1. The list in brief
2. Best Chromebook overall
3. Best budget Chromebook
4. Best value Chromebook
5. Best Chromebook for pros
6. Best Chromebook for students
7. Best business Chromebook
8. Best Chromebook for gaming
9. Best mid-range Chromebook
10. Best 1440p Chromebook
11. Best 17-inch Chromebook
12. How to choose
13. How we test
The best Chromebooks are excellent, wallet-friendly devices for productivity. Chromebooks are typically more affordable than their full-fat laptop counterparts, making them great for shoppers on a budget.
Unlike one of the best Windows laptops or best MacBooks, a Chromebook uses Chrome OS, which is based around cloud computing rather than locally installed files and software. This helps keep the pricing down, since the demands on the system's hardware are lower than other operating systems and allows for lower-end hardware to run smoothly. Because of how their system is designed, they are safe for kids and students to use. And while their operating system isn't as robust as a Windows or a macOS, it can see professionals and casual users through their daily needs - as long as they can perform most of those tasks on the Chrome browser.
Before you hit buy, it's vital to remember that they aren't necessarily the best device for all users. Those who need more power or more software functionality than a Chromebook can provide may want to look elsewhere. If you're unsure of whether that's you, check out our Chromebooks vs laptops page, where we break down the pros and cons of each.
We've tested dozens of Chromebooks, and we've put our expert knowledge to work here to compile the most ideal models for your needs and budget. With such an expansive range of Google-powered laptops on the market, we're here to make it easy for you to pin down the best Chromebook for you just in time for your back to school 2023 shopping. Be sure to also check out our back to school sales page as we've found to help you score a good deal.
You'll often see Chromebooks pop up on our best laptop and best 2-in-1 laptop lists for good reason. Here are the best of them below, along with the best Chromebook deals available for each of them, so you can save even more.
The quick list
Want to cut to the chase and find out what the best Chromebooks are? Below, you’ll find a roundup of our choices, and you can jump to a more detailed review of every pick, along with our price comparison tool to help you find the best deals.
The best overall
Featuring a gorgeously colorful OLED display and a nifty detachable keyboard, the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook is also surprisingly affordable.
The best budget
The Acer Chromebook 314 Touch is compact, lightweight, and runs Chrome OS smoothly. It's an excellent choice if you're on a really tight budget.
The best for pros
Specifically geared towards freelance workers, the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook looks great and performs even better.
The best for students
The IdeaPad Flex 3 teams rugged build quality with a whopping 16-hour battery that's well-suited for students, especially younger ones.
The best for business
The HP Elite Dragonfly is one of the most powerful Chromebooks we've ever tested. If you want a machine that can cut it for work and play, it's this one.
The best for gaming
Can you game on a Chromebook? This Acer suggests you can, thanks to a QHD 16:10 display, gamer-friendly features and great battery life.
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The best mid-range Chromebook
The Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (2022) is a very capable Chromebook that rivals pricier models in performance but keeps things affordable.
The best 1440p Chromebook
Pulling double duty as a compact laptop and a tablet, the x2 11's 1440p display in an 11-inch form factor really sets it apart from the competition.
The best 17-inch Chromebook
The Asus CX1700 is an excellent pick if you want a large screen for maximum productivity. It's wide and bright - and you get a full-sized keyboard, too.
The best Chromebooks in 2023
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Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best Chromebooks in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.
The best Chromebook overall
✅ You want an OLED Chromebook: It's not often you get a premium feature like an OLED display in a Chromebook, but boy howdy is it worth it.
✅ You want outstanding battery life: Very few Chromebooks get this kind of battery life, and with the right tweaks, you can easily get to 18-19 hours of battery life.
❌ You want a cheap Chromebook: There are some truly premium features on the Duet 5 Chromebook, and that does push the price up into the high end for a Chromebook.
❌ You want more of a tablet-first form factor: This 2-in-1 laptop puts a heavy emphasis on laptop. The 16:9 screen ratio and 13.3-inch display makes using it in tablet mode somewhat unwieldy.
