The best Chromebooks in 2025 are far more capable laptops than the basic machines that debuted in June of 2011. They started as simple, cheap laptops focusing on security and ease of use, but many have become some of the best laptops to buy. Competitively priced compared to the best Windows laptops and best MacBooks, it's now easy to find a Chromebook with an elegant, thin, and lightweight design and features like OLED displays.

Chromebooks boast a simple, user-friendly interface that integrates with the Google ecosystem, making them a solid choice for many people. Google announced the Chromebook Plus line in October 2023, which offers increased CPU performance from more powerful Intel chips from Intel's 13th Generation up through the Intel Core 100 series.

They also include several of Google's AI features, as well as the new Gemini AI assistant. Chromebook Plus devices receive additional features and access to the Advanced version of Gemini.

Whether you're looking for a budget-friendly Chromebook, a powerful Plus Series model, or even a Chromebook for gaming, we've got you covered. Keep reading to find the best Chromebook for you.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

6/17/25: Added Acer Chromebook Spin 312 as best student Chromebook. Updated the following sections: recently reviewed, benchmark comparisons, intro, FAQs, and how to choose.

The Quick List

Best Overall

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is a premium Chromebook Plus built with Google's Gemini AI in mind. With an Intel Core 3 100U 14th gen processor, Intel integrated graphics, 8GB of memory, 256GB of SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch FHD AMOLED display, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus has plenty to recommend.

James Pero writes in our review, "While Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus isn't the first premium Chromebook, it's probably the best."

While not the most powerful Chromebook ever, the Galaxy Book still has enough computing power to get the most out of the ChromeOS suite and Google Gemini AI. The Intel Core 3 100U CPU on the Galaxy Book can get more raw CPU power than most Chrome apps will ever need.

The gorgeous 15.6-inch AMOLED display is another high point for the Galaxy Chromebook. Measuring 108.5% on the DCI-P3 color gamut, the Galaxy Chromebook has a nicer display than some premium Windows laptops. With 377 nits of average peak brightness, you don't have to worry about screen glare on the glossy AMOLED panel, either.

The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also offers full-day battery life, lasting 11 hours and 12 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test.

While $699 is a bit pricey for a Chromebook, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus earns its premium rating thanks to an unbeatable combination of performance, battery life, display quality, and portability.

See our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review.

Best for students

The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is a stand-out example of how much Chromebooks have improved in the last several years. From its design and portability to over 10 hours of battery life, it might be hard to believe this one costs just $450 — but it does, making this device one of the most well-rounded, budget-friendly Chromebooks for students.

With a silver colorway, a black keyboard, and a lightweight chassis, it also resembles a Windows laptop, but with a far better trackpad compared to most. It's the smoothest I’ve ever felt on a budget laptop. Its keyboard quality is slightly reminiscent of yesteryear's Chromebooks, with a clicky-squishy feel that highlights the thinness of the plastic keycaps. "It's a bit like gently pressing into Jello," as I wrote in my review, but it’s not the worst keyboard I’ve ever tried.

The IPS display produces vivid and clear images, likely due to its Corning Gorilla Glass coating, despite the low color gamut coverage Laptop Mag’s tests revealed. However, you'll definitely need to watch horror movies in the dark (as they are meant to be watched). The coating makes the IPS display more reflective than average, and the Spin 312’s max display brightness of 277 nits isn’t always enough to prevent bright ambient lighting from completely washing out dimly lit scenes.

For students who like or want to experiment with ChromeOS, its ample 128GB of storage space is enough to run Linux and then some. However, this laptop comes with only 8GB of RAM. That’s fine for a light workload (a dozen or fewer open browser tabs and one or two applications), but a minimum of 16GB is ideal for any laptop, especially if you are a heavy multitasker.

See our full Acer Chromebook Spin 312 review.

Best for kids

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 offers high portability, solid battery life, slick stylus controls, an ultralight chassis, high-quality 5MP and 8MP cameras, and dependable performance all at an incredibly affordable price point. The Chromebook Duet 11 features a MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor, 4GB of memory, 128GB of SSD storage, and a 10.9-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS touchscreen display.

"Chromebooks haven’t ever been my favorite laptops or tablets, as I’m exactly the type of person who needs the full application support of a Windows or macOS system. However, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 may have changed my mind," Madeline Ricchiuto wrote in her review.

Because it features a lower-spec, MediaTek Kompanio processor, the Chromebook Duet lags behind other Chromebooks on CPU performance. However, it's a well-optimized machine that can keep up with multiple Chrome apps running at once.

The Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 does have a quality display, covering 83% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. And the panel is bright, measuring 402 nits of average peak brightness.

The Duet 11 is a small tablet Chromebook, which makes its battery life even more impressive. The Duet 11 lasted 9 hours and 48 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test.

Because of its affordable $359 starting price and solid touchscreen controls, the Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 is a fantastic option if you need a tablet for your kids. It offers enough performance to run multiple applications and has the battery life to keep up with a busy schedule of school and playtime.

See our full Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 review.

Best keyboard

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is one of the more powerful Chromebooks on this list, featuring an Intel Core Ultra 5 115U processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS display. However, the true star of this laptop is the keyboard, with a satisfying and smooth typing experience.

Stevie Bonifield noted in our review, "The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 keyboard is very satisfying to type on, but it has its quirks... The typing experience on the Spin 714 is smooth and comfortable. On the Monkeytype typing test, I scored 92 wpm with 97 percent accuracy, higher than my desktop average of 84 wpm and 94.35 accuracy."

The Intel Core Ultra 5 115U processor on the Spin 714 offers strong performance, making the Spin 714 one of the most powerful Chromebooks. The 14-inch IPS display is also on the nicer side, measuring 78.7% for DCI-P3 color gamut coverage with an average peak brightness of 355 nits.

The Spin 714 is no slouch for longevity either, offering all-day battery life. The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 lasted 9 hours and 30 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test.

Combined with the slick display and satisfying keyboard, the Spin 714 is nearly the whole package.

See our full Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 review.

Best for gaming

Gamers might scoff at Chromebooks, but for cloud gaming services like GeForce Now, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE can offer decent gaming performance and gaming style at a much lower price than your average gaming laptop.

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE features a powerful Intel Core i5-1240P processor, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 16-inch 120Hz WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display. So it can handle gaming and schoolwork without blowing your budget.

With an Intel Core i5 12th gen processor, the Chromebook 516 GE offers plenty of powerful performance to handle your day-to-day needs. Even with 8GB of RAM, "You shouldn’t find yourself dealing with any frustrating slowdowns — even if you drown it in tabs," as Kimberly Gedeon wrote in our review. But if you can afford to upgrade to the 16GB model, we recommend it.

The Chromebook 516 GE's 16-inch display is a solid choice, and measures 75.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is better than some Chromebooks on this list. It also hits a respectable 346 nits of average peak brightness to cut through glare so you don't need to worry about missing a shot in your next FPS match due to screen glare.

The one drawback to this gaming Chromebook is its battery life, as the Chromebook 516 GE lasted just 7 hours and 40 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test.

While you can technically use cloud gaming services on any laptop or Chromebook, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE offers a 120Hz display for those who pay for the most expensive GeForce Now membership tier. So, it remains our best choice for gaming on a Chromebook.

Read our Acer Chromebook 516 GE review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recent reviews

We review dozens of laptops and Chromebooks annually, and while some simply don't have what it takes to make our buying guides, they're still strong options that came up short for one reason or another. Here are some of our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make the cut for "Best Chromebooks", but could still be solid machines.

How to choose the best Chromebook for you

Finding the perfect Chromebook isn't a one-size-fits-all situation. Students, businesses, and schools all have different needs.

Students

For students who rely heavily on Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, prioritizing a Chromebook with a long-lasting battery and a comfortable keyboard is crucial.

If you're a student who wants a gaming laptop that can also function as a great laptop for class (without spending a ton of money) there Chromebooks specfically designed for gaming in the cloud.

Professionals or businesses

Professionals or businesses seeking Chromebooks for their employees should focus on models with strong performance and features that make managing them easier, ensuring a smooth workflow.

Security is also important — Enterprise-edition Chromebooks have extra IT deployment features like real-time threat and data protection, endpoint security, and support integration with 3rd-party software like CrowdStrike.

Schools

If you're a school looking to equip students with Chromebooks, durability, affordability, and features that support a dynamic classroom environment should be top priorities.

You won't have to buy a bunch of expensive, business-focused Chromebooks to get the security you need, either. Education Chromebooks also support many of the same security features as business Chromebooks (via Google Workspace for Education), and won't display ads in core services like Drive, Classroom and Gmail.

FAQs

Q: Who are Chromebooks for?

A: Overall, the best way to tell if someone will enjoy owning a Chromebook is if you know they already spend most of their time in the Chrome browser. Those users will take to the notebook naturally.

If you're buying this Chromebook for someone else, you should take a few moments to consider how they're going to use the device. Chromebooks are especially good for younger students, as they are easy to use and are fairly secure. It's also quite easy to update your Chromebook manually, assuming you don't want to enable automatic updates.

Q: How well does a Chromebook perform?

A: Chromebooks are lightweight devices, meaning it doesn't take a lot of CPU performance to run ChromeOS. So, Chromebooks often feature lower-spec processors. Many perform better at lower specs than low-budget Windows laptops, too.

They also generally have less storage space, since many ChromeOS applications run in the cloud. This means more free space for your laptop and speedier performance.

If you don't need the full Windows or macOS experience to run all your favorite applications, there's no reason not to opt for a Chromebook.

Q: How are Chromebooks for offline use?

A: Chromebooks are designed to rely heavily on the Internet, which means that many apps simply won't work if you're out of Wi-Fi range. But there are more than 200 Chrome apps that can work without internet connectivity, including Gmail, Google Drive, and tons of Android apps like PlayerFM and Here WeGo.

Q: Can I use Android apps?

A: Yes! Most modern Chromebooks now have access to the Play Store. (If you're unsure if your Chromebook supports Android apps, check out this list.)

However, there are some caveats: many Android apps run via an emulator and may or may not run well. Also, not all apps are optimized for a larger screen (they were built for mobile-first), so you might encounter some scaling issues, especially with mobile games. (Check out our guide to the best Chromebook games for specific gaming app recommendations.)

There are often formatting issues when importing third-party documents into Drive, too. Fortunately, Google Drive allows you to save documents in Microsoft formats, so you'll still be able to share files with non-Chromebook users through Microsoft Word or other programs — though it may be best to stick with the Office Android apps or Office Online if you're bringing a lot of files over to your Chromebook.

Q: Do Chromebooks have good battery life?

A: Chromebooks are known for their impressive battery life. Our in-house Laptop Mag web surfing battery test shows that most Chromebooks can last an average of 10 hours on a single charge. This means you can comfortably power through a workday or school day without hunting for an outlet. This makes Chromebooks a great choice for those long stretches in class or meetings.

Q: Are Chromebooks secure?

A: Chromebooks are a great fit for businesses and institutions prioritizing security because their design makes them more resistant to malware, offering built-in protection for employees and students. Some Chromebooks go the extra mile with biometric authentication features like fingerprint scanners, adding another layer of security for sensitive data.

For businesses, the added security and IT deployment features of Chrome Enterprise can make Chromebooks a solid choice for kitting out an office. While enhanced features do require a subscription, Chrome Enterprise is available for free, which can make it a good solution for small businesses.

Q: Can you game on a Chromebook?

A: Chromebooks have access to Steam and can stream games from services like Nvidia GeForce Now. ChromeOS also works with some Android apps, but not every Android game will be available on a Chromebook. But for a game streaming device, Chromebooks work well as an affordable gaming option.

If you want to game without signing up for a streaming service, you may be better off with a gaming handheld or a dedicated gaming laptop.

Q: Are Chromebooks durable?

A: Similar to business notebooks made to survive drops and other minor disasters, Chromebooks are built to withstand falls, scrapes, and similar punishment.

We put the durability of top Chromebooks to the test by dropping 11 different models from heights of 2.5 feet and 4 feet, then scoring them on a scale of 0 to 10 based on how much damage was sustained. You can read our full report here.

How we test the best Chromebooks

We benchmark Chromebooks as thoroughly as we do any laptop, using synthetic and real-world benchmarks before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the Chromebook, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, keyboard, and heat management.

We rely on tests like Geekbench 6, JetStream 2, WebXPRT 4, and CrXPRT 2 to determine a Chromebook's CPU and web performance. We also test Chromebook displays using a Klein K10-A colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut coverage.

We test heat management by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For premium MacBooks and Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 10 hours is considered a good result whereas dedicated workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

For more information on our testing process, check out our How We Test Laptops page for all the nitty-gritty details.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The best 14-inch laptops hit the sweet spot between a 13-inch laptop's portability and a 15-inch laptop's performance. I've seen this size's popularity rise since I started reviewing laptops in 2018, and that balance is one of a few reasons why it's become my favorite form factor.

If you're like me and travel a lot for work, having a small and light enough laptop to take with you everywhere is important. The repetition of adding weight around your shoulders and back multiple times a day — every day — can strain your muscles over time. A 14-inch laptop doesn't sacrifice too much screen space, either, keeping everything large enough to read and your eyeballs off your list of "body parts that hurt." (Hopefully!)

Performance and battery life are just as important as portability. A 14-inch laptop should be able to handle complicated spreadsheets, dozens of browser tabs, streaming music, and other resource-heavy tasks at the same time without dramatically draining the battery. A few hours of remaining battery life at the end of an 8-hour workday is ideal.

For the best overall battery life, performance, and build quality, check out the Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4. On a budget? The $700 Acer Aspire 14 AI has plenty of performance and battery life to handle your digital clutter. If you need more screen space but don't want to sacrifice portability, the dual-screen Asus Zenbook Duo could be the laptop you've been looking for.

This page is constantly updated based on our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag's current picks for the best 14-inch laptops in 2025.

The Quick List

Best overall

As Laptop Mag managing editor, Sean Riley, said in his review, the MacBook Pro 14 M4 is a "5-star laptop that goes above and beyond in so many categories that it almost seems unfair to the competition." It sets the bar high for other 14-inch laptops — especially now that the $1,599 base model comes with 16GB of RAM. (Finally!)

The latest MacBook Pro still has its iconic design, keyboard, and plus-sized trackpad (if it's not broken, why fix it?), in addition to powerful speakers, a fantastic high-resolution webcam, and a stunning 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display.

But Apple's M4 chip makes this laptop nothing short of incredible. Its consistent, breakneck performance handles a wide variety of tasks, from productivity to creativity — and even a little gaming, too.

On the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, the MacBook Pro 14 M4 churned out a staggering score of 15,114, making it 21% faster than its M3 predecessor. In our real-world video transcoding test, it converted a 4K video to 1080p in 4 minutes, a whole minute faster than the M3.

As an anecdotal testament to this laptop's speed, my fiancé recently upgraded from an M2-series MacBook to an M4 and he was so blown away by the processing performance he kept opening and closing programs because he was amazed laptop opened them that fast. There was that much of a noticeable difference between his old MacBook and his new M4.

The battery life on this thing is unreal, too. On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits, it lasted 18 hours and 32 minutes before dying. This is phenomenal, making it one of the longest-lasting laptops we've reviewed in years.

