Even the best Chromebooks can't do very much without an Internet connection. But as long as you're online, these cheap and low-powered laptops are perfect for browsing the web, working online and streaming games.
While Chromebooks typically aren't as powerful as laptops running Windows or macOS, they're also typically cheaper and easier to use. I know because my team and I review dozens of laptops from top vendors every year, including Chromebooks, and the limitations of ChromeOS keep these laptop's prices low without limiting their versatility.
That's why I generally still recommend the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 to folks shopping for a Chromebook: it's got a great screen and keyboard, and its aging components are still more than capable of handling ChromeOS.
Those on a budget can easily get by with the plucky Lenovo Chromebook Duet, but my favorite Chromebook to recommend is the Framework Chromebook because you can repair or upgrade it for years to come.
Read on for more recommendations, fuller explanations and a detailed breakdown of our battery testing so you can pick the best Chromebook for your needs.
The quick list
In a hurry? Here's a brief overview of the laptops on this list, along with quick links that let you jump down the page directly to a review of whichever laptop catches your eye.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is a premium Chromebook that will get you through a day of work or school for under $500. While its internals are aging, the gorgeous QLED touchscreen and decent speakers make it feel premium. If you can find one in the Fiesta Red paint job, so much the better.
Lenovo's Chromebook Duet is technically a Chrome tablet, but it's such a good value we also recommend it for folks seeking a cheap Chromebook. The Duet is a great Chrome slate for browsing the web that comes with a detachable keyboard included at no charge, making it a great budget Chromebook to boot.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 is pricey but delivers good battery life, strong performance and a stylus and mouse packed in, making it our top pick for best 2-in-1.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 delivers good battery life, great performance and a bright, colorful display for an affordable price, making it our top recommendation for those seeking a Chromebook which transforms into a tablet.
The pricier Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 is a well-built Chrome tablet that offers a nice screen and enough power to get work done. It's suited to browsing the web or remote learning, and the included keyboard cover is good enough for writing emails or short assignments.
The Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition is a truly unique Chromebook that's designed to be easy to upgrade and repair, making it a great investment for folks who prioritize long-term value. The option to buy and hot-swap ports via the unique Expansion Card system is also unparalleled.
Alex Wawro is a lifelong journalist who's spent over a decade covering tech, games and entertainment. He oversees the computing department at Tom's Guide, which includes managing laptop coverage and reviewing many himself every year.
The best Chromebooks you can buy
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The best overall
Taking away the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook's 4K display was probably the best thing Samsung could have done to make this Chromebook a hit. Now it's way more affordable, but still sports a great QLED display and longer battery life — 7:50 vs the previous gen's 5:55. It's also going to sound great, plus its Core i3 configuration provides a ton of speed for Chrome OS.
We weren't as happy with the vertical travel in its keyboard, which is a bit shallow. This creates a slight learning curve you'll adapt to over time. But to get a Chromebook that looks this good — wow that Fiesta Red color option stands out in a sea of silver Chromebooks and PCs. Plus, at under $450, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 delivers solid value for the money.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 review.
The best value
Sometimes, it's amazing how much you can get for $300 or less. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet, for example, is a 2-in-1 Chromebook that offers something Microsoft's Surfaces and Apple's iPads won't: it's keyboard is included by default. Not only do you get that value, but the Chromebook Duet's tablet display is excellent in its own right, with a surprising amount of color output and a crisp 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution.
Smaller hands may find the Chromebook Duet's keyboard a little on the tight side, but at this price, any keyboard is a surprise and a steal. Making things even better, the Chromebook Duet features ChromeOS tablet optimizations that are long overdue to take advantage of all of its screen space. On top of all of that? It lasted for 12 hours and 47 minutes, nearly 13 hours.
Read our full Lenovo Chromebook Duet review.
The best 2-in-1
The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 ($729 to start) is what we recommend as the best 2-in-1 Chromebook for most folks beacause it offers good battery life and speedy performance. Plus, it comes with a handy travel mouse and stylus, making it a great tool for getting things done on the go.