A Chromebook with an OLED screen is a relatively novel idea, and the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook executes that idea to perfection, making a significant improvement to an already-impressive laptop. On top of that gorgeously colorful OLED display, it also packs a nifty detachable keyboard that has been enlarged from previous models.
There are a few things that a regular laptop user might find a bit of an adjustment here. During testing, we found that its keyboard and kickstand still feel a little flimsy - not to mention, not the most seamless to handle. Surprisingly, a stylus is still not included as standard (though Lenovo does sell one separately). However, that phenomenal battery life of up to 19 hours (our own battery life test gave a little over 16 hours) more than makes up for these shortcomings.
Wrapped up in an affordable package, you've got an absolute ace that we feel comfortable calling the best detachable tablet laptop on the market right now. And, with the best battery life to boot.
Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook review
The best budget Chromebook
✅ You're on a tight budget: If you're looking for a device that will do the job but won't hurt the wallet, this is the laptop for you.
✅ You play casual games: This is by no means a gaming laptop, but with ChromeOS, you'll be able to play a lot of app games to keep you entertained between classes or on commutes.
❌ You need serious processing power: If you need to run computing intense programs, you'll want something more powerful.
❌ You want to play games: If you want to play intensive games like CyberPunk 2077 or stream the latest AAA titles, you don't want a budget Chromebook.
If you're shopping for a laptop on a very tight budget, it can be hard to decide what to buy. Sure, you could pick up any old Chromebook for a hundred bucks, but be careful: these ultra-cheap devices are typically less powerful and hide older components inside their chunky chassis.
When it comes to picking a Chromebook for work or school that is both cheap and capable, the Acer Chromebook 314 Touch is a great pick. The display is relatively low-powered (with an 'HD ready' resolution of 768p) but that's not going to make a big difference for simple, everyday tasks such as sending emails or browsing the internet.
With an asking price of just $300, the Acer Chromebook 314 Touch is compact, lightweight, and runs Chrome OS smoothly on its Intel Celeron processor. The 64GB of flash storage isn't massive, but since Chrome OS is predominantly cloud-based, you'll be able to easily take advantage of Google Drive to store your files.
With Intel UHD 600 integrated graphics and the integration of the Google Play Store with Chrome OS, you can run a bunch of the best app games too - Pokemon Unite, anyone?
Our full Acer Chromebook 314 Touch review will be arriving soon.
The best value Chromebook
✅ You need longevity from a laptop: We’re pleasantly surprised by the Chromebook 515’s staying power. It might not keep going as long as, say, an ARM equivalent, but it’s also much more capable.
✅ You’re going to push ChromeOS hard: Even though its Core i5 cousin might be pennies more expensive, the processor and RAM combo here is enough to make things far smoother.
❌ You value aesthetics: We’re not saying this is ugly, because it’s not. But for all the very subtle sparkle of its plastic, it’s not pretty.
❌ You need to perform a lot of video calls: Acer pins this in the business bracket, but conferencing with this looks terrible.
It's easy to expect a lot from a Chromebook that comes from a brand that probably has the widest catalogue of ChromeOS devices. Luckily, the Acer Chromebook 515 somehow meets our expectations, thanks in large part to its internals, which are worthy of a budget laptop. Put it to work powered by the ChromeOS, and they are enough to make it really fly.
Not in a way that more premium Chromebooks can, but in a way that's more than acceptable. The Acer Chromebook 515 crosses the line between power and price, and it scored on both fronts during testing. Even its speakers, though not mind-blowing, were able to keep up with our media consumption needs. Its battery is also decent, and its large screen makes it a highlight against the competition.
This, in other words, is a Chromebook we'd recommend to casual users and those who can do their work mostly on the Chrome browser. Just bear in mind that its 720p webcam is terrible, so if you want to look good during video calls, be sure to purchase one of the best webcams instead.