Its display doesn't cover as much of the DCI-P3 color gamut as other laptops we've tested (80.2%), especially OLED, but it still produces beautiful, vibrant colors and sharp images. The upside to Apple's mini-LED panel is that the display gets remarkably bright — an average SDR brightness of 556 nits and a peak HDR brightness of 1,096 nits.

But if you prefer to keep the brightness down to conserve battery power or because you have sensitive eyes, Apple offers an optional nano-texture display for an extra $150. It made a meaningful difference in reducing glare during our testing.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 review.

Best budget

Laptops like the Acer Aspire 14 AI are a big reason why budget devices catch my eye more often these days. For $700, this one has a long list of great features that are par for the course on more expensive laptops but have recently become more common on sub-$1,000 machines.

The Aspire 14 AI's processing performance is more than enough for everyday multitasking, near-equivalent to some of its pricier rivals. Its SSD transfer speed is also about 75% faster than typical budget laptops, 1,746 MBps verses 1,000 MBps. Its battery keeps it running for over 14 hours, the keyboard is bouncy and responsive, and there's a great variety of ports that you'd be lucky to see on a more expensive laptop. Even the Aspire 14 AI's speakers produce decently clear and loud sound.

But even though budget laptops' overall quality has improved over the years, they still come with one big drawback. If it's not a small amount of RAM or storage space, it's usually a dim, lifeless display. The Aspire 14 AI's caveat is the latter. Laptop Mag's Claire Tabari called it "dreadful" in her review, dim and lackluster.

Its panel brightness reaches only 284 max nits, below our recommended 300 nits, and its color gamut coverage is akin to a box of Crayola basics: 44% of DCI-P3 and 63% of sRGB. On average, most laptops we review cover 75-85% of DCI-P3 and 100% of sRGB.

By comparison, the Qualcomm-based Acer Swift 14 AI (our previous best budget pick) has a better display and battery life, but it's more expensive — and though plenty of popular programs and apps run natively on Windows on ARM, compatibility on the Intel-based Aspire 14 AI isn't a concern, making it a more compelling option (or automatic choice) to some.

See our full Acer Aspire 14 AI review.

Best dual screen

The new Asus Zenbook Duo may just be a generational refresh, but the seemingly small changes make a huge difference. With a starting price of $100 more compared to the inaugural model, this dual screen laptop now comes with a faster processor, double the RAM, and higher-resolution OLED displays with a 120Hz refresh rate.

Configured with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, it's about 25% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H in last year's model we reviewed. (Cutting the amount of time it took to convert a 4K video to 1080p in half!) Its SSD transfer rate is 35% faster, 1825 MBps compared to 1349 MBps. There's not a huge difference between the models' display brightness or color gamut coverage, but the new Zenbook Duo's are more color accurate.

The biggest drawback to this laptop is its battery life: 8.5 hours with one screen turned on. With both screens turned on, that number dropped to just over 6 hours — well under our recommended 9 hour minimum.

Shorter battery life is expected with a dual screen laptop. But this latest Zenbok Duo comes with a more powerful processor and higher resolution OLED displays compared to last year's model. As Laptop Mag's Claire Tabari noted in her review, both of those things combined need more power to run. "With the second display active, the Zenbook Duo 2025 lasts 6 hours and 5 minutes, versus last year's 8 hours and 22 minutes." Not great!

However, if you see yourself using this laptop primarily as part of your desktop setup, that shouldn't be something you'd need to worry about as long as you had the laptop plugged in at all times. And you're a sucker for vivid OLED panels, the Duo's should hold your gaze.

See our full Asus Zenbook Duo (2025) review.

Best Ultrabook

Laptop Mag's Madeline Ricchiuto sums up the Asus Zenbook S 14 nicely in her review: "This is an impressive launch laptop for Intel Lunar Lake and a win for Asus." Nearly everything about it — its design, portability, performance, battery life, and OLED screen — makes it the best-balanced, thin and light laptop in its class.

On the Geekbench 6 cross-platform CPU benchmark, the Zenbook S 14's Core Ultra 7 258V (Intel's new Lunar Lake chip) is evenly matched in single-core performance with the the Asus Zenbook S 16's AMD Ryzen AI 9 chip, 2,751 to 2,765, respectively — that's about a 0.5% difference, so feel free to load the Zenbook S 14 up to its gills (or grills) with browser tabs and simultaneously running apps. It'll handle that just fine.

Unfortunately, the Zenbook S 14 couldn't best the MacBook Pro 14 M3 (3,163) as it's about 14% slower in single-core. But it's evenly matched with the Dell XPS 13's Snapdragon X Elite chip (2,797, so about a 1% difference), and it's 11.5% faster than last-gen's Asus Zenbook 14 OLED with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (2,435).

This laptop's story is flipped when it comes to multicore performance, though. Against the MacBook Pro 14 M3, it scored 11,157 to 11,968, or about 7% slower — but it trails behind the Asus Zenbook S 16 (13,282, or 16%), Dell XPS 13 (14,635 or 24%), and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (12,707 or 13%). That's disappointing to see, especially compared to Intel's last-gen Meteor Lake chip.

But the Zenbook S 14 makes up for that with its quick SSD, taking just 17.8 seconds to complete our 25GB File Copy test at a transfer rate of 1,513 MBps. That's three to four seconds faster than the XPS 13 and Zenbook 14 OLED, and almost 12 seconds faster than the Zenbook S 16.

It's OLED display and battery life are this laptop's most impressive features. The glossy, 3K display produces rich and accurate colors. Its peak brightness (342 nits), though dimmer than some of its competitors, is still bright enough to ward off the harsh glare of fluorescent office lighting. The 3K display also helps conserves power, while still looking as crisp and clear as 4K; the Zenbook S 14 lasted just under 14 hours in our web surfing battery test.

While that's not as long as some of its competitors, it's impressive how Asus fit a large, 72Wh battery inside the laptop's incredibly thin chassis. That definitely has a hand in powering this laptop past the 10-hour mark.

See our full Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) review.

Best 2-in-1

Once in a while, we're blessed by the emergence of a 2-in-1 that crushes expectations in every conceivable manner. In this case, the HP Spectre x360 14 is not only the ultimate 14-inch 2-in-1 laptop, but it's the best of the year, period. "It's a star, and a hell of a one at that," as Laptop Mag editor, Rami Tabari, called it in his review.

This is thanks to the culmination of phenomenal battery life, a stunning OLED display, powerful speakers, a sleek design, and solid performance, thanks to the Intel Ultra 7 155H and a satisfying keyboard.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits, we saw the Spectre x360 last 11 hours before running out of juice. For context, our previous best 2-in-1, the Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 8), lasted 10 hours and 10 minutes before dying.

Thanks to the power of OLED, you don't have much to worry about if you're a fan of a solid-looking display. It features a 2,880 x 1,800-pixel resolution touchscreen with OLED technology, meaning blacks are far deeper and inkier.

On the colorimeter, the HP Spectre x360 covered 86% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is solid but not the best compared to competing laptops like the Lenovo Yoga 9i (136%). However, anything with an 80% or higher DCI-P3 coverage is usually more than enough to enjoy a nice and vivid panel and OLED historically performs lower on DCI-P3 testing. Its brightness of 366 nits isn't super high, but that's unsurprising, considering OLED panels are typically a tad dimmer.

Of course, its Intel Ultra 7 155H performance delivers excellent scores and real-world speeds. On the Geekbench 6.1 overall performance test, the Spectre x360 managed a multi-core score of 12,358. That's stellar and absolutely crushes previous-generation chips, even pulling ahead of the MacBook M3 (11,968).

See our full HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) review.

Best business

The Asus ExpertBook P5 has all the essentials of a business laptop and then some: a fast Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, well-spaced and comfortable keyboard, battery life, a 144Hz display, tons of RAM, tons of ports, and even surprisingly good speakers. Its looks are nothing to gawk at but it provides so much at such a great value, it doesn't matter that it lacks panache.

If your day-to-day business tasks mostly comprise of working on the web or using local productivity apps, the Asus ExpertBook P5 is a multitasking champ. It can handle dozens of open Chrome tabs with spreadsheets, music, video, emails and more all at once.

It bore similar multicore results to the Asus Zenbook S 14 in our Geekbench 6 overall performance test, falling behind its main competitors like the MacBook Air M3 and HP EliteBook Ultra, by about 7% to 12%, but this shouldn't be an issue as long as you are not looking for a dedicated photo or video editing machine. (We have other recommendations for that.) Still, the ExpertBook P5 surpasses the average premium laptop by about 9%, 11,259 to 10,308, respectively.

While the ExpertBook P5 performance and battery life is comparable to the Asus Zenbook S 14, it shines in two crucial areas for any business laptop: the webcam and thermals. In a well-lit environment its color accuracy is on-point, whether what's on screen in is the foreground or background.

The ExpertBook P5 also effectively manages the heat it puts out. Our managing editor, Sean Riley, said it's "one of the coolest laptops" he's ever encountered when he reviewed it. All but one spot on the laptop stayed well below Laptop Mag's 95-degree threshold — and the spot that didn't only spiked to 95.4 degrees. The HP Elite x360 1040 G11, by comparison, reached 103.1 degrees on the underside. The Zenbook S 14 and Zenbook S 16 reached 97.7 and 105.5, respectively — and the Dell XPS 13 reached an alarming 120.

See our full Asus ExpertBook P5 review.

Best gaming

The Asus TUF Gaming A14 is a 14-inch gaming laptop done right: respectable gaming performance in a thin and light chassis, a brighter and more colorful screen than the average IPS display, and a battery life that makes other gaming laptops weep. The 14-inch ROG Zephyrus may be a long-standing gamer favorite, but the TUF Gaming A14 offers much of the same experience at a more affordable price.

This gaming laptop is ideal for anyone who can still enjoy a game even if its graphics aren't cranked to the max — though the RTX 4060 will still net you higher framerates with Nvidia's DLSS and Frame Generation technology enabled. Without either of those enabled, the TUF Gaming A14 still pulls higher frame rates than last year's ROG Zephyrus G14 and keeps up with some of its similarly-configured competitors.

In Far Cry 6 at 1080p the TUF Gaming A14 averaged 77 frames per second, where the Zephyrus G14 averaged 69 fps and the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 averaged 82 fps. The TUF Gaming A14 fared better in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, averaging 87 fps, equivalent to the Predator Helios Neo 16 and 10 frames ahead of the Zephyrus G14. It's a similar story with more graphically intensive games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077.

While an IPS panel can't match the vibrancy of OLED, the TUF Gaming A14 has one of the more color accurate and brighter ISP displays out there. It showcases the moody and colorful landscapes from games like Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree well, and its max brightness (411 nits) ensures characters are still visible even in the darkest of movie scenes.

Gaming laptops generally aren't known for having long battery lives, but the TUF Gaming A14 shatters that stereotype. Where the average gaming laptop lasts around five hours (and some can't even last that long), this one gets twice the amount of battery power: 10 hours! It even ousts Acer's Predator Helios Neo 14, its closest competitor, by a hour and 15 minutes.

To quote our reviewer, Claire Tabari, this the "longest lasting gaming laptop we've seen in over four years." The last time we saw this much battery life in a gaming laptop was when we reviewed the 2020 Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (11 hours and 32 minutes).

See our full Asus TUF Gaming A14 review.

Benchmark Comparisons

Recently Reviewed Laptops

Not every laptop can make the best 14-inch laptop page. (We wouldn't be doing you that much good if that were the case!) We review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly, so here's a look at our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make this page either due to a fault, display size, form factor, or something else.

How to choose the best 14-inch laptop

14-inch laptops cover many different laptop categories, including gaming, productivity, business, and more. As you've honed in on a specific size, presumably that's a major factor in your choice, and we've broken down the size and weight of every pick on this list in a handy table in our best 14-inch laptop FAQs below. However, here are some other general factors to consider.

Budget: What you get for your money

You can find a good 14-inch laptop for under $1,000, but you'll spend between $1,200 and $2,000 for most laptops on this list. While the starting prices for these laptops will all fall in that range, if you have more robust needs that require higher-end CPU, RAM, or storage configurations, you could end up above $2,000.

Design: 2-in-1 or Clamshell?

The 14-inch size is well-represented among the best 2-in-1 laptops as it's again a nice balance of screen real estate while maintaining portability. The screens on these laptops either bend back 360 degrees or detach so you can use them as tablets. If you like the idea of using your laptop in slate mode for drawing or note-taking, a 2-in-1 could be for you. However, you can often get better features or a lower price with a traditional clamshell-style laptop.

Battery Life: 11+ Hours for portability

Again, I expect that you value portability if you choose a 14-inch laptop, so if you are toting your laptop and using it out and about regularly, battery life matters. Even within your home or office, having plenty of juice enables you to work at the couch or at the conference table without being chained to the nearest outlet. We recommend getting a laptop that lasted over 11 hours on the Laptop Mag Battery Test for the best portability. The laptops with the best battery life can endure anywhere between 10 and 21 hours. Just set your expectations based on the category, even the best gaming laptops are toward the bottom of that scale, while the best MacBooks and best business laptops tend to come in toward the top.

FAQs

Q: What are the typical 14-inch laptop dimensions and weight?

A: In general, the best 14-inch laptops weigh under 4 pounds and are less than an inch thick, so they're easier to carry around compared to their larger counterparts. Here's how our current favorites compare to one another:

Q: Should I choose a 14-inch vs. 15.6-inch laptop?

A: What do you value more: screen space or portability? 14-inch laptops are generally lighter and thinner than 15.6-inch laptops, so they will be easier to carry around. If you need more screen space, you'll have to sacrifice that. But since 15.6-inch laptops have a larger footprint, you might end up with more ports or longer battery life.

Q: Are 14-inch laptops good for gaming?

A: If portability is more important to you than screen space, absolutely! This is one of the main reasons I consider the Asus TUF Gaming A14 the best 14-inch gaming laptop. It's affordable and it has the battery life of a productivity laptop, too. Keep in mind that gaming laptops of this size are considered "entry-level," so you'll find the more powerful hardware in devices that are thicker and heavier.

Q: What's a good laptop bag for a 14-inch laptop?

A: One that is durable, long-lasting, and within your budget. (If you're like me, one that fits your personal style, too.) Laptop Mag has its own picks of best laptop bags, so check it out if you're not sure where to start.

Q: Will my stylus work with one of these laptops?

A. That depends! Not all touchscreens have stylus support. The ones that do might not support the same type of pens. We recommend checking the manufacture's website of both the laptop and stylus to be absolutely sure.

This will help you determine what pen protocols the stylus and laptop support. The two main ones are Microsoft Pen Protocol (MPP) and Wacom AES. They're not intercompatible, but some pens support both, while others only support one.

How we test laptops

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing—both synthetic and real-world—before we send it to our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the laptop display's brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut. For performance testing, we run the computer through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 6 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is Sid Meier's Civilization 6 Gathering Storm benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution. For gaming laptops, we test Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and others.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over nine hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered longer than five hours deserve praise.

Once a laptop is through our initial lab tests, our expert reviewers take over, using it extensively in their daily work for approximately a week. This hands-on, real-world approach, coupled with our lab data, enables Laptop to deliver a detailed and accurate review of every laptop.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred laptops yearly, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

On Monday, Lenovo officially launched the Chromebook Plus 14, the first Chromebook powered by MediaTek’s new Kompanio Ultra 910 processor and the first Chromebook Plus to run on an ARM architecture. It is also the first ever device to use the Kompanio Ultra chip, delivering 50 trillion operations per second (TOPS) for AI acceleration.