The HDMI out and USB-A port mean you still have basic connections without needing a dock or adapter cables, but USB-C and Thunderbolt 4 are also on tap for current- and next-gen devices, which you don't always get on even modern Chromebooks.
Plus, the 14-inch display looks good in person and is bright enough, even if it can't compete with other premium Chromebooks in that department. The included mouse and stylus give you lots of options for getting work done in either laptop or tablet mode. Most importantly, the battery should last you an entire workday.
Read our full Acer Chromebook Spin 714 review.
The best Chrome tablet
The Lenovo Duet 3 (or Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3, depending on where you buy it) is a great Chrome tablet that can be yours for as low as $359. This is effectively a bigger, more expensive follow-up to the Chromebook Duet Lenovo released in 2020, a surprisingly capable and inexpensive Chrome tablet that's still on this list.
We loved the original Duet for its great battery life, solid performance and decent packed-in keyboard cover, all of which could be had for roughly $250. Lenovo's new Duet 3 costs a bit more, but it also delivers a bigger, brighter display, more ports, and the added power of a beefier Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chip. It's one of the best Chrome tablets you can buy, and the fact that Lenovo includes the keyboard cover at no extra cost helps it double as a surprisingly effective 2-in-1 Chromebook. While the original Duet further down this list is a better buy if you're short on cash, those who can afford it will be well-served by this excellent Chromebook.
Read our full Lenovo Duet 3 Chromebook review.
The best for gaming
Advancements in ChromeOS and cloud gaming services have made the idea of a "gaming Chromebook" that can play the latest and greatest games a viable option, and the Acer Chromebook 516 GE was one of the first to hit the market.
With a starting price of $649, a big 16-inch (2,500 x 1,600 pixels) display and a surprisingly low (for a 16-inch gaming laptop) weight of 3.9 pounds, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a solid big-screen Chromebook for not a lot of money.
Admittedly, the 12th Gen Intel CPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD in our review unit didn't give it a lot of horsepower or space to run games, but since you're meant to mostly play games via cloud gaming services like Amazon Luna, GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass you just need a rock-solid Internet connection. And since it sports an Ethernet jack (a rarity on Chromebooks) you can count on being able to plug into wired Internet for optimal gaming.
Read our full Acer Chromebook 516 GE review.
The best for DIYers
The Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition is a ChromeOS variant of Framework's signature 13-inch laptop, which is more repairable and upgradable than anything else on the market. Each laptop Framework ships comes with a screwdriver so you can crack open the case and swap out parts yourself, and everything from the memory to the screen bezel to the mainboard is user-replaceable.
It's not for everyone, but if you're the DIY type and love the idea of being able to tinker with your laptop's innards this is the best laptop for you. The Framework laptop is currently only available for purchase from the Framework website, and the price tag starts at around $1k — though you can pay even less for the DIY Edition if you're willing to assemble your laptop yourself and provide your own memory, storage, operating system, and Wi-Fi card. It's a great ultraportable that doubles as a learning device you can take apart and fix or upgrade yourself.
Read our full Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition review.
Battery benchmarks: comparison
Battery life is one of the key things you should look at when deciding which Chromebook to buy, which is why we run every laptop we review through a series of battery tests to see how long it lasts on a full charge.
These tests do not reflect real-world use patterns since we have to set every laptop to the same settings in order to do fair comparisons. Thus, while the times listed here are accurate and useful as a comparison point, your own experience with a laptop's battery life will likely vary.
This is because when we run our battery test we set the laptop's display to 150 nits of brightness and have it endlessly browse the web via Wi-Fi until it dies. However, when you use your laptop you're likely adjusting brightness on the fly, doing all sorts of different tasks while perhaps listening to music or watching a video at the same time, and generally putting the machine through more of a workout than it gets in our test.