Read our full Acer Chromebook 515 review
The best Chromebook for professionals
✅ You want the best performing Chromebook: This Chromebook wants to be taken as seriously as the MacBook Air and Dell XPS 13, and fortunately, it has best-in-class performance to help its case.
✅ You want dedicated customer service support: If anything should go wrong with this device, HP has people on hand to help you through your issue.
❌ You need to do visually creative work: The OS just isn't really there yet when it comes to professional visual workflows.
❌ You want a budget-y Chromebook: This is a premium item with premium specs, so expect to pay for all this hardware.
The HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is may be a premium option, but the internals definitely justify the price. This is easily one of the best Chromebooks right now, even with the Chrome OS' somewhat limited feature set. Specifically geared towards and marketed to the freelance worker, it doesn't necessarily need to be powerful, but it is with its Dell XPS-level components.
It's a top-tier performer in its class, even blowing its far more expensive older sibling, the Dragonfly Elite Chromebook, out of the water during our testing. So, you can rely on it meeting your productivity needs. And, its battery life delivered a solid all-workday when we were mostly doing web activities. You might even stretch it out to about seven hours of media consumption with the brightness down and the keyboard backlight off.
When it comes to features, HP offers dedicated technical support as a subscription service, with the first year included with purchase, which we think many professionals will find incredibly useful - though it's only available in the US at this time. We also appreciate the RGB backlighting on the keyboard, which changes in real-time to match the primary color on your desktop background.
Read our full HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook review
The best Chromebook for students
✅ You’re looking for true all-day battery life: The Flex 3 is good for working mains-free or surviving a long day of college and commuting with over 16 hours of video playback.
✅ You’re after a fantastic value 2-in-1 Chromebook: The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 really is an awful lot of machine for the money and performs much better than the on-paper specifications imply, the perfect college companion.
❌ You value sleek, contemporary design: With fat bezels and dowdy styling, the Flex 3 looks like something from last decade.
❌ You need a device with decent CPU and storage performance: It would be a poor choice for anything more demanding.
We're always learning, but some of us are learning more than others. Younger students are sure to benefit from the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3, which packs a rather rugged build quality that is well-suited for users who want to quickly stuff everything in their backpack or are likely to drop things on the floor. The keyboard base is solid and the hinge is very robust, enabling it to survive any amount of careless handling.
This isn't the most powerful Chromebook, but students need reliability more than power - especially if they're only really using it for homework, note-taking, and perhaps the occasional bit of Netflix. Fortunately, the IdeaPad Flex 3 has a seriously impressive battery life – our testing yielded a whopping 16-hour-and-20-minute result – which will allow them to make it through a whole day of school without needing to plug in. It's also very affordable, which should provide a nice bit of financial relief for parents who need to buy their kids a school laptop.
Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook review
The best business Chromebook
✅ You want the best enterprise Chromebook: Between the security features, performance, and connectivity options, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better Chromebook for your business.
✅ You want a great-looking Chromebook: The Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is gorgeous inside and out and will stand out in any meeting room.
❌ You're on a tight budget: This Chromebook starts at more than a grand, so its easily the most expensive Chromebook out there.
❌ You need exceptional battery life: If battery life is important to you, you can find better longevity for much cheaper.
The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is still the best Chrome-powered laptop on the market - even if its pricing means that it won't be the best pick for everyone, at least not in its higher-end configurations. While it's probably the most premium Chromebook ever to hit retail, there are a few more affordable entry-level models that will make a strong case for any students looking for a slick, powerful laptop with Chrome OS.
It's one of the most powerful Chromebook we've ever tested. In fact, it's the best scoring Chromebook in our Kraken and Jetstream 2 tests, beating out the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 by nearly 200 points. Even the entry-level 12th-gen Core i3 configuration still packs some seriously solid specs that would make a lot of other Windows and macOS laptops blush.