The Chromebook Plus 14 is also the only model in its class with two exclusive on-device Gemini AI features: Smart Grouping, which suggests how to organize tabs and files based on active tasks, and on-device image editing in the Gallery app, including background removal and sticker creation. These features run entirely on the laptop's dedicated MediaTek NPU 890, enabling full AI functionality without relying on cloud processing.

Built for speed and silence

The Chromebook Plus 14 debuts with a 14-inch 2K OLED display rated for 100% DCI-P3 coverage, flanked by quad speakers tuned with Dolby Atmos. The chassis weighs just 2.58 pounds and uses an all-aluminum design with a fanless architecture and an optional fingerprint reader for secure login. Battery life is rated at up to 17 hours, with support for 65W USB-C charging.

Under the hood, it runs on up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of internal storage, with support for dual 4K displays via USB-C. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

The processor, a MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910, includes a custom Immortalis-G925 GPU and a built-in MediaTek NPU 890, delivering 50 trillion operations per second of AI acceleration. That’s more than enough for the suite of Gemini features preloaded on ChromeOS.

AI without the cloud

The big story here isn’t hardware but rather the laptop’s AI capabilities. ChromeOS now supports Gemini AI tasks on-device, and Lenovo’s model is the first to unlock every feature. That includes new functions like Select to Search via Lens, which allows users to take a screenshot and search Google based on the on-screen images or text. Text captured in this way can also be imported into Google Calendar or Workspace apps, such as documents and spreadsheets.

Other new Gemini features include a smart grouping tool that can organize your current tabs and documents based on what you’re working on, and image editing that’s built into the Gallery app for tasks like image background removal.

These new Gemini AI functions are handled on-device thanks to local inference, with some, such as image editing, not requiring an Internet connection. They’re also exclusive to Lenovo’s new Chromebook Plus 14 laptop, which launches today, June 23rd, alongside a suite of new Google tools.

Built for the future of ChromeOS

Lenovo is also offering the Chromebook Plus 14 in Chrome Enterprise Upgrade and Chrome Education Upgrade configurations. These SKUs are managed through the Google Admin console, enabling mass deployment, data controls, remote access management, and app provisioning. The company says the new model is aimed at institutions looking to roll out smart, low-maintenance workstations at scale.

The launch aligns with Google’s wider push to redefine what a Chromebook can be, with Chromebook Plus guaranteeing a minimum hardware spec and AI feature support. Lenovo’s model simply goes further by being the first to ship with the local Gemini stack fully functional.

All this echoes similar moves from Microsoft with its Copilot+ PC initiative, though its machine enters the market at a much lower price point. Where Windows Copilot+ devices begin around $999 and require cloud fallback for certain tasks, Lenovo’s Chromebook aims to do the same work without the same price or dependency.

Closing the gap with Copilot+ PCs

The timing of this release is notable as it's only been a year since Microsoft Copilot+ PCs debuted with Snapdragon X Elite chips and 45+ TOPS NPUs, but most are still over $999, and still rely on the cloud for advanced tasks.

Lenovo’s machine delivers comparable AI workflows for hundreds less, inside a lighter chassis with longer battery life and fewer moving parts. While it can’t match the raw multicore CPU performance of Qualcomm or Intel chips, the addition of local AI support makes this the first ChromeOS device to go head-to-head with Windows on AI productivity.

The Chromebook Plus 14 is available now, with two configurations: $649 for the 12GB RAM model, and $749 for the 16GB RAM version. Both include one year of the Google One AI Pro plan, valued at $240.

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I developed a love-hate relationship with Chromebooks a couple years after I started teaching; ChromeOS severely limits what programs I use to teach my interactive fiction class, but when the pandemic pushed us into distance learning, those Chromebooks gave my students without their own laptops the opportunity to attend class and keep up with assignments.

Two years later, when we were back in the classroom, those same Chromebooks were still useful in a pinch, but they had already started to show their age, which is why I wish I could wave a magic wand and replace them all with the Acer Chromebook Spin 312.

At a glance, it looks like a Windows laptop compared to the now seven-year-old Chromebooks I have in my classroom. Its keyboard, touchpad, and hardware components are all major upgrades, and I know my students would recognize and appreciate them. But our aging Chromebooks came into our classrooms during a literal crisis, likely with the help of federal emergency funds.

Who knows when my school — or any school — will have the funds to upgrade, but here’s why I’ll shout my recommendation for the Spin 312 for as long as it’s still around.

Out with the old

All of my school’s 2,200 Chromebooks — enough for every individual student — are Dell Chromebook 11 5190 laptops. With a price tag around $339, it came with an Intel Celeron N3450 (1.1GHz), 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of eMMC storage. My school opted for the clamshell form factor instead of the 2-in-1, but it did splurge for the touchscreen version.

Laptop Mag reviewed the Dell Chromebook 5190 shortly after its release in early 2018, and seven years later, I can attest to their durability. They've been knocked off desks and slammed into their charging carts, and yet most have only a few scraps or dings. But with each passing school year, I see fewer students grab one out of the cart when it's time to write, pulling their own out of their backpack instead. My students who do need to use one of the Chromebooks will sometimes come to me for tech support.

I've been asked to troubleshoot frozen laptops, ones that won't turn on even after being charged, that have run out of storage space, and that are running too slow. Aside from telling those students to grab another Chromebook or to close a bunch of browser tabs, there's not much I can do aside from flag the issues with the IT department. (Those moments are especially distressing when one of my students asks for help recovering their work.)

The other issue is the aging ChromeOS operating system itself. How long will Google keep rolling out long-term support updates for these devices? According to the company's auto update policy, the school's Chromebooks will receive automatic updates until June 2027. After that, the school will need to opt in to receive extended updates, assuming it still makes sense to keep most of those Chromebooks around.

In with the new

For $450, the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 I recently reviewed comes with an Intel Core i3-N305 (3.80GHz), 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of eMMC storage. Like the Dell Chromebook, it features a touchscreen, but it’s a 2-in-1.

Comparing both laptops side by side is a trip: my eyes were the only testing equipment I needed to see that the Acer Chromebook boots up noticeably faster. With twice the amount of RAM and a much faster processor, it can handle more open Chrome browser tabs, and switching between them happens in the blink of an eye instead of a slow second.

The increase in storage space is the most crucial. Since these laptops stay in the classroom, multiple students use them throughout the day in every class, downloading assignments, reading material, and whatever else they need for that class period. (Can't forget about website data and browsing activity, either!) They save a surprising amount of data to the local storage, which fills up quickly.

This can be especially problematic if the school IT department partitioned the local storage in anticipation of the greatest number of separate users, or for a recovery image of ChromeOS. (Possibly both!)

Will the Chromebook frenzy continue?

With federal emergency funds for schools now exhausted, schools will need to figure out a way to fit new Chromebooks into their budget, or make the ones they have last as long as they can. These devices didn't solve all the problems distance learning presented, but they were the least expensive technological solution for getting through it.

There is one silver lining if schools opt to purchase new Chromebooks: they're still some of the best laptops for students on a budget, and their overall quality has improved drastically since the Dell Chromebook 11 5190.

Windows laptops are getting cheaper, and while I wish my school provided something like the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 14 Gen 7 to our students, the cost of the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 makes it a better option. Especially if my school buys 2,200 of them.

As a teacher, I see Chromebooks all the time. My school put a cart of them in my classroom over five years ago, and the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is a great example of how much they have changed for the better over a short time.

What the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 offers in terms of hardware and features is balanced nicely against its price of $450, and that's when it's not on sale. While it does stick you with a mediocre keyboard and audio, its sturdy build and smooth trackpad make traveling and browsing a breeze.

It's enough to make it a strong contender for our best laptops under $500 and best Chromebooks. Let’s find out where it lands.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Specs and benchmarks

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Price and configurations

The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 comes in only one configuration, for $450 (and Laptop Mag has already seen it on sale for closer to $300): an Intel Core i3-N305, Intel UHD integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 12.2-inch, 1920 x 1200 IPS touch display.

Compared to some of the other best Chromebooks we've recently reviewed, the Spin 312 is neither the fastest nor the cheapest, but it stands out in its own lane once you start digging into nitty-gritty details.

See also: Best Chromebook deals

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Design

When I hear "12.2-inch laptop," my mind immediately flashes back to the late 2000s netbook era. I wasn't a fan of tiny laptop screens then, and I'm less so now. But it's hard to tell that the Spin 312's screen is that small because the display bezels are flush with the screen. They're thicker than what you'd normally see on a more expensive laptop, but they're unobtrusive.

The rest of the Spin 312 is simple, understated: neat lines meeting at slightly rounded corners across a light silver colorway. The understated design works in its favor, even with a 0.78-inch-thick chassis, making this 2.84-pound, $450 Chromebook look more expensive.

The 4.0 x 2.25-inch trackpad is too small for my preference, and it’s off-center with the keyboard (yet centered with the bottom chassis). But even though part of my right wrist covers the trackpad's top right corner when I type, it doesn't accidentally trigger the cursor, an issue I've come across every so often.

The Spin 312 comes in at 2.84 pounds and 11.41 x 8.10 x 0.78 inches.

Here's how it compares to other Chromebook competitors:

• Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE — 14 x 9.8 x 0.84 inches, 3.7 pounds
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus — 8.89 x 13.9 inches, 2.45 pounds
• Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 — 10.05 x 6.57 x 0.3 inches, 2.08 pounds (with case), 1.12 pounds (tablet only)

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Ports

A lot of little things make me happy in life, like seeing a budget laptop equipped with essential ports.

• 1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 (with Display support)
• 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1
• 1x HDMI
• Audio/mic combo

If all that still isn't enough for all your peripherals, check out our recommendations for the best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Battery life

Battery life can be a toss up when it comes to Chromebooks, but Acer's Spin 312 made it through 10 hours and 33 minutes of our battery rundown test. While there are laptops that can last much longer, that's still above an ideal minimum as far as productivity machines go.

Outside of our lab, I used the laptop a few hours a day for a little over a week. Even with the brightness set between 200 to 250 nits and the computer balancing my horde of Chrome browser tabs like an Olympic gymnast, I needed to charge it only every other day.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Display

The Spin 312's 12.2-inch, 1920 x 1200, 60Hz touchscreen produces richer, bolder colors than the average laptop with an IPS panel, and Laptop Mag has tested some truly dreadful ones.

It captured every dark and moody or neon-lit scene in Beetlejuice 2 with clarity and vibrance. Just look at the sun reflecting off Winona Ryder’s hair! Even though our tests showed abysmally low color gamut coverage, the Chromebook's 12.2-inch display didn't make watching that movie any less of a treat.

However, its display features much more gloss and sheen than the average matte IPS panel. So, like with an OLED display, you'll probably see your reflection while watching a movie. But unlike OLED, this is much dimmer. The panel brightness reaches a maximum of 277 nits according to our tests, and as you can probably see in the photograph above, that isn't nearly enough to stop the display from casting dark shadows of objects in your house over a tense, scary scene.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Keyboard and touchpad

For me, there's usually one thing that can make or break a laptop: the keyboard. I've been let down by trackpads, too, but I'm particular about keyboards. Part of it comes down to my tiny hands. With a small laptop like the Spin 312, however, my fingertips don't need to travel far to reach all the keys. My wrists lay flat on either side of the trackpad, too.

What weirded me out was the feel of the keys. They feature good travel and a pleasant, clacky sound (if they forcefully hit the bottom of the keyboard), but the switches are on the softer side (a bit like gently pressing into Jello), which accentuates the thinness and hollowness of the plastic keycaps. This made typing feel clicky and squishy. It was an odd sensation.

However, for a Chromebook, the trackpad feels like it should be on a more expensive laptop, and it actually is! Acer includes its OceanGlass trackpad (recycled from ocean-bound plastic) in many of its other laptop models in addition to the Spin 312. Even though it is plastic, the surface feels more like a glossy new book cover. It's one of the few trackpads out there that hasn't made my fingers skip over the surface.

Clicking on the trackpad itself requires significantly more force compared to the keyboard, but it responds quickly to taps and swipes.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Audio

Over the last six years, I can count the number of times I've encountered a laptop with speakers that could rival its display on one hand. Those laptops are a rare breed, so I wasn't surprised that the Spin 312's bottom-firing speakers didn’t have the oomph to match the display. It's a budget Chromebook, after all.

Listening to Trollfest, a folk metal band from Norway, I saw live a few weeks ago, was a night and day experience. (And there was no conga line.) Aside from a lead electric guitar, the rest of the instruments sounded far away and muddled, and there was virtually no bass. That's not to say the audio is outright terrible. The vocals sounded clear and crisp.

If you want audio quality that can match or surpass the display quality, you'll definitely want a pair of the best headphones.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Performance and heat

With an operating system designed to handle productivity tasks in the cloud and lightweight apps, the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 doesn't need the latest and greatest hardware. Its Intel Core i3-N305 processor and 8GB of RAM handled a fair amount, but having too many tabs open at once will slow it down. It started to grow sluggish once I surpassed two dozen Chrome tabs.

But you shouldn't have to worry about the Spin 312 getting literally too hot to handle. (Important for a convertible laptop!) Our tests showed its hottest point, above the settings button on the keyboard reached 91.5 degrees, which is below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The rest of the laptop fluctuated between 77 and 85 degrees, and yes, I did leave it on my lap for a solid 20 minutes while watching Beetlejuice 2. I didn't feel the slightest bit of discomfort, even on my bare skin.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Gaming and graphics

While we have rounded up the best Chromebook games, if you want to do more than casual gaming, you should check out our best gaming laptops. Chromebooks are not made for gaming (despite the marketing around the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE). They don't have the hardware or a robust operating system capable of handling the demands of PC games.

That said, a strong and stable wireless internet connection is all you need to play PC games in the cloud via your browser or a standalone app like Nvidia GeForce Now. Games don't perform as well as they do on a local machine because it takes longer for a remote server to register your inputs, but the Spin 312 sports good enough specs to make cloud gaming on a Chromebook feel almost like a gaming laptop, just steer clear of any fast-twitch games.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: AI features

At purchase, users get access to Google's advanced AI features like Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, expanded access to Deep Research, integration with Google Workspace, and 2TB of cloud storage space for 3 months at no cost.

But there are no Acer-branded AI features.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Webcam

The Spin 312's built-in 1080p webcam is serviceable but not great.

In my living room, under two large recessed ceiling lights, video grain obscured the texture of my skin like a home movie from the 1980s. All the colors around me appeared muted, too, even the brown TV box wedged between my couch and the wall. Anyone would still be able to recognize me on camera, but the video quality isn't great in low light.

The webcam fared much better when the same room was well-lit by natural sunlight. Colors popped a bit more, and the grain was less noticeable. If looking good on your video calls is important, you may want to invest in one of the best webcams.

Acer Chromebook Spin 312: Software and warranty

Aside from one or two Google-specific apps like Chrome Canvas, the Spin 312 is blessedly free of bloatware. Since it's designed for personal cloud computing, you simply sign into the Chromebook with your Gmail account the first time you start it up for easy access to your Gmail, Drive files, and other Google services.

Warranty coverage lasts a full year (12 months) and applies to material defects or other issues under normal use. It also includes free tech support.

