest, but it is excellent for casual tasks and is one of the very few actual Chromebook tablets. It also has a low $379 starting price, and we’ve seen it on special before.
• Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook ($169 at Best Buy): Lenovo is great at making budget Chromebooks, and this one is one of our favorites because of its very unique design and low $319 price point. Specs are pretty modest, but it works well for casual browsing and looks awesome.
• ASUS Chromebook CM30 Detachable ($299 at Walmart): If you want a true Chromebook tablet on the cheap, this one is a pretty nice one, with some features that push it closer to the mid-tier spectrum. It costs $299!

The best touchscreen Chromebooks

A suitable multi-tasking device can often do more than your usual computing stuff. Because Chrome OS has Android app support, Chromebooks may also double as tablets. If you’re looking for a laptop that can work as a computer or tablet, you may want to look for the best touchscreen Chromebooks.

• Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook ($480 at Amazon): All in all, this continues to be the best Chrome OS tablet around. It is fairly spec’d for the $500 price, has a nice design, is pretty slim, features a magnetic stand cover, and comes with a detachable keyboard.
• ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip ($699 at Best Buy): We would have picked the ASUS Chromebook CX34 Flip, but that laptop is a bit too bulky and heavy. The older CX55 Flip is significantly lighter and is better suited to be used as a touchscreen tablet when you flip the screen around. It is a gaming Chromebook with great spec options, a backlit keyboard, and an excellent design.
• Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus ($379 at Best Buy): This Chromebook offers a great balance between price, performance, and design. Because the screen flips all the way back, it’s also an awesome device to use the touchscreen with. It has stylus support, and offers an overall outstanding experience.
• ASUS Chromebook CM30 Detachable ($299 at Walmart): Being a true Chromebook tablet, this one obviously has a touchscreen, and it is a great alternative if you want a more portable and versatile Chrome OS device. It’s also pretty cheap at $299!

Chromebooks vs laptops

Chromebooks are great for light usage, but should you be picking one over a Windows laptop? The fact is that you get a lot more options with Windows, but Chromebooks have started getting more diverse in recent years. Chrome OS is still not a full equivalent to Windows, though.

Here are some Chrome OS pros and cons you should keep in mind.

Picking the best Chromebook accessories

Now that you have a feel for the best Chromebooks to buy, you might want to check out some accessories to complete the setup. Here are some of our favorite Chromebook chargers. And if you want to get gaming, here’s our list of the best gaming controllers.

Buying the best Chromebook for your needs

Screen size, weight, and form factor are important factors to consider, depending on your portability and usage requirements. If you consume a lot of media, a convertible two-in-one design or Chromebook tablet is the way to go. There are also typical laptop design options available if that’s more aligned with your usage. For media consumption, a good display is also essential, and there are quite a few options there, with some Chromebooks even sporting 4K displays.

These devices also come with a wide variety of spec configurations. You’ll want to focus on the processor and RAM for improved performance. If you plan on making one your primary computer, you’ll be better served by a more powerful CPU. However, having a more powerful CPU will likely come at the cost of lower battery life, so make sure you find the right balance for your needs. Some even come with included styluses, for the drawers and designers among us.

Many big computing brands make Chromebooks, so brand preference shouldn’t be a big issue while shopping for one.

If you’re still unsure which Chromebook would be the best for you, this guide has our picks of the best Chromebooks to buy in 2024 across multiple categories and price points.

Frequently Asked Questions