Featuring some of the best security features we've ever seen on a Chromebook, including the first Chromebook to ever come powered by Intel vPro, this is the perfect lightweight and portable productivity Chromebook. Just be prepared to spend a whole lot of money for the privilege.
Read our full HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook review
The best Chromebook for gaming
✅ You need excellent game streaming performance: If you already have or were thinking about getting a game streaming service like Nvidia GeForce NOW, this is the perfect machine to utilize it.
✅ You want a great battery life: The battery life beats out the vast majority of gaming laptops on the market, lasting seven hours during a normal session.
❌ You want to use Steam directly: There's no way to currently install Steam on this Chromebook, so using a game streaming service is the only way to game on it.
❌ You need good sound quality: The sound quality is pretty bad, especially at louder volumes, which means you need a gaming headset.
'Gaming Chromebooks' are still a topic of some debate. Many will argue that they're not truly gaming devices, since they rely on cloud-based game-streaming services - such as Nvidia GeForce Now - to actually run the latest games without the need for powerful local hardware. By this metric, any Chromebook can be a gaming Chromebook.
With the 516 GE, though, Acer is making a surprisingly strong case for this new breed of Chromebooks. GE naturally stands for 'Gaming Edition', and this is just that: a solid Intel-powered Chromebook, with some slick new features added in to appeal to the gaming audience.
Chief among these is this display, a crisp and colorful QHD panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio to provide more screen real estate. With 100 sRGB color reproduction and good maximum brightness, it's one of the best screens we've ever seen on a Chromebook. The 120Hz refresh rate is also vital for ensuring a smooth framerate during intense gameplay.
The speakers have seen an upgrade, we've got Wi-Fi 6E and a physical Ethernet port to ensure a speedy connection, and the keyboard has been given a gamer-inspired RGB makeover. The only real downside here is that you'll need to pay for a subscription service like GeForce Now or Amazon Luna, but there's some good news - Google is handing out three-month subscriptions for free with gaming Chromebook purchases!
Read our full Acer Chromebook 516 GE review
The best mid-range Chromebook
✅ You need a powerful Chromebook: This is one capable Chromebook that keeps its price in the comfortable mid-range. You might even get more from it than from a similarly-priced Windows laptop if you don't need a full operating system.
✅ You care more about performance than aesthetic: Not that this looks hideous, but it certainly doesn't have the fancy trimmings of something like the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook.
❌ You're on a very tight budget: This might be out of reach if you're seeking something sub-$500/£500.
❌ You need a lot of computing power: If you're planning to do any video editing or creative work, this is not the laptop for you.
With Chromebooks, there’s always either the budget yet cheap-feeling ones or the luxurious, premium-priced options. But, if you look hard enough, you’ll find plenty of affordable yet capable and premium-feeling choices as well – case in point, the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (2022).
It might stick to the basics, which means you won’t find a lot of frills here like a stylus. However, its features are top-notch. We found its keyboard and trackpad to be fantastic, its display excellent, and the touch feature incredibly intuitive. Most importantly, its performance comparable to pricier Chromebooks while keeping that battery life an all-day deal. It breezed through our browser-based workloads without a hitch and while keeping things relatively cool and quiet.
So, if you’re looking for something with a terrific price-to-performance ratio, and you’re not into the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 OLED Chromebook’s detachable form factor, this is worth your while. Not to mention, your money.
Read our full Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (2022) review
The best Chromebook with a 1440p display
✅ You want a great performing Chromebook: With a mid-range price, robust performance and a lot of vital features, the HP Chromebook x2 11 is a terrific Chromebook for productivity, multitasking and media consumption.
✅ You need to travel light: This one is thin and portable, which makes it an ideal travel companion for commuting professionals and students.
❌ You’re looking for something super cheap: You’re paying for portability and higher-end features here.
❌ You want hardware that’s more seamless to use: The keyboard cover comes with an excellent keyboard, but the rest of it is a pain to use.