Bottom line

Chromebooks are the no-muss-no-fuss of laptops, and Acer's Chromebook Spin 312 is no exception. It's easy to set up and easy to use, especially with its quality display, sturdy build, and affordable price. However, I’m not crazy about the keyboard or speakers.

If you want something with a better keyboard, take a look at the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i or Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714. They're more expensive, but they feature larger displays and faster processors. The Spin 714 also has top-firing speakers, so its audio quality is way better.

Despite that, the Spin 312’s downsides are small compared with what you get. If you need a computer for the basics like web browsing, productivity work, and watching the occasional video, this one's easy to recommend.

Chromebooks in the early 2010s weren’t something I would have recommended, but it has been over a decade, and the best Chromebooks are stronger than ever.

While in no way can these Chromebooks compete with the best Windows laptops in raw performance, there are perks of using them that simply make your life convenient.

When I first switched to a Chromebook back in 2017, my initial experience was pretty lackluster. Since I have been used to Windows OS and loved how I used to carry out tasks on my laptop for two decades, I never took the time to learn how many great utilities a Chromebook can offer.

A Chromebook isn’t just a cost-effective solution that you would want to invest in for the short term for just browsing the internet but something that you could look up to for several years for various types of work.

It can be one of your most rewarding investments, whether you are a student or someone who does lots of office work on your commute or even in the office.

Here are some of the reasons why downgrading to a Chromebook changed my life for good.

Gets most of the job done without needing dedicated applications

For those who aren’t familiar, Chromebooks run on ChromeOS and it’s a browser-based operating system that works just as you would expect it to run on a regular computer.

Therefore, Chromebooks cannot run Windows applications such as .exe files but since many Chromebooks can run Android applications out of the box, there is hardly anything you can’t do, except for intensive stuff regular Windows PC excels at.

From opening sheets to video editing, there are dedicated apps you can run on your Chromebook and do whatever you would be able to do on a regular laptop. At first, I was confused as to how I was supposed to run the classic Adobe Photoshop for my photo editing tasks or run my offline videos.

Just a quick search helped me learn that Adobe Photoshop does work on the web (available in the form of Photoshop Express), and although there are some limitations, it gets most of the job done.

Similarly, I could play my videos on the VLC media player in the browser itself. However, this isn't a concern you would be dealing with in the very beginning but getting used to the Chrome browser is the real challenge.

Imagine opening Chrome for everything; it might seem tedious at first, but when you organize everything in one place, you will be able to access all your apps faster and from a single place.

There are endless possibilities on Chromebooks if you try to step out of your comfort zone for a few days to learn the most used tools and utilities.

Technically, it’s possible to run it like a regular PC

Interestingly, you can run many traditional Windows-like apps on a Chromebook as well. Even though the app stack for ChromeOS is quite enormous, some users would like to leverage its full potential.

Thankfully, Chromebooks allow you to install Linux-based operating systems.

Chromebooks have the option to install Linux apps using the built-in Linux development environment called Crostini, but you can always install a full Linux distribution such as Ubuntu using Crouton, although the latter may be complex for beginners and isn’t recommended for everyone due to warranty-related issues.

Even though we aren’t here to compare the advantages or limitations of Linux over Windows, recent Linux developments have been significant, closing the gap between the two drastically.

Still, do keep in mind that the hardware limitations of Chromebooks won’t allow you to crunch large numbers or perform heavy 3D rendering since Chromebooks lack dedicated GPUs and offer entry-level specs.

There isn’t much storage as well but you can save everything on your favorite cloud platform or external storage just in case you want to secure larger files.

Gaming? Yes, you can install Steam

Don’t expect a Chromebook to run Cyberpunk 2077, but you can certainly play light games from your Steam Library.

Chromebooks are known for their limited gaming capability, and yes, even though you can play the Android games flawlessly from the Play Store, running Steam isn’t impossible on the device, assuming your Chromebook qualifies for it.

Unless you are buying a $150 Chromebook with an Intel Celeron, you are good to go even with a Core i3 processor.

Surely, it won’t be an ‘amazing’ gaming experience on entry-level hardware, but at least you will be able to run quite a lot of games from the vast Steam library. Moreover, there are emulators out there that can run iconic games from the PSP and NES era.

Still, just in case you want to enjoy your triple-A titles, you can subscribe to cloud gaming services such as GeForce Now, Amazon Luna, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Cloud gaming hardly costs $10-$20 a month but gives you access to thousands of games, all running smoothly on your system since the entire load is on the server running the games. All you need is a reliable and fast internet connection, and you are good to go.

So lightweight that you won’t feel it in your backpack

Since Chromebooks don’t need a lot of horsepower, they often ship with smaller and lighter chassis than their Windows counterparts. For similar specs, they are cheaper, lighter, and highly portable.

Most Chromebooks tend to bring a screen size between 11 and 14 inches while traditional Windows laptops bring 13-17-inch screen sizes, bigger keyboards, and larger chassis.

They aren’t only bigger in footprint than Chromebooks, but traditional Windows laptops can weigh nearly 6 pounds. Still, considering such laptops also come with dedicated graphics cards, the ones that don’t also usually weigh between 3-4 pounds easily.

Chromebooks, on the other hand, are hardly two to four pounds, making them easier to carry in your backpack.

My personal experience would always compel me to carry my Chromebook for work instead of my heavier laptop.

Since I hardly play games outside, the Chromebook has always proved to be more convenient for executing tasks quicker and delivering better productivity.

A touchscreen for just $300 — and more!

Try finding a touchscreen Windows laptop for $299, and you will hardly find one even at $400, while you can have this handy feature even on a $344 Chromebook like Acer Chromebook Plus 514.

Touchscreens are one of the best ways to increase productivity, and when you learn how to manage tasks together with the keyboard, you become unstoppable.

Amazingly, not just a touchscreen but a high-quality IPS full HD display is common for sub-$250 Chromebooks, which is rare on Windows laptops. For almost half the price, Chromebooks also offer modern connectivity like WiFi 6E, fast SSD storage, and up to 8 GB RAM in most cases, which is everything you would want for your daily use.

In a nutshell, Chromebooks may appear weaker due to a less versatile OS and weaker hardware, but these are often sufficient for the masses, only if users can understand how to leverage their full potential.

Chromebooks may have had a bad reputation a decade ago, but things have changed remarkably. Of course, there are several areas where Chromebooks need improvements but in their current state, no one can deny their dominance in the entry-level market that wouldn’t be possible with Windows-based laptops.

More from Laptop Mag

• Best Chromebooks in 2025: 5 top picks tested and reviewed
• HP Chromebook Plus 14a review
• Acer Chromebook Plus 515 review

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Business laptops and Chromebooks are often more expensive than their consumer-level peers.

The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 and Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 are a perfect example, as the consumer Chromebook is $399 compared to the $719 starting price of the Enterprise edition.

For large companies that order fleets of laptops by the hundreds, the individual prices of enterprise laptops often do not reflect what a business actually pays. This is partly because corporations commit to multi-year agreements to use a single manufacturer for all their IT devices, thus getting a bulk discount.

Enterprise-level corporations are companies with 1,000 employees or more, but enterprise devices are a significant expense for smaller businesses still wanting enterprise-level security and IT management features.

See also: Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024) review: Is Chrome Enterprise worth the cost?

There are ways to get some enterprise-level security and IT management features without extra fees.

Google's Chrome Enterprise browser is a free download with enhanced Chrome Enterprise features available on the free Enterprise Core tier. So you can turn any budget Chromebook or laptop into a business device.

What is Chrome Enterprise?

Chrome Enterprise is a version of Google's browser that offers enhanced IT deployment and security features over the standard version of Chrome.

Chrome Enterprise allows IT departments to streamline software rollout, simplify operations, and drop-ship devices to teams across different operating systems, regions, and time zones. It also has increased security to limit exposure to attacks and data breaches.

IT departments can manage employee Chrome Enterprise profiles and access various management and insight features at the free Enterprise Core level. Chrome Enterprise features many of the same AI features, like "help me read" and "help me write," as the consumer version of Chrome.

Enhanced security features like data loss prevention, malware deep scanning, and context-aware access control are locked behind the Chrome Enterprise Premium paid tier. Chrome Enterprise Premium costs $6 per user, per month.

Is a consumer Chromebook better than an Enterprise Chromebook?

You can get consumer-level Chromebooks and laptops with increased security features like a fingerprint scanner or an IR webcam that can be used for secure sign-in.

Hardware-based security solutions, such as a trusted platform module (TPM) or an Enterprise chipset like the Ryzen Pro or Intel vPro lines, usually distinguish enterprise laptops or Chromebooks from consumer devices.

However, if those devices are out of your budget range, software solutions like Google's Chrome Enterprise suite can help fill some security gaps.

If your small business has only a handful of employees who can work entirely in the Google suite or with ChromeOS applications, opting for a powerful consumer option like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus with Chrome Enterprise Core may be a more budget-friendly solution.

If your company has a bring-your-own-device policy, you might be able to use the Galaxy Chromebook Plus as your business laptop at a larger corporation.

Bottom line

Enterprise devices are often priced out of the range of small businesses or individual buyers. There are, of course, some exceptions like MSI's Prestige 13 AI+ Evo and HP's Elitebook Ultra G1q, which are priced more competitively with similarly specced consumer laptops.

But most enterprise devices see a massive upcharge compared to consumer-level versions. The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 and Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 are perfect examples of this. The Chromebook Plus 515 starts at $399, while the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 starts at $719. Granted, the consumer version is running on older Intel hardware, but upgrading from a 12th Gen i3 to an Intel Core 3 (14th gen) chipset doesn't justify the $300 difference.

Notably, the Chromebook Plus Enterprise does not have a TPM or Intel vPro edition processor with increased hardware security.

So, if you have the option to save a bit of money, it's well worth it to go for the consumer version and just install Chrome Enterprise. Or opt for the slightly less economical but significantly more powerful Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.

More from Laptop Mag

• 9 best Chromebook deals in February 2025
• "MediaTek is the number one provider of Arm-based Chromebooks": Adam King unpacks on the Chromebook boom
• Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE review: Did the gaming Chromebook level up?

Chromebooks aren't the ideal choice for all businesses, but for companies that utilize the Google software suite, the Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 may not be a bad option.

Acer has two models of the Chromebook Plus 515, one designed for business and one intended for general consumers. The primary difference between the two Chromebooks is pricing and the Chrome Enterprise software.

Along with enhanced security and IT controls, the Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 offers reliable Intel Core 3 100U performance, a decent selection of ports, and a solid webcam. But it suffers from a dim, lifeless display, mushy keyboard, and tinny audio.

Can the advantages of the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 offset those shortcomings enough to land on our Best Chromebooks page?

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Specs and benchmarks

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Price and configurations

There are multiple configuration options for the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515, and we reviewed the entry-level configuration. For $719, you get an Intel Core 3 100U processor with integrated Intel Graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 IPS display.

For $879 you can upgrade to the Intel Core 5 120U for faster performance, and $939 will get you the upgraded Core 5 120U processor and a memory upgrade to 16GB. The high-end spec of the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 costs $1,099 for an Intel Core 7 150U processor with 16GB of memory.

Our review model featured the entry-level Intel Core Ultra 3 100U processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, and the upgraded IPS touchscreen display, which costs $769.

See also: Turn your Chromebook into a business laptop, for free

The Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 isn’t exorbitantly expensive for an Enterprise laptop, but it is pretty pricey for a Chromebook. The starting configurations feature budget Intel Core 3 100U processors, but cost over $700, which is a bit much. Most consumer Chromebook Plus laptops cost between $500 and $600.

That said, enterprise-level laptops are often sold en masse to employers and laptop makers offer deep discounts to IT teams who are making the purchase, because enterprise-level corporations (ones with more than 1,000 employees) often commit to using a single brand for its fleet of employee laptops and will renew those bulk orders every few years. However, for small businesses who don’t qualify for enterprise discounts and still want the enhanced security features of enterprise-level laptops, $700 per Chromebook is a steep price.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Design

The Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 isn’t the flashiest Chromebook and that’s by design. Because the Chromebook Plus is an enterprise laptop, it comes in a standard “Iron” gray colorway. Acer kept the Acer and Chromebook Plus badging subtle on the panel lid, with the small shiny Acer logo inlay and matte Chromebook Plus badge blending nicely into the “Iron” chassis.

The keyboard deck is also on the minimalist side, with an offset touchpad to the left and a fingerprint scanner on the right under the numpad’s Enter key.

While not exciting, this makes it easy for the Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 to fit into any office environment.

The Chromebook Plus Enterprise measures 14.2 x 9.4 x 0.79 inches and weighs 3.75 pounds which does make it a bit thicker and heavier than other Chromebooks like:

• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: 13.9 x 8.89 x 0.46 inches, 2.49 pounds
• HP Chromebook Plus 14a: 12.82 x 8.48 x 0.72 inches, 3.2 pounds
• Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: 14 x 9.8 x 0.84 inches, 3.7 pounds

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Ports

Enterprise machines need a decent port array to connect them to a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other accessories for a decent office setup. Thankfully, the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515’s full port array across the right and left sides of the chassis covers all of the most common needs:

• 2x ThunderBolt 4 USB-C ports
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port
• 1x 3.5mm audio combo jack
• 1x Kensington Lock Slot

But if your work requires more, we recommend investing in one of the best laptop docking stations or USB-C hubs. Or you can cut the cord and go for Bluetooth accessories to open up another USB port or two.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Battery life

One of the original benefits of Chromebooks was dependably long battery life, but those days are behind us. Most mainstream laptops after over 10 hours, with some of the laptops with the best battery life even making it past the 21-hour mark. However, you will still get a solid 9-10 hours out of most Chromebooks, and the Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 is no different.

I could get through my standard work day, with 10-15 Chrome tabs open at a time, without running the Chromebook Plus 515 to an outlet. On the Laptop Mag battery test, the Enterprise 515 lasted 9 hours and 9 minutes, just above the 9:01 Chromebook category average.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Security and durability

Security is a major concern with Enterprise devices, and the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 is no different. The machine comes with Chrome Enterprise pre-installed, which offers enhanced IT software deployment and security features over the standard version of the Chrome browser.

Acer has kitted the Enterprise 515 with a fingerprint scanner on the right side of the keyboard deck and a Kensington lock slot on the right side of the chassis. The Chromebook also features a webcam shutter, which prevents access to the camera when not in use.

The Enterprise 515 also meets the MIL-STD-810H durability standard, so it can survive extreme high and low temperatures, exposure to dust and humidity, rapid pressure changes, and low-pressure environments.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Display

The Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 features a 15.6-inch, 60Hz, 1920 x 1080, matte IPS touchscreen display. When viewing Google Docs or browsing my email and Slack, the display was serviceable but didn’t blow me away.

Unfortunately, that didn’t hold up when I tested the Enterprise’s display by streaming video. Watching the trailer for Prime Video’s upcoming original film Holland, I was disappointed by how flat the colors appeared, especially in the exterior establishing shots of the Michigan countryside. Even the kitchen scenes of Nicole Kidman in traditional Dutch dress were visually bland, despite the preponderance of color in the costumes, the trailer for the upcoming suspense film just felt muted and lifeless.