So while I stand by our testing and the battery life results we compare in the chart below, I want to be clear that your own experience will vary!
| Laptop | Battery life (tested) |
| Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 | 7:50 |
| Lenovo Chromebook Duet | 12:47 |
| Acer Chromebook Spin 714 | 10:45 |
| Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 | 10:30 |
| Acer Chromebook 516 GE | 7:40 |
| Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition | 8:07 |
How to choose the best Chromebook for you
How to choose the best Chromebook for you
Finding the best Chromebook these days begins with a simple question:
Do you need a touchscreen? An increasing number of Chromebooks offer 2-in-1 designs with a touchscreen, allowing you to use Android apps from the Google Play store. However, those systems tend to be on the pricier side. If you want just a basic laptop on the cheap, a Chromebook without a touchscreen is the way to go.
Screen size: As a general rule, an 11-inch display is good for younger kids, but a 13-inch display is better for older students and business users on the move. If you want a Chromebook as a primary home laptop, we would opt for a 14-inch or 15-inch display..
Performance: Are you buying this for a kid who's got modest needs? A Pentium or Celeron processor should be enough. A Core M or Core i5 CPU is better for those who want more performance. Most budget Chromebooks start with 4GB of RAM, but we would get 8GB or more if you plan to work with a lot of tabs open. Because Chromebooks rely on the cloud, local storage isn’t that important, which is why 32GB tends to be standard. You’ll find 64GG to 128GB on more premium models.
Chromebook or Chrome OS Flex? One last thing to consider: do you need a Chromebook, or do you just want Chrome OS? Because if it's just the software you like, Google is starting to offer Chrome OS Flex, an education/enterprise-focused version of Chrome OS that you can install yourself on a Mac or PC. If you're of a technical mindset and have an old laptop that could use some up-to-date software on it, you could always give this a try.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the best Chromebook deals?
Chromebooks are typically considered cheap laptops, but that doesn't mean they're always affordable. As Chromebooks advance and Google and other companies cram more features into them, the prices are only going to increase.
First and foremost, check out our guide to the best Chromebook deals around right now. Our deals experts regularly look for great Chromebook sales and update that page regularly, so it's a good resource to bookmark.
Second, consider holding off on until a major shopping event like Black Friday, Cyber Monday or the back-to-school shopping season, which typically starts in early August but gets earlier every year. During these sales events retailers typically roll out their biggest discounts on the broadest variety of Chromebooks, so if you can afford to wait for a sale, do it!
Should I get a clamshell laptop or 2-in-1?
There are two major models of Chromebook available, and they have to do with how the screen folds.
Clamshell Chromebooks look like classic laptops, with a hinge in the middle that attaches the screen to the keyboard deck. The hinge doesn't extend farther than 180 degrees, so you can count on having the screen sturdily propped in front of the keyboard for marathon work sessions.
But 2-in-1 Chromebooks typically have some way to transform them into a tablet, either by detaching the screen from the keyboard or flipping the keyboard around 360 degrees to lay flat against the back of the screen. These Chromebooks have to have touchscreens, which is nice to have when you're running Android apps on your Chromebook. And the fact that they double as tablets can be nice when you're traveling or lying in bed and just want a screen to watch videos on.
However, 2-in-1 Chromebooks tend to be more expensive and their keyboards are rarely as good as the best you find on clamshell models. So if you want a productivity machine or something cheap, you probably want to lean more towards clamshells.
How much RAM do I need?
Storage isn't hugely important on a Chromebook since most of your work is stored online in cloud services like Google Docs or Microsoft 365. But RAM is more valuable because its what your Chromebook uses to store and move data around in memory in real-time.
That means having low RAM will cause your Chromebook to feel slow, sluggish and generally unsteady during daily operation. So in general I recommend you get a Chromebook with no less than 8GB of RAM, because anything less can cause your machine to start to feel slow and underpowered.
If you see a Chromebook with 16GB of RAM, that's even better. But there's not much need to go above that, as 32GB of RAM and beyond is really only key when you're running demanding programs like modern games or video editing apps.
How we tested these Chromebooks
How we test these Chromebooks
To find the best Chromebook, we run every machine we review through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use.
We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop's display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include JetStream 2 (a Web-based benchmarking suite that runs over five dozen tests designed to measure how well systems handle the kind of applications they’re most likely to encounter on the Internet) and a custom battery test that tasks the machine with browsing the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.