Sometimes you need a device that can pull double duty as a compact laptop and a tablet, and the HP Chromebook x2 11 is a great choice for this. Unlike many hybrid Chromebooks, this 11-inch unit is actually a very manageable size, closer to an iPad or Amazon Fire tablet than a beefy laptop. It's ideal for getting work done with the keyboard cover attached, then converting to tablet mode for some relaxing streaming.
Despite its small size and tablet design, this is just as capable as the rest of the mid-range options on this list. It's powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c chip, which is comfortably powerful enough to handle whatever you throw at it on Chrome OS. We ran 20 Chrome tabs on the x2 11, five of which were streaming content from various services, and we didn't experience any noticeable slowdown.
It's the 1440p display that really sets it apart from the rest, though. That 2160x1440 native resolution means that despite the smaller 11-inch form factor, the fidelity of this display is top-notch, and all your favorite Play Store games will look great.
Read our full HP Chromebook x2 11 review
The best 17-inch Chromebook
✅ You're just getting into Chromebooks: This is a pretty easy laptop to get started with as it's design is super simple and familiar.
✅ You want a full size keyboard: Not often found on Chromebooks, this is the ideal layout for professionals.
❌ You're planning on doing anything creative: If you're planning on doing some serious video editing, 3D modeling, or animation work, the older CPU means this may not be the laptop for you.
❌ You need a powerful device: Ultimately, this is a laptop built for the everyday, so you won't get any spectacular performance out of it.
The Asus Chromebook CX1700 might not be the most powerful laptop on the block, but it's an excellent pick of Chromebook for anyone who prefers a nice large screen for maximum productivity. This is a more conventional laptop offering without any fancy bells and whistles; there's no 360-degree hinge here, nor a touchscreen or stylus.
No matter though; for a straightforward laptop experience, the CX1700 is hard to beat. The screen is wide and bright with a small bezel, and the larger form factor has allowed Asus to fit in a comfortable full-size keyboard including a numpad - a rarity on Chromebooks that some students and professionals are sure to find useful.
Performance-wise, the Asus Chromebook CX1700 isn't going to win any awards for speed, but it can happily handle everyday workloads like documents and spreadsheets without much difficulty. Finally, its traditional laptop form factor makes it an easy, user-friendly entry into the world of Chromebooks for Windows refugees.
Our full Asus Chromebook CX1700 review will be arriving soon.
How to choose the best Chromebook for you
When it comes to choosing the best Chromebook, price is most people’s first consideration. That’s because a lot of these laptop alternatives end up in the hands of more casual users who don’t need a whole lot from their PC. In such a case, a cheaper yet still capable option is the better value – one of the best cheap Chromebooks, perhaps.
Of course, if you have more demanding needs, there are pricier options as well, and they will come with higher-end specs like more RAM, better processors like Intel Core CPUs, and perhaps more storage space. So, if you want to save more files, do some light photo editing, or play some games, you’ll want to splurge a little for better specs.
It’s not just the reasonable price tag that most Chromebooks have that make them top contenders, especially as laptops for kids and as student notebooks. You have to consider its design. Most boast impressively long battery lives while some are built to withstand abuse better than others – any gear you put into a kid’s hands needs to be able to absorb some bumps, after all. Others come with that 2-in-1 form factor and touchscreen capability that makes them so versatile.
Just like with the laptops, size is a crucial factor as well. You might want a larger display for more screen real estate or you might want something smaller for easier portability. Since most of these portables fall somewhere between 10 to 15 inches in terms of screen size, they’re all going to be easier to lug around than the competition.
What is a Chromebook?
But, what is a Chromebook exactly, and how is it different from other notebooks? A Chromebook is a device that runs the more lightweight Chrome OS. This Linux-based operating system relies heavily on Google’s Chrome browser and connectivity to the Internet for most of its tasks, which means that it requires less power and storage space when performing those tasks.