Acer rates the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 as covering 45% of the NTSC color gamut. While we don’t measure that color space in our display testing, we did get similarly low vibrancy results, with the Enterprise measuring just 46.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

The Chromebook Plus Enterprise is also rated to 300 nits of average peak brightness, and we measured our review unit at 296 nits. While 300 nits is enough to cut through most inside glare, especially with a flat IPS display panel, it is below the 320-nit Chromebook category average.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Keyboard and touchpad

One thing that is pretty common with Acer Chromebooks is a mushy membrane keyboard. Some people won’t mind the feel, but I prefer a more springy, tactile feel to my laptop keyboards. While the Enterprise 515 doesn’t have the mushiest keyboard I’ve ever tested, it is far from satisfying to type on.

However, it's important to note that the keyboard's feel won't impact your typing speed much. On the 10fastfingers Advanced typing test, I scored an average of 86 words per minute (WPM) which is just a bit behind the 88 WPM average I maintain on my Apple MacBook Pro 14 keyboard.

The Enterprise 515 features a full numeric pad on the keyboard, which can be a nice addition for those who work a lot with spreadsheets.

The OceanGlass touchpad on the Enterprise 515 is a bit off-center to keep it below the space bar since the numpad has shifted the keyboard to the left. However, it isn’t extremely off-center so it doesn’t take much getting used to. And the OceanBound glass feels silky under my fingertips, making the touchpad an overall solid addition to the Enterprise 515.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Audio

The Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 has bottom-firing speakers, which means your audio can get distorted with the laptop resting on a flat surface.

I queued up the Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker main theme “Footfalls” to see how the Enterprise would handle the mix of musical styles tied together in the ballad and I was somewhat impressed by how well the Enterprise’s bottom-firing speakers handled the first minute or so of the theme’s clean intro vocals. Unfortunately, once the roaring guitars kicked in just before the Heavensward motif, the distortion in the audio became unbearably tinny.

The Enterprise’s speakers also lack some volume. They’re sufficient for a video call, but wouldn’t be ideal for a presentation or use in a large meeting room.

If your job involves a lot of virtual meetings or conference calls on the Enterprise 515, I’d recommend perusing our best headphones and picking up a pair rather than relying on the onboard audio.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Performance and heat

I kept my high expectations for the Chromebook Plus 515 pretty low, considering it is a Chromebook running an Intel Core 3 100U processor, and I was correct in that assessment. While it handles 10-15 Chrome tabs and is a solid machine for hopping in the occasional video call, managing your emails, and utilizing G-suite apps, you aren’t getting blazing performance speeds.

What the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 offers in terms of performance is reliability. It’s not breaking benchmark records, as the 515’s Geekbench 6 multicore score is just 10% above the Chromebook category average. It’s not blazingly powerful, but it gets the job done, and with ChromeOS, you don’t need to break any Geekbench 6 records to have a good experience.

The one big benefit to that budget Intel Core 3 100U processor is its efficiency. It not only gets you solid battery life, but it also keeps the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 on the cool side. Even after video streaming for 15 minutes, the hottest temperature on the Enterprise 515 was just 91.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This is below the Laptop Mag 95-degree comfort threshold.

So no matter how many Chrome tabs and videos you open on the Enterprise 515, you won’t be singeing your fingertips or burning your lap.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Gaming and graphics

Chromebooks are not a gaming platform. While you can run Steam on ChromeOS, the performance is terrible unless you’re streaming from your desktop or gaming laptop. And sure, you can use Nvidia GeForce Now to stream games from an Nvidia cloud gaming rig, but Acer’s Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 is a business device.

And sure, our review model has a touchscreen, but so few Android games properly run on ChromeOS these days that it's not a good option for Chromebook gaming either.

While I’m the type of person to use a business laptop for some casual gaming, it’s just not worth it with the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515. Any game you get running on the Enterprise 515 will look like a 10-frames-per-second slideshow.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): AI features

The Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 comes with the Enterprise version of ChromeOS installed. As part of the Chromebook Plus tier, you get a year of Google One AI Premium for free ($120 value) which gets you Google Gemini Advanced for better help reading, writing, and planning features. Google One AI Premium also offers 2TB of cloud storage and deeper AI integration across the Google suite.

As part of the Chromebook platform, the Enterprise 515 also has access to standard Chromebook AI features like the Chromebook Quick Insert function and Welcome Recap.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Webcam

Acer loaded an FHD webcam into the Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 and some additional camera features like Acer TNR and Auto Facial Exposure. In addition to the ChromeOS enhanced camera features that reduce the look of under-eye bags and auto-focus, this gives you a pretty slick webcam experience that can help you look better in meetings even in poor lighting conditions.

If your job requires a lot of virtual presentations, you may still want to invest in one of the best webcams, but for a daily Zoom meeting, the onboard FHD webcam is more than enough.

Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 (2024): Software and warranty

The Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 also comes with Chrome Enterprise pre-installed, which offers enhanced IT deployment and security features over the standard version of the Chrome browser.

When you log in to your Chrome account, the Chromebook will start downloading the usual Chrome apps and your personal app library as part of the setup process but is otherwise free of bloatware.

As for warranty coverage, the Chromebook Plus 515 comes with a one-year limited warranty from Acer for parts and labor.

Bottom line

The Acer Chromebook Plus Enterprise 515 is a pretty expensive Chromebook. While it is more reasonably priced than most business laptops, it is expensive for a Chrome device featuring a budget Intel processor.

While you do get a solid amount of battery life and performance out of the Enterprise thanks to that Intel Core 3 100U processor, the Enterprise isn’t breaking any performance or battery life benchmarks. And that makes it hard to justify the $700+ price tag, no matter how useful the webcam and ports can be. While increased IT deployment and security features are helpful for large businesses, you can download Chrome Enterprise to any laptop or Chromebook.

So if your office offers a bring-your-own-device policy and you want a Chromebook, you’re probably better off going for the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus instead because you get a far nicer display, longer battery life, better performance, and a better overall Chrome device.

Best Buy is slashing up to $150 off Chromebooks, which is good news for frugal shoppers. If you want a budget-friendly laptop that gets things done, has solid security features, and unproblematic updates, don't miss Best Buy's Chromebook sale.

Right now, you can get yourself a brand-new Chromebook for as low as $159 from Best Buy. The big box retailers Chromebook configurations of all kinds for every use case. Choose from budget Chromebooks for basic tasks to Plus Chromebooks that provide more kick for multitasking and creative applications.\

Browse: Best Buy's entire laptop sale

One standout deal is the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 for just $299 ($150 off) — its lowest price yet. This Chromebook launched just a few months ago, and it's one of the newest Chromebooks that will see a discount in 2025.

Although we didn't test this exact laptop from Acer's convertible laptop series, we gave its sibling, the 2024 Acer Chromebook Spin Plus 714, our Editor's Choice Award.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 features a 12.2-inch WUXGA touchscreen, an 8-core processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128 GB of flash storage. It is ideal for multitasking and content consumption.

If you have room in your budget, you can get the Acer Chromebook Spin Plus 714 for $579 ($120 off). This bumps you into an Intel Core Ultra 5 CPU, 120Hz touchscreen, and 256GB SSD.

Those are just some of the best Chromebook deals from Best Buy's sale. Keep scrolling to browse my recommended discounts.

My favorite Chromebook deals at Best Buy

More from Laptop

• Best Chromebook deals in January 2025
• Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE review: Did the gaming Chromebook level up?

I won’t lie; we didn’t like the original Acer gaming Chromebook. It had its positives but too many drawbacks, leaving us wondering if this was the best cloud gaming had to offer.

Well, Acer is back with a revamped gaming Chromebook experience on the Chromebook Plus platform, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE. This updated take on the cloud gaming platform gives us solid productivity performance, a bright 120Hz display, a great webcam, and plenty of ports. Unfortunately, it doesn’t solve our complaints about the original gaming Chromebook, like the mushy keyboard, the poor battery life, the lack of touchscreen, and the distorted audio.

Despite its flaws, the previous iteration of Acer’s gaming Chromebook, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, is our best Chromebook for gaming. It was, notably, the only gaming Chromebook of its time. So, has the Chromebook Plus 516 GE improved on the formula enough to land on our Best Chromebooks page?

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Specs and benchmarks

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Price and configurations

There is only one configuration for the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE. This $649 Chromebook Plus offers an Intel Core 5 120U processor, Intel integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a 16-inch (2560 x 1600) 120Hz IPS display.

You can currently pick up the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE from Best Buy.

If you want to upgrade the RAM to 16GB, you can only choose the older model, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, available at Amazon for just $599.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Design

The Chromebook Plus 516 GE design is a strange mix of gamer aesthetics with RGB lights and black metal and Chromebook sensibilities. Unfortunately, this hybrid design brings to mind the old phrase, “jack of all trades, master of none.” I’d much rather the 516 GE picked an aesthetic, and either dipped heavily into the gaming laptop design space or stuck with the low-key Chromebook visuals.

The brushed metal lid is reminiscent of gaming laptops from the 2016-2018 era, though the matte bar at the top of the lid for the Chromebook Plus and Acer logos makes the laptop feel unfinished. The most gamer-centric design cues are the RGB keyboard and 120Hz refresh rate display, which aren’t visible with the Chromebook closed.

The clamshell hinges are plastic, which adds a degree of flex that feels a bit more flimsy than I’d prefer. That said, the 516 GE features mostly recycled materials as part of Acer’s commitment to sustainability, which is nice even if the chassis is more plastic than I would prefer.

As far as portability, the Chromebook Plus 516 GE is light enough to carry easily. The 516 GE measures 14 x 9.8 x 0.84 inches and weighs just 3.7 pounds. However, it is on the thicker side when compared to other Chromebooks like:

• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: 13.9 x 8.89 x 0.46 inches, 2.49 pounds
• HP Chromebook Plus 14a: 12.82 x 8.48 x 0.72 inches, 3.2 pounds
• Acer Chromebook 516 GE: 14 x 9.8 x 0.84 inches, 3.8 pounds

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Ports

Gamers tend to want a lot of ports in a laptop, to power accessories and RGB lights for the proper gamer aesthetic, so Acer loaded the gaming Chromebook with a full port array to match.

The Chromebook Plus 516 GE’s full port array across the right and left sides of the chassis includes:

• 2x ThunderBolt 4 USB-C port
• 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port
• 1x RJ45 Ethernet port
• 1x 3.5mm audio combo jack
• 1x Kensington Lock Slot

If your gaming setup still needs more ports, we recommend investing in one of the best laptop docking stations or USB-C hubs if you can’t bring yourself the cut the cord and go wireless.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Battery life

Chromebooks used to be good choices for battery life, back when Windows and macOS laptops struggled to clear 10 hours. These days with AI PC laptops taking over the market, Chromebooks are nowhere to be seen among our laptops with the best battery life.

But, compared to a gaming laptop, where we consider it good if the laptop clears the 5-hour mark, I still expected the Chromebook Plus 516 GE to do better. And I was not let down. The Chromebook held out for several hours while downloading games on battery power with the display on and still kept up with some web surfing and hands-on testing at the same time.

The Chromebook Plus 516 GE lasted 7 hours and 25 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which sets a Chromebook to 150 nits and sets Chrome to cycle through 20 web pages. This is about an hour and a half below the 2024 Chromebook average of 9:01. But it wasn’t unexpected, as the previous model lasted just 7:40.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Display

The 2560 x 1600, 120Hz matte IPS display on the Chromebook Plus 516 GE almost feels like a waste. Sure, it’s great for viewing content, and on any other gaming laptop, that would be a solid display option. But on a gaming Chromebook, where your best performance will be running Android games or streaming with GeForce Now, the display quality doesn’t really impact the gaming experience in a truly meaningful way.

If you do get a game streaming smoothly from GeForce Now or by streaming from a nearby PC with Steam’s streaming capabilities, the display does look pretty great. While I’ll still prefer playing directly from my gaming PC, a gaming laptop, or a console, streaming Baldur’s Gate III through GeForce Now was properly vibrant, taking full advantage of that 1600p 120Hz display with lush scenery and crisp contrast, especially while running around the Druid’s Grove in Act One.

Of course, if you’re just streaming a video from YouTube or Netflix, or any other streaming app, having a high refresh rate, high-resolution screen is fantastic. The 516 GE’s panel isn’t going to blow you away with its color accuracy like a workstation or creator machine, but it does meet 78.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is a great more vibrant than the Chromebook average of 70.6%. The Chromebook Plus 516 GE is also on the brighter side, with a peak brightness of 341 nits which is also brighter than the Chromebook category average of 320 nits. It’s also sufficient brightness to cut through even the brutal Laptop Mag office glare.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Keyboard and touchpad

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE keyboard has solid travel with a high activation point. Unfortunately, that makes the keyboard feel kind of mushy. It wouldn’t be so bad if the Chromebook Plus 516 GE wasn’t supposed to be something of a gaming system. The lack of bounce and the high activation point just make the 516 GE’s keyboard feel wrong for gaming.

I maintained an 88 words per minute (wpm) average on the 10fastfingers advanced typing test. This is identical to my usual 88 wpm average on the MacBook Pro 14 keyboard. So despite my dislike for the keyboard’s type quality, it had no impact on my typing speed or accuracy.

Additionally, the LEDs under the keyboard aren’t particularly vibrant. They light up well, but the colors are a bit washed out, so you don’t even get a great gamer feel from them. This is particularly noticeable with lighter shades like yellow but also impacts the rainbow array. Static red or green worked the best.

The touchpad is on the larger side, measuring 5 x 3.3 inches. The scroll experience is smooth, and the bottom half of the touchpad has a physical click activation, if you want that nice click activation feel. It’s unfortunate the click is only on the bottom half, but it is better than no click at all.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Audio

Acer packed a DTS speaker array into the Chromebook Plus 516 GE’s top-firing speakers. They do get some solid audio volume, but the sound quality isn’t always the best experience.

Playing Baldurs Gate III both on-device and through GeForce Now, the game sounded like I was listening to it through a pair of tin headphones. The Baldur’s Gate III main theme still maintained the usual dramatic drums and deep vocalizations, but the higher-pitched strings and singing sounded more like nails on a chalkboard than the gorgeous instrumentals and soft humming I’m used to hearing.

For a quality audio experience while gaming on the 516 GE, I’d recommend the best headphones or a set of the best computer speakers rather than relying on the onboard audio.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Gaming and graphics

Acer positions the Chromebook Plus 516 GE as a cloud gaming device, and that is where it should stay. While you can game on the Chromebook thanks to Valve’s Steam for ChromeOS beta, most Chromebooks aren’t built for gaming.

While integrated GPUs have improved over the years, that’s not the case for the Intel Core 5 120U processor inside the Chromebook Plus 516 GE. This power-efficient, low-budget Intel processor doesn’t feature the flashy Arc iGPU of its “Meteor Lake” Core Ultra 100H peers. Having just 8GB of system memory doesn’t help. So while I did download Baldur’s Gate III through Steam directly onto the 516 GE, I was reduced to playing it on low graphics presets and at 1080p resolution, and it was still a stuttery mess. I’ve made PowerPoint flipbook-style animations with smoother graphics.

I also had difficulty loading some mobile games to the Chromebook Plus. I was unable to complete the download on the Genshin Impact textures, and even Honkai Starrail didn’t want to display correctly. The game was missing entire assets and was completely unplayable. Some Android games won’t run while emulated, while other Android games like Pokémon Unite played fine on the 516 GE. However, the lack of touchscreen controls made them awkward to play.

But if you just want to connect to GeForce Now, the 516 GE does a good enough job of connecting to the Nvidia rigs. While you are limited based on your GeForce Now subscription tier, the free tier will give you access to an Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU, which is more than powerful enough to play most games at a 1080p or 1200p resolution and high settings. Depending on your internet connection, dropping to Medium for more graphically demanding games is advisable, but GeForce Now is a solidly impressive streaming service. Of course, paid subscription tiers give you longer game times and more powerful GPUs, if being limited to an hour-long game session and an RTX 2080 isn’t enough for your gaming habits.

As far as benchmarks go, we did run the Chromebook Plus through the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, and it averaged a framerate of just 14.74fps, which is admittedly above the Chromebook category average of 13.26fps . However, that data set is rather limited, and we’ve reviewed budget smartphones with better on-device gaming capabilities.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Performance and heat

I kept my high expectations for the Chromebook Plus 516 GE pretty low, considering it is a Chromebook running an Intel Core 5 120U processor, and I was correct in that assessment. While the Chromebook Plus 516 GE has enough power to get through a full day of web applications, internet surfing, and email management, with some Google One AI integrations, it wasn’t going to be anything like a high-powered or even mid-range gaming laptop. And that’s okay. While the 516 GE may be the gaming Chromebook, it is still a Chromebook.

I kept open my usual 20-something research Chrome tabs and stream some music in the background. I also got the 516 GE to download Baldur’s Gate III and a few mobile gacha games like Genshin Impact in the background without hitting a CPU bottleneck. I didn’t get to run my usual Photoshop test, because that’s not a ChromeOS app, and I’m not too familiar with Canva to use that instead. But I was able to handle my usual workload without any snags. ChromeOS does have access to Chrome’s memory saver, which can help offload your Google Chrome memory hoard and keep you browsing as fast as your internet connection will allow.

As far as benchmarks are concerned, the Chromebook Plus 516 GE beats the category averages across the board. Some of the biggest wins were the Geekbench 6, where the 516 GE’s multicore CPU compute average of 7,303 was well above the Chromebooks category average (4,956), and the Chromebook productivity benchmark CrXPRT 2, where the 516 GE’s average of 205 was 26% above the Chromebooks average (162).

So if you need a more powerful Chromebook to keep up with your workday, the 516 GE isn’t a bad option for a productivity machine.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Webcam

The FHD webcam on the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE isn’t terrible. It isn’t the clearest feed, but the colors aren’t particularly distorted, and you do get access to Google’s advanced AI camera features like Studio sound, Studio lighting, and portrait touch-up, which can help you get a better sound, a better picture, and minimize the appearance of those dark circles under your eyes from staring at too many screens for a living.

If you’re going to be on camera a lot when using the Chromebook Plus 516 GE, you may still want to invest in one of the best webcams to kit out your gaming setup.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Software and warranty

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE comes with ChromeOS installed. As part of the Chromebook Plus tier, you get a year of Google One AI Premium for free.

In terms of pre-loaded software, the Chromebook will start downloading your usual Chrome apps as part of the setup process, but it comes with GeForce Now installed and has the beta installation files for Steam pre-loaded. If you download Steam through the Google Play Store it will only get you the mobile app, which won’t allow you to play any games on the Chromebook. If you want the full Steam experience, you need to search your Chromebook for the installation files for the Steam for Chrome beta to ensure you get the right version installed.

As for warranty coverage, the Chromebook Plus 516 GE comes with a one-year limited warranty from Acer for parts and labor.

Bottom line

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is a cloud gaming device. It does well on productivity metrics, but its on-device gaming performance is outpaced by your average smartphone. And most of the games you could play on the 516 GE are better optimized for phones and touchscreen devices anyway, leaving the Chromebook Plus in the dust.

Unfortunately, the updated model does not fix the things we disliked about the original 516 GE. The keyboard is still mushy, the battery life is sub-par, the audio is still tinny, and the display is still a standard IPS without touchscreen support.

If you wanted a gamer-lite productivity machine with color LED backlights and a quality webcam, the Chromebook Plus 516 GE isn’t a bad option. But ultimately, you can run GeForce Now and Steam for ChromeOS on any Chromebook. So, you’re probably better off going for the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus instead, because you get a far nicer display, longer battery life, and a better overall Chrome device.

At their core, Chromebooks are quite basic little devices. Their simplicity is wonderful for those shopping for a new laptop on a budget because it translates to a lower price tag, even at full price. With Cyber Monday deals stacked on top of the already low prices for Chromebooks, they become downright cheap.

Right now, you can pick up a brand new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus for only $99 when you trade in a phone, laptop, or tablet. This Chromebook is regularly priced at $699, but Samsung is offering its customers $100 off and up to $500 in savings with a device trade-in. Being able to pick up a brand new Galaxy Chromebook Plus for right under $100 is absolutely wild, but it's the real deal!

This is the only configuration for this Chromebook, and it features a 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) AMOLED display, an Intel Core 3 100U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of eUFS storage. These specs are great for internet browsing, media streaming, and even cloud gaming.

In our Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review, we found it performed well both on the Geekbench 6 performance test compared to similar Chromebooks and in our real-world tests, which involved opening a dozen Chrome tabs and firing up a YouTube video.

Despite the smooth performance, it was also pretty efficient. On our battery test, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus lasted a whopping 11 hours and 12 minutes, surpassing the Chromebook average of 9 hours and 56 minutes.

We also loved its large 15.6-inch display, which is "fairly dynamic and plenty bright," and its incredibly lightweight, portable form factor. This laptop weighs a mere 2.5 pounds, making it a great travel companion.

If you want to take advantage of this stellar Cyber Monday deal, head to the Galaxy Chromebook Plus listing on Samsung's website, scroll down to the section titled Samsung Trade-in, and find your laptop, phone, or tablet from the dropdown menus to see how much you can save.

Or, check out the best Cyber Monday laptop deals we've rounded up for more options.

Today's best Galaxy Chromebook Plus deal

Chromebooks can offer fantastic value if you're looking for a budget-friendly laptop, but that doesn't mean they compromise design or build quality. The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is the perfect example and right now you can save $120 on it for Cyber Monday.

This is hands-down my favorite Chromebook. It has a fantastic design that's definitely a step up from most Chromebooks thanks to its sleek bronze details. The keyboard was also fantastic to type on during my testing and the display is sharp and vivid. With so much going for it, it's no wonder the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 earned an Editor's Choice award in our review.

This stellar Chromebook is even more affordable right now thanks to a killer Cyber Monday deal I tracked down. You can get the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 for just $579 at Best Buy, a discount of $120 off the regular price.

This is one of the best Cyber Monday Chromebook deals out there, so take advantage of it while this top Chromebook is still in stock!

See also: 25 Best Cyber Monday laptop deals 2024

I never believed in Chromebooks until I came face to face with the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9. So, I've set out on a quest to capture the best deals on this fun, functional little ChromeOS detachable 2-in-1 tablet.

While I'm still too much of a power user to ditch my laptop entirely, the Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 packs enough of a punch to handle most ChromeOS and Android applications from the Play Store and is an incredible value purchase if you need a tablet to augment your productivity or if you need a solid, reliable Chromebook for your kids. We've ranked it as our Best Chromebook for kids for good reason.

The best deal on this little Chromebook comes to us from Best Buy, where it's on sale for just $269, for a total savings of $110.

If you're looking for a Chromebook with a bit more power, our other top Chromebook picks are also on sale for less than $600, and plenty of other ChromeOS devices are on sale for Cyber Monday. If you need the comfort of a full Windows or Mac operating system, we're tracking the best Cyber Monday laptop deals this week.

But now, for the best deals on the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9:

Best Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 deals this week

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Chromebooks aren't always the top-performing laptops, but they're affordable and just easy.

A part of that ease is thanks to ChromeOS, which is streamlined for your regular, everyday, run-of-the-mill web browsing, but it's not all software. I recently tested Samsung's Galaxy Galaxy Chromebook Plus and was shocked by how thin and light it is — it's actually the thinnest and lightest Chromebook ever.

That perk makes it ideal for travel; I think I speak for most people when I say lugging a heavy laptop around in a bag isn't super high on my to-do list.

And to make that perk even sweeter, Best Buy is knocking $100 off the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus' starting price, so you can save some money and your back in the process.

Black Friday isn't officially here until November 29, but you can start your holiday shopping early. The best deals on some of our favorite Chromebooks are already here.

In fact, all five of the laptops on our Best Chromebooks page are already on a solid discount, so you can start checking gifts off your list before Thanksgiving has even arrived. You can save $100 off the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, which is our Best Chromebook overall, $120 off the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714, our best Chromebook for keyboard enthusiasts, and 25% off the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, our best Chromebook for gaming.

We've got great deals on plenty of other Chromebook devices, so if our top five Chromebooks don't meet your needs, you have plenty of options.

Best Chromebook sales - Quick Links

• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: was $699, now $599 at Best Buy
• Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus: was $499, now $369 at Best Buy
• Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: was $359, now $269 at Best Buy
• Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714: was $699, now $569 at Best Buy
• Acer Chromebook 516 GE: was $599, now $449 at Amazon

Best Chromebook deals

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• Top MacBook Black Friday deals: Save up to $500 on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac accessories
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I love gadgets as much as the next guy, but I don't love lugging them around.

There's a reason why the primary phone in my possession (an iPhone 13) is two generations old — it's not the best, most high-functioning device in the world, but it doesn't feel like a brick in my pocket. Sorry iPhone Pro-holders, I just don't have the appetite.

Similarly, while I love a powerful laptop, and have high standards for a device that I absolutely need to work, I don't want to throw my increasingly fragile back out carrying one around.

Luckily Samsung is answering my prayers.

Small in a big way

There's a lot to like about Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus — for all my thoughts on this laptop, read my full review — but probably my favorite thing about this Chromebook is its embodiment of the adage, "less is more."

For context, Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus is the thinnest and lightest Chromebook ever. To be exact, that means it weighs 2.45 pounds and is just 11.8 mm thick. For comparison, Chromebook competitors like the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED weigh 3.2 pounds and 3 pounds respectively.

After a few weeks of testing and bringing this Chromebook back and forth between my office and home via a backpack, I can say that it never felt like a burden — even with two laptops in my bag.

And it's not just the being thin and light part that caught my attention while using the Galaxy Chromebook Plus, it's those things coupled with the fact that it doesn't seem to compromise too much in other arenas where thin and light devices usually do.

One of the areas that the Galaxy Chromebook continues to excel in despite its ideal weight and thinness is battery life. In our testing, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus clocked 11 hours and 12 minutes of battery life which is above average for most laptops — even ones that aren't nearly as thin. That's not going to eclipse new MacBooks which are inching towards 24 hours on a single charge, but it makes the Galaxy Chromebook Plus more than solid from an all-day use perspective.

On top of that, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus also delivers solid performance despite its thinness and lightness. In our testing, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus scored 6,015 on the Geekbench 6 performance test. That might be slightly below competitors like the Acer Chromebook Spin 714, which clocked a 6,335, but the Galaxy Chromebook is also almost a full pound lighter than the former — HP's laptop is 3.2 pounds compared to the Galaxy Chromebook's 2.45 pounds.

In all, Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus doesn't compromise much for its ideal size and weight, which is always an impressive feat. Light and thinner without being less performant? Sign me up.

Solid, not heavy

Not everything about this laptop is small. While only weighing about 2.5 pounds, Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus has a 15.6-inch screen which makes viewing media feel luxurious at times.

There are some downsides to having such a big screen obviously — putting this thing in your backpack, while it might not weigh you down, does technically take up a lot of room.

If you're okay with the sheer real estate, however, it's easy to lean into this laptop as one big thin, light screen. At the end of the day, Chromebooks are all about being easy.

If you wanted something nuanced you'd probably spring for a Windows laptop, but if you're eyeing a Chromebook, you likely just need something that can browse the web, play audio/video, and generally speaking just get the job done.

Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus doesn't do all of those things in the highest tier — audio leaves something to be desired and the screen isn't as bright as competitors — but the fact I can pick this thing up and barely feel it in my hand makes it feel all the more accessible.

Miniaturization is always one of the main goals of every tech company and any device (Chromebooks included) that manages to get thinner, lighter, or smaller, and still maintain an impressive level of performance deserves some shine in my book.

Whether you're asking for it or not, Chromebooks are getting more premium, and at the forefront of that push is Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus.

This year, for $699, Samsung is offering another Plus-branded riff on the usual Chromebook experience with bolstered specs and a new suite of AI tools meant to make ChromeOS feel easier and more intuitive. It also packs great battery life and a bright AMOLED display in a thin and light chassis.

However, it’s a bit pricey, and while it is quite portable, it’s also a bit wider than I would’ve liked. But does that preclude it from our best Chromebooks list? And what exactly does the "Plus" moniker add to the Chromebook experience? Here's what you need to know.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Specs

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Price and configurations

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus comes in just one configuration: $699 gets you an Intel Core 3 100U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

If you’re looking for something more affordable, check out the best budget laptops.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Design

The biggest thing (or the smallest, I guess) that you'll notice about Samsung's new Galaxy Chromebook Plus is that it's very lightweight. In fact, this is the thinnest and lightest Chromebook ever, clocking in at just 2.45 pounds and only 0.46 inches thick. All-in-all it’s 8.89 inches long with a width of 13.9 inches.

It also comes in a serene Neptune blue color which I happen to like. On the outside and inside, Samsung opts for a smooth, close-to matte-like plastic that I find nice to the touch. When I say there are no frills on the design of this laptop — inside or out — I mean it. Flipped open, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is awash in black with a rather thick bottom bezel on the bottom side of the screen. On the outside, the laptop is covered in the aforementioned Neptune blue and punctuated only by Samsung and Chromebook Plus branding.

It’s minimalist to be sure, which I don’t particularly hate.

For comparison, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a is about 0.72 inches thick while the similarly priced Asus Zenbook 14 OLED is about 0.59 inches thick. If you're looking for a laptop that you can easily toss into your backpack and cart around between classes, you'd be hard-pressed to find one with a screen this big on a machine that weighs this little.

Here's how the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus compares:

• HP Chromebook Plus 14a: 3.3 pounds 12.82 x 8.48 x 0.72 inches
• Acer Chromebook Spin 714: 3.2 pounds 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.71 inches
• Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M): 3 pounds 12.3 x 8.67 x 0.59 inches

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Ports

Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus comes with plenty of ports given the size, including two USB-C ports so you'll be able to charge an external gadget that uses USB-C while also charging your laptop.

Samsung even squeezed in a MicroSD card slot which is a welcome bonus. The ports are as follows:

• USB-C: Two USB-C ports on the left side of the device
• USB-A: One USB-A port on the right side of the device
• HDMI: One full-size HDMI port on the left side of the device
• MicroSD: One microSD slot on the right side of the device
• Headphone/mic jack: One 3.5 mm headphone/mic jack on the right side of the device

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Display

With a 60Hz 1920 x 1080 AMOLED display, Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus' 15.6-inch screen is fairly dynamic and plenty bright, especially if you're using it for what most people might use a Chromebook for — general web browsing and YouTube viewing or maybe the occasional movie.

You're not going to want to do any super deep pixel peeping but this is a Chromebook after all and not necessarily a machine you want to do heavy editing on. I watched the trailer for Robert Egger’s upcoming rendition of Nosferatu — a movie that, as you might imagine, is full of darkness — and the Galaxy Chromebook Plus did an admirable job of keeping up with the contrasting black, which is a major strength of OLED displays.