It isn’t as robust or comprehensive as Windows 10/11 or macOS. However, it’s just as capable of seeing its users through their daily multi-tasking needs, no matter if it’s to do productivity work all day while streaming shows and movies, getting through a bunch of school assignments, or even some photo editing and gaming.
More recently, it’s even expanded to run Android and Linux apps without internet connectivity, which means that its users are no longer limited to the Chrome browser. Finally, the lightweight nature of the operating system also lets the best Chromebooks beat out traditional laptops in some key areas, like portability and battery life.
Which is better, a Chromebook or a laptop?
Knowing which is better, a Chromebook or a laptop with a more traditional OS like Windows or macOS, really comes down to your needs and how you intend to use your laptop.
If you do almost all of your work and play online using web apps like Google Docs, SalesForce, GeForce Now, or other similar products, then a Chromebook is just as good at handling that kind of work as a more traditional laptop, since all of the actual application processing takes place in the cloud, which then displays the contents in a browser.
If you have a fast enough internet connection, you're not going to tell the difference between a Chromebook and a fully-featured Windows laptop or a MacBook.
If you plan on using locally installed apps like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, or Steam, then you're going to find Chromebooks simply can't do that. The Android apps available through the Google Play marketplace are great, but they aren't as fully featured as similar desktop software. In most cases, Chrome OS simply can't run most of the installable software you'd find on a Windows laptop or a MacBook, so a Chromebook would be a bad choice for anyone hoping to use major flagship software offline.
How is a Chromebook different from a laptop?
A Chromebook is different from a laptop in a few key ways, but it’s important to note that Chromebooks are laptops, they just function differently. What you’re using a laptop for will ultimately determine whether or not you should invest in a Chromebook or something more powerful with better processors and graphics cards.
Chromebooks run on Chrome OS, which is a web-based operating system very similar to Google Chrome, so if you’re familiar with Google Chrome, a Chromebook might be a good option for you. Traditional laptops typically run the Windows operating system, and Macbooks run macOS, and will usually be full of RAM to make sure the laptop runs without lag or performance issues - something Chromebooks don’t have to worry about.
If you’re going to university, you may want to consider getting the best Chromebook as a student laptop because it’s lightweight - plus the cloud storage means you won’t have files clogging up your computer. However, if you’re planning on studying something like graphic design you’ll want to invest in something more powerful than a Chromebook that can handle design software.
A slight drawback to Chromebooks is that they don’t have the same programs available as other laptops, so for example you can’t get the full Microsoft Office suite, but you can open, edit, and convert files to and from Microsoft Office with Google Drive apps, or use Microsoft’s own Office web apps. Skype will work on a Chromebook because it’s available as an app on the Google Play Store, but iTunes will not work.
If you tend to want to play PC games on your laptop or do more energy-consuming tasks like photo and video editing, you may want to look into other laptop options like gaming laptops. But, if you’re in the market for the best Chromebook to help you accomplish daily tasks or business-related tasks, check out our list on this page.
How we tested these Chromebooks
Testing Chromebooks isn’t too different from testing laptops and gaming laptops, though perhaps the paces are a little less intensive or game-heavy.
Since Chromebooks rely heavily on the Chrome browser, we push that browsing prowess to its limits, opening 20 or more browser tabs on different types of websites, from productivity ones like Google docs to streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu. For good measure, we try to play media on those streaming services simultaneously. Because Chromebooks are now much more capable of running apps, we also open and use several apps at the same time.
Of course, we also run synthetic benchmarks like Kraken JavaScript, Octane 2.0 JavaScript, and Jetstream 2 as well as the TechRadar movie test to measure its battery life.
Because a Chromebook is only as good as its peripherals, we take a look at its display, keyboard, availability of ports, and how good its overall design is. We also test its webcam and touchscreen capabilities, if they’re on hand.
We then take everything we’ve learned about the Chromebook and compare it to its price – whether or not it’s performance and features are worth that price tag, and whether or not it offers the best value to customers.
Today's best Chromebook deals