And for brighter content like ring light-assisted YouTube videos, this screen had no issues.

For context, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus covers 108.5% of the color gamut according to our test. That’s compared to the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 which hits just 76% and the HP Chromebook Plus 14a which hits 42%.

This isn’t the brightest screen at an average of 377 nits according to our tests, but it should be enough to get you by.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Keyboard and touchpad

I'm happy to report that the keys that aren't overly mushy, though given the size of the laptop, typing proficiently on the Galaxy Chromebook Plus' keyboard did require some readjustment on my part.

For reference, I took a typing test via 10fastfingers.com and recorded 45 words per minute with an accuracy of 89 percent. That’s compared to my MacBook Pro M2 score of 71 words per minute with 94 percent accuracy.

If you're used to keyboards on smaller 13-inch laptops and don't have particularly big hands like me, the spread-out keyboard geography may be something to keep in mind.

Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus isn't going to unseat the MacBook for the title of best touchpad any time soon, but it's solid and responsive. Size-wise it’s fairly large, measuring 5.2 inches wide x 3.5 inches tall and the press is clicky, which I prefer over mushy.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Audio

I have pretty high standards for external audio. My MacBook Pro M2 speakers are fairly loud, dynamic, and shockingly clear for a laptop.

That's obviously a tough comparison; I don't think anyone is buying a Chromebook and expecting a MacBook Pro experience. With that said, it's still worth noting that Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus external speakers aren't going to blow anyone away. I listened to the same sports talk radio program on both my MacBook Pro M2 and the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus and noticed a huge drop-off in quality. In comparison to the room-like quality of my MacBook Pro, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus lacked low end and made voices sound one-dimensional.

Same goes for listening to music; I tuned into WQXR, New York’s classical radio station, and the audio, while loud enough, felt dead and flat. Mids and high frequencies where you’d hear a guitar tend to sound twangy while the low-end where you’ll hear bass and deeper percussion, like a kick drum, feel nonexistent. At higher volumes, audio distortion tends to become more apparent — high frequencies take over and tend to drown everything else out. My condolences to all the bass players out there.

For the most part, this Galaxy Chromebook’s speakers sound quite tinny and put out decent volume but I wouldn't want to use them in a crowded room. If audio playback is going to be a major activity for you, I highly suggest getting an external pair of earbuds or headphones to go along with this laptop.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Performance

Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus with its Intel Core 3 100U and 8GB of RAM handles smoothly.

I did what most people would do on a Chromebook — went straight to Chrome, opened about a dozen tabs, and started watching YouTube. Even with my makeshift stress test, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus performed well.

In our tests, Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus scored a 1,902 on the single-core Geekbench 6 benchmark and a 6,015 on the multicore test. On the multicore side that compares well to competitors like the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 which scored a slightly better 6,335 and the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook which clocked just 4,264.

The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also scored a 268.37 on the Jetstream 2 test that measures how fast web pages load — that's notably above the Chromebook average of 211.33 and handily beats out similar laptops like the HP Chromebook Plus 14a (Intel Core i3-n305 CPU) which scored a 196.82.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: AI features

AI might not be the only update to this year's Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, but it's arguably the most pervasive.

The most immediately noticeable of all of the Chromebook's new AI upgrades is Quick Insert. The reason why that's the most noticeable is because there's an entirely new, physical button on the Samsung Chromebook Plus' keyboard.

As a recap: the Quick Insert button does a lot — it can add links to an email or insert GIFs or emojis. More importantly, however, Quick Insert also acts as an express track to generative AI features powered by Google's Gemini.

Help me write, for example, can generate text that's based on a prompt, and can be useful when writing emails and so forth. The ability to use Gemini to generate text isn't novel, but as I wrote previously, its prominence thanks to Quick Insert is.

Whether you get in the cadence of using Quick Insert is up to you, but having a dedicated button does make Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus feel genuinely AI-centric.

Your experience using those features, and therefore your appreciation of them, may vary depending on what exactly you use your laptop for, but in my testing, they do add up to a unique ChromeOS experience that you can either choose to take advantage of or not.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Battery life

Samsung's Chromebook Plus isn't going to blow you away with its battery life but given the size of this screen, and the thinness of the laptop, I'd say that it excels in the longevity department.

In our tests, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus lasted 11 hours and 12 minutes, which is longer than the average Chromebook 9 hours and 56 minutes. Compare that to Chromebooks like the HP Chromebook Plus 14a (8:50), the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (8:21), and the Asus Chromebook CM14 Flip (10:14), and we've got a winner.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Webcam

Just like the trackpad or keyboard, Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus won't be winning any awards for "webcam of the year," but considering how thin this laptop is, I'll say that it errs on the side if impressive.

It's 1080p and not hi-fi in any sense, but serviceable enough for work meetings. It's not great in low-light situations but then again, what stock webcam really is? If you're just looking to be visible and presentable on a video call for work or school, then I'm willing to wager that Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus will suffice.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Heat

Not much to report on the heat front, which in this case, is a good thing. My lap never got sweaty while chugging down Chrome tabs and according to our heat test, the hottest point of the laptop is above the F10 button.

Suffice it to say that Samsung does a good job of heat dispersion. The full extent of our heat benchmarks are as follows:

• Touchpad: 77.5 degrees
• G/H: 82.5 degrees
• Underside: 82.5 degrees
• Hottest: 84.5 degrees above F10 button on the keyboard

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus: Software and warranty

While ChromeOS may not have the same nuance as Windows, which now includes a host of new AI features like Recall and Microsoft’s do-it-all chatbot, Copilot, it thrives with simplicity

You, as usual, have deep integration with the whole host of Google’s apps (Gmail, Google Photos, Chrome) and a smattering of AI features to avail yourself of as I mentioned above.

I personally find using ChromeOS to be a pleasant experience especially if you’re just like most people and just using your Chromebook for basic web browsing-level tasks. Sometimes less is more and ChromeOS proves it.

This laptop comes with a one-year warranty for parts and labor.

Bottom line

It's clear Chromebooks are entering new territory. While Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus isn't the first premium Chromebook, it's probably the best

This year's addition avoids the $1,000 price tag and delivers a more than serviceable laptop for web browsing and general computing needs with some perks to really love — being thin and light with a screen that's big and bright.

If you want to save some money, you could pick up the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 for $299 at Best Buy or the HP Chromebook Plus 14a for around $400 but just know that you’ll be sacrificing some performance and also won’t be able to take advantage of the Galaxy Chromebook Plus’ class-beating weight and thinness.

If you need a portable machine that's lightweight and versatile for web browsing, word processing, and what most might consider everyday internet usage, then the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is a solid option.

We've loved Google's "Quick Insert" feature since it launched back in early October on Chromebook Plus models, and now it's available for all Chromebooks.

Google on Thursday updated the ChromeOS operating system with the M130 update, which brings several new features to all Chromebooks, including Focus, Welcome Recap, and the "Quick Insert" function.

So now that you know you can get Quick Insert on any Chromebook, let's get into the details.

What is "Quick Insert"?

Google's "Quick Insert" feature is a simple, sensible operating system update we can easily get behind. It's a one or two-button feature for adding emojis, GIFs, Google Drive links, simple calculations, and unit conversions to your emails, notes, and messages without needing to open other windows.

Quick Insert can also be used with Google's Gemini AI to generate "help me write" text, add AI-generated images, or offer quick summaries with "help me read."

While it may not sound groundbreaking, it's an elegant solution for Chromebook users that streamlines everything they do on their devices with the touch of a button.

That will fundamentally change how you use your Chromebook. It's the sort of update that allows you to respond quicker to work or school emails and can turn you into a Gemini AI power user so you can get the most out of your Chromebook.

How to get "Quick Insert" on your Chromebook

To activate the Quick Insert feature on your Chromebook, navigate to its settings, select "About ChromeOS," and hit "Check for updates." Allow your Chromebook to download the update, then restart it to finish the installation process.

Once you've got ChromeOS version 130, use the keyboard shortcut "Launcher" + "F" to open the Quick Insert menu and you're good to start adding all the reaction GIFs and emojis your heart desires. And with Gemini Advanced in the Google One AI Premium plan, you can utilize multiple generative AI features.

To customize your Quick Insert keybind, you can go to Chromebook Settings, select Device, choose "view keyboard shortcuts," then select "Text" and scroll down to "Quick Insert." You can set any key or combination of keys to function as the "Quick Insert' shortcut.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus already has a dedicated Quick Insert key, and future Chromebooks will have the same updated keyboard layout. But for all other current Chromebook users, a keyboard shortcut will be needed.

What else is new with ChromeOS M130?

The ChromeOS M130 update also brings the Focus feature, which lets you set a focus timer and task list to ensure you finish your work. You can even select a soundtrack from YouTube Music for the ideal background noise. You can enter Focus mode by navigating to Quick Settings and selecting Focus.

The Welcome Recap feature has also arrived for all Chromebooks optional feature will help you jump back in where you left off the last time you used your Chromebook with a recap of your recent activity. To turn on this feature, select Settings, choose System Preferences, navigate down to Startup, and finally enable Welcome Recap. Once you've toggled on the feature, make sure 'Ask every time' is chosen for your device.

ChromeOS M130 also includes new Tote suggestions, enhanced Google Drive access, studio-style mic tuning for video calls, an AI-powered recorder app for better audio transcription, additional appearance effects, and more privacy controls. You can find all the changes in ChromeOS version 130 on the Google blog.

Many of the ChromeOS M130 features were announced in early October alongside the release of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 (Gen 9) and Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.

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Lenovo's refreshed Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 is an incredibly portable ChromeOS tablet and offers solid battery life and performance despite its humble specs and $359 starting price. So naturally we wanted to put it to the test against Apple's budget tablet, the 2024 iPad Air (M2).

Both tablets are light and thin, with minimal ports, and are priced under $600. Both tablets offer a set of compromises to get you the best value for your money. We often recommend both for students, as you can get them at an even better price with education pricing and back-to-school sales.

But which tablet is actually the better buy? Let's break it down.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 vs Apple iPad Air 13 (M2): Pricing and configurations

Most folks don't have an unlimited budget for laptops and tablets, and no group of computer shoppers needs a good deal quite like students.

The Chromebook Duet's base configuration costs just $359.99. This version features a MediaTek Kompanio 838 Processor, integrated MediaTek Mali-G57 MC3 graphics, 4GB of memory, 64GB of SSD storage, a 10.95-inch 60Hz WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS display, a folio keyboard case, and Lenovo USI Pen 2. You can upgrade to a 128GB model which costs $379 if you forgo the Lenovo USI Pen 2, or $399.99 with the stylus.

The base iPad Air (M2) costs $599 and includes an Apple M2 8-core CPU, Apple M2 9-core GPU, 8GB of memory, 128GB of SSD storage, and an 11-inch Liquid Retina display. The iPad Air also comes in a 13-inch model, which starts at $799. You can upgrade the storage up to 1TB, which costs $1,099 for the 11-inch iPad Air or $1,299 for the 13-inch version.

While the iPad Air has more configurable options, $599 is a steep starting price for a mid-tier tablet. Even if it does have Apple branding, most folks don't like dropping several hundred dollars at once.

Winner: Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 vs Apple iPad Air 13 (M2): Design

Portability is one of the major selling points of tablets, for business professionals and students alike.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 is impressively light and thin. The tablet weighs just 1.12 pounds and is just 0.3 inches thick. Unfortunately, it does have slightly thick bezels and comes in just one colorway: Luna Gray.

The Apple iPad Air comes in two form factors, though we only have testing data for the 13-inch model. The larger tablet weighs only 1.36 pounds despite having a larger display and measures just 0.24 inches thick. It also has slightly slimmer bezels and comes in four color options: Space Gray, Blue, Purple, and Starlight.

Apple has always had clean, slick designs and the iPad Air (M2) is no exception. It also comes in two fun quirky colors. So this one will have to go to the iPad.

Winner: Apple iPad Air 13 (M2)

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 vs Apple iPad Air 13 (M2): Display

When using any piece of technology, you spend most of your time staring at the display, so you obviously want something that's pretty to look at.

TheThe Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 and Apple iPad Air 13 have glossy display panels. However, the iPad Air's Liquid Retina display does have a higher resolution. The Chromebook Duet 11 features a WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS panel, while the iPad Air 11 has a Liquid Retina (2,360 x 1,640) display, and the iPad Air 13 has a Liquid Retina (2,732 x 2,048) display. So you've got more pixels on the iPad across the board. Both the Chromebook and iPad displays were easy on the eyes in our hands-on testing, though there were some differences regarding the lab benchmarks.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 covered 83% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.33, while the iPad Air 13 covered just 78.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with an accuracy of 0.27. So, both tablets are rather color-accurate, but the Chromebook Duet is just a bit more vibrant.

As far as brightness is concerned, the iPad wins with a peak brightness of 572 nits, though the Chromebook Duet hits a respectable 402 nits.

This category goes to the Chromebook Duet 11, thanks to its edge on color vibrancy. While the iPad Air does offer a higher resolution display and has an eye-searing max brightness of 572 nits, in most cases you won't need that extra brightness, though the nearly 5% difference in vibrancy is worth the lowered pixel count.

Winner: Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 vs Apple iPad Air 13 (M2): Performance

Tablets aren't exactly powerhouse machines, but you do need enough juice to get you through your daily tasks.

The iPad Air's M2 8-core CPU is almost too much power for a tablet, and combined with 8GB of onboard RAM, you get blisteringly fast performance on all of our benchmarks. The Chromebook Duet 11's MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor gets you a pretty decent bit of performance, but it isn't nearly as snappy as the iPad. Because the Duet only has 4GB of memory, you may run into memory bandwidth issues.

Because of its limited memory capacity, we were unable to run Geekbench 6 on the Chromebook Duet though future OS updates may allow that to change. Meanwhile, the iPad Air maintained impressive Geekbench 6 scores with a single-core average of 2,600 and a multicore score of 10,066. The Chromebook Duet 11's Geekbench 5 performance was on the quick side for a Chromebook, with a single-core average of 775 and a multicore score of 2,025. While we can't do a direct comparison between Geekbench 5 and Geekbench 6 scores, it's pretty obvious the iPad Air 13's M2 chipset has a major performance advantage.

This was further supported by the Jetstream 2 scores between both tablets. The browser benchmark was run on Safari on the iPad and Chrome on the Duet 11. The iPad Air scored 337.419 points while the Duet 11 scored just 114.301 points.

While the Duet's performance is good for a Chromebook, it absolutely pales in comparison to the iPad Air.

Winner: Apple iPad Air 13 (M2)

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 vs Apple iPad Air 13 (M2): Graphics and gaming

If you like to game on the go, a tablet isn't likely your first choice of gaming platform. Handheld gaming PCs are on the rise for a reason, and smartphones are better suited for touch-screen controls. However, you can connect a Bluetooth controller or a keyboard and mouse to your tablet for gaming. There is technically nothing stopping you.

So if you do want to do some casual gaming on a tablet, the iPad Air's M2 9-core GPU is the way to go. Because the Chromebook Duet 11 has only 4GB of onboard RAM, plenty of mobile games don't run well while the iPad Air has laptop-level gaming performance.

As far as benchmarks go, we ran 3DMark Wild Life on both tablets and the results didn't come as a surprise. The Apple iPad Air 13 (M2) maxed out the Wild Life benchmark with a frame rate of 60fps. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 scored 1,740 points with a frame rate of 10.4fps.

You can use the Chromebook Duet 11 for cloud gaming using services like Nvidia's GeForce Now or Boosteroid. But if you want to game on-device without the latency of cloud gaming services, the iPad Air is definitely the way to go.

Winner: Apple iPad Air 13 (M2)

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 vs Apple iPad Air 13 (M2): Battery life

Battery life is one of the key metrics for laptops, tablets, and phones. These devices are designed to be used on the go, so it's imperative they offer a decent amount of battery life. Both the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 and Apple iPad Air 13 (M2) offer more than 8 hours of battery life which can get most people through a full day of work or play.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, we set the tablets to 150 nits of display brightness and set them to surf through a series of static, dynamic, and video web pages until the tablets ran out of battery life. The Apple iPad Air 13 lasted for 11 hours and 30 minutes on our web surfing battery test, while the Chromebook Duet lasted 9 hours and 47 minutes.

Unfortunately, we only have testing data for the Apple iPad Air 13 model, which does have a larger 37Whr (watt-hour) battery. The 11-inch iPad Air has a 29Whr battery, which is the same capacity as the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11. It's possible the iPad Air 11 would be more comparable in battery longevity with the Chromebook Duet, but it could just as easily last as long as the 13-inch model. But, based on what we do know, the winner is the iPad Air 13 by over 90 minutes.

Winner: Apple iPad Air 13 (M2)

Bottom line

While there is plenty to recommend the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9, when compared to the powerhouse M2 iPad Air 13, there's just no competition. The iPad has better design aesthetics, performance, graphics, and battery life.

So, if you have the budget for the iPad Air, it offers the best performance for the money.

However, if a $600 tablet isn't in the cards for you, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 is the way to go. The Duet 11 has enough performance to satisfy most people's needs, solid battery life, a more vibrant display, and is significantly cheaper.

Winner: Apple iPad Air 13 (M2)

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There's a disconnect between how big generative AI is in the tech world and how big it is in the real world — you know, the one you and I both live in.

ChatGPT may have an impressive 200 million users since its release in 2022, but it's not quite the crucial utility to people's day-to-day lives that tech companies envision — at least not yet.

If AI — like Google's Gemini, for example — will rise from the level of "wow, that's pretty cool" to "I don't know how to live without it," it will have to make itself useful — very useful. But before it skyrockets to ubiquity, it will have to make itself quick.

A quick introduction to Quick Insert

For anyone who may have missed it, Google's Quick Insert key is a new addition to its latest generation of Chromebook laptops.

The key, which replaced the Launcher key, does many things. According to Google, it can add links, search the web, and attach files to an email with a simple keystroke. The concept is enticing. Who doesn't want to spend less time clicking, after all?

Quick Insert can do all of those things, but in my experience using the key on Samsung's new Galaxy Chromebook Plus, one thing it loves to do is refer me to Gemini.

If there's an opportunity to generate or alter some kind of text, you best believe Quick Insert will give it a go. While writing an email, for example, tapping the Quick Insert button brings up a host of options, and featured prominently on that list is "Help me write."

As you might've guessed, the "Help me write" option summons Gemini for a number of text-based writing tasks. You can enter a prompt and have Gemini write something from scratch; you can have it edit something that's already been written; you can even have something you wrote assessed for grammar.

The "Help me write" option does precisely what you think an AI writing tool might do, and though I don't use AI to write or edit, using the Quick Insert key basically foisted the idea into my head — so I obliged.

As expected, Gemini did what it was designed to do — it wrote me a theoretical email declining an invitation to a birthday party and helped me make it sound "more professional."

It even told me why I should be using Quick Insert in the first place. From Gemini itself: "The Quick Insert key lets you quickly access frequently used emoji, stickers, and GIFs. It's a time-saver and makes your messages more expressive."

And it's true: Quick Insert can save you time. For instance, when switching between searching for products and writing emails, ChromeOS and Quick Insert intuitively knew I might want to carry a link over to my draft.

One second I was searching kettles and then next I was using Quick Insert to past the link to the kettle I had searched into an email. It's a small amount of time saved, to be sure, but it just made everything feel a lot smoother.

Functionally, Google's Quick Insert key does pretty much everything as promised, but it's not what the key does now that I find interesting, it's what it could do.

A fast-pass to AI

One of the biggest challenges AI faces in its infancy has nothing to do with the technology itself but has everything to do with its messaging.

Even if Gemini (or any chatbot, for that matter) could do everything it promised with 100% reliability, Google still has the added obstacle of convincing people to use it in the first place.

A part of that process is figuring out how to inject AI into the products it's promising to revolutionize. For Microsoft, that's taken the form of a whole Copilot app that stands alongside everything you do on your computer and can generate text, read emails, and pull things from the web.

For its part, Google has also found subtle ways of injecting Gemini into its most popular products. A shortcut in Chrome, for example, allows you to query @Gemini by typing @Gemini in the address bar.

Quick Insert takes that thinking one step further and integrates Gemini at both a hardware and software level. Not everything you can do with Quick Insert is powered by Gemini, of course, but the fact that features like "Help me write" are featured so prominently in Quick Inert's list of abilities says a lot. Quick Insert isn't quite a Gemini button, but it's not, not one either.

And to that end, it's fairly effective. Forcing myself to use Quick Insert definitely made me more familiar with Gemini, and once I was in the cadence of using the button to insert links or add emoji, I was also in the cadence of pondering Gemini as a writing tool.

It's going to take a lot more than a button to make Gemini catch on, but Quick Insert is a solid start at making AI feel easy.

Chromebooks haven’t ever been my favorite laptops or tablets, as I’m exactly the type of person who needs the full application support of a Windows or macOS system. However, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 may have changed my mind.

If all you need from a laptop is the ability to work with web applications, particularly in Google’s software suite, then Chromebooks offer the best performance for your money. Because if your online needs boil down to general web browsing, web applications, and email, there’s no reason to invest in a pricier Windows laptop when a ChromeOS machine like the Chromebook Duet 11 can work just as well.

Google announced the refreshed Chromebook Duet 11 in early October when the company rolled out several new AI features to all Chromebooks. Like all other Chromebooks, the Duet 11 features integrated Gemini support, a Welcome Recap, a Focus feature, and the ability to pin files to the home screen for easier access.

Underneath all those AI features, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 provides solid battery life, high-quality front and rear cameras, good performance for the price, and slick stylus and gesture controls. And at under $400, that’s hard to argue with.

While the Chromebook Duet 11 suffers from a mushy folio keyboard and some 4GB memory bottlenecks, it has plenty of redeeming qualities to counterbalance those shortcomings. Thanks to the Duet 11's solid performance, battery life, quality cameras, and overall value, it's absolutely a contender for our best Chromebooks list.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Specs

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Price and configurations

There are two configurations of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9. The starting configuration costs $359.99 and comes with a MediaTek Kompanio 838 Processor, integrated MediaTek Mali-G57 MC3 graphics, 4GB of memory, 64GB of SSD storage, a 10.95-inch 60Hz WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS display, a folio keyboard case, and Lenovo USI Pen 2.

The Duet 11 Gen 9 can also be upgraded to a 128GB SSD for $399.99. Some retailers are offering the 128GB model of Duet 11 for $379, though this version does not come with the Lenovo USI Pen 2. We reviewed the $379 Duet 11 model with upgraded storage but no stylus.

While these specs suit an 11-inch ChromeOS tablet, If you’re looking for more power, see the best laptops under $1,000 and best tablets lists.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Design

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 is an 11-inch tablet with a Folio keyboard case and stand. Several models also come with the Lenovo USI Pen 2 in the box. The aluminum chassis comes in a Luna Gray colorway, and the display is made of Corning Glass. While the bezels are perhaps a bit thicker than some competitor tablets, the overall design feels very safe and in line with the design of other Lenovo products.

The included folio keyboard doesn’t change that, as it is also dark gray.

So, if you want a tablet that won’t make waves at work or school, this is definitely the option for you. The one truly clever feature of the Duet 11 design is the pen notch built into the Folio case, which allows you to carry a magnetic stylus without the risk of dropping it.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 is light and thin, measuring just 10.05 x 6.57 x 0.3 inches and weighing just 2.08 pounds with the case (1.12 pounds without). While 0.3 inches may not make it the slimmest tablet Laptop Mag has reviewed, it's incredibly sleek for an 11-inch tablet. Forget needing a dedicated laptop bag or laptop backpack; the Chromebook Duet 11 is small and light enough to fit into a purse or gym bag.

We compared the Duet 11 Gen 9 to similar Chromebooks and tablets like the Asus Chromebook CM14 Flip, Apple iPad Air 13 (M2), and Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook.

Regarding weight, the Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 was the lightest of the bunch. As the CM14 Flip is the only 2-in-1 clamshell laptop of the bunch, it makes sense that it weighs more than twice as much as the Duet 11.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Ports

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 has only a handful of ports:

• Two USB-C with 5Gbps transfer speeds
• 3.5mm Audio Combo jack

While most Chromebook users don’t need more ports than that, if you want to run a full workstation with your Chromebook, you’ll need to pick up a USB-C hub or laptop docking station.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Security

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 can be configured with a security PIN and password. The tablet also has a front-facing webcam with a physical privacy shutter to prevent any potential peeping Toms.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Display

Chromebooks aren’t exactly known for having the best possible displays, especially when looking at laptops and tablets under $400. That said, the glossy IPS panel on the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 is pretty gorgeous. It may just be an FHD+ (1,920 x 1,200) display, but it's vibrant and bright enough to make most content look fantastic.

To test the Duet 11’s display, I booted up the trailer for Universal Pictures’ upcoming action film Love Hurts. The trailer covers a wide range of shots, between interior scenes of Ke Huy Quan’s mild-mannered realtor Marvin Gable showing off homes to gorgeous sunset landscapes, and the Chromebook Duet 11 didn’t miss a beat. The display had enough vibrancy to capture the Milwaukee suburbs' glory while keeping up with the quick action scenes.

Our lab tests helped back up my hands-on experience, as the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 covered 83% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E accuracy of 0.33. Only the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook had a more vibrant display, covering 85.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with an accuracy of 0.22. The iPad Air M2 (78.6%) and Asus Chromebook CM14 Flip (40.7%) were much less vibrant than the Chromebook Duet 11.

As for brightness, while the gloss panel on the Chromebook Duet 11 can pick up the occasional overhead glare, with an average peak brightness of 402 nits, you won’t run into much trouble using the tablet in bright environments. Only the Apple iPad Air M2 was brighter, with an average brightness of 572 nits. The Chromebook CM14 Flip (262 nits) and IdeaPad Duet 5 (361 nits) were much dimmer.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Keyboard and touchpad

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 does come with a keyboard case designed specifically to fit the tablet. While that kind of convenience is always handy, tablet case keyboards are not the most satisfying typing experience. The keys are shallow with a mushy activation, but there is some tactile feedback at the bottom of the key to make the experience a bit better than an ultrathin keyboard or typing on the tablet itself.

On the 10fastfingers advanced typing test, I averaged a score of 88 words per minute, which perfectly matches my 88 WPM average on my Apple MacBook Pro 14 M1 Pro keyboard. So, despite my feelings, the keyboard is perfectly usable, even if it isn’t particularly noteworthy.

Because the keyboard and touchpad are part of a tablet case, the touchpad is on the smaller side. It is enough to get by scrolling on the 11-inch Duet display, but opting for a stylus or Bluetooth mouse is key if you need more nuanced controls.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Audio

The Chromebook Duet 11 features a dual 1W speaker array by SmartAMP, tuned by Waves Audio.

I tested the Chromebook Duet 11’s audio with a personal throwback favorite, Thrice’s “Image of the Invisible.” The Duet 11 had surprisingly good audio quality, crisp highs, and driving bass. However, the highest volume won’t be enough to fill a room.

So, if you want to use the Duet 11 for your next movie stream session, you may want to opt for one of the best computer speakers for immersive sound. (Or invest in headphones.)

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Performance

Chromebook performance can be challenging to evaluate, as they are web-based systems. However, the MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor handled over ten Chrome tabs, streaming videos, and music using YouTube and running web-app games with minimal difficulty.

Because the Chromebook Duet 11 has only 4GB of memory, we had to wait for a ChromeOS update to run the Geekbench 6 overall CPU benchmark on the Duet 11. The MediaTek Companio 838 processor in the Duet performed well on the Geekbench 6 test, with a single-core average of 1,025 and a multicore score of 2,323. Of course, the Apple iPad Air 13’s M2 processor handily outperformed the Duet 11, with a single-core average of 2,600 and a multicore score of 10,066. However, you don't need a very high Geekbench 6 score for web browsing or web applications on the Duet 11.

We also ran the older CPU benchmark Geekbench 5 on the Chromebook Duet 11, which helps for comparisons against the Asus Chromebook CM14 Flip and Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook. The Duet 11’s MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor leveraged a Geekbench 5 single-core score of 775 and a multicore average of 2,025.

The IdeaPad Duet 5 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 processor performed worse on both metrics, with a single-core score of 619 and a multicore score of 1,727. Finally, the MediaTek Kompanio 520-powered Asus Chromebook CM14 Flip fell well behind both Lenovo Chromebooks with a single-core average of 496 and a multicore score of 1,449.

We tested the default browser for all four computers on the Jetstream 2 web browser benchmark.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 scored 114.301 points using Google Chrome, which is well above the Chromebook CM14 Flip (74.499) and IdeaPad Duet 5 (70.059). The Apple iPad Air 13 outperformed all three Chromebooks and scored 337.419 points on the Safari browser.

We also put all three Chromebooks through the CrXPRT 2 general performance benchmark, which runs through various everyday tasks like applying photo effects, identifying faces, taking offline notes, calculating a stock portfolio, generating 3D shapes, and processing eight DNA sequences for open reading. The Chromebook Duet 11 scored 106 points on CrXPRT 2, well above the Chromebook CM14 Flip (75) and IdeaPad Duet 5 (55). As CrXPRT 2 is a ChromeOS application, we could not run the benchmark on the iPad Air.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Battery life

Battery life is often the biggest selling point for Chromebooks. As light, economical devices, working untethered from outlets for an entire workday or more is essential. I took the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 for a spin, using it as a companion device during my work day and as an entertainment device at home.

Despite using both cameras, streaming a movie on Netflix, surfing the web, and playing a casual game or two, I could easily get through my day without needing to find a charger for the Duet.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which sets the laptop to 150 nits and continuously surfs the web, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 lasted 9 hours and 47 minutes.

The Apple iPad Air 13 and IdeaPad Duet 5 surpassed the Duet 11 by a wide margin. However, all three of the comparison units had larger chassis and larger batteries. So the Duet 11’s 9:47 time is a bit more impressive than it seems based on the competition.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Cameras

The 5MP front-facing webcam has decent quality, and the AI-enhanced zoom gets you impressive clarity. I’ve never had a Chromebook webcam give me anxiety about the state of my pores before, but I suppose there’s a first for everything. That said, it does have some color distortion and bleed.

However, if you need to do a lot of presentations and video calls, I recommend using one of our best webcams instead for better color fidelity.

The 8MP rear-facing camera will not win any awards either, but it is far better than it really has any right to be. It struggles a bit with low-light and night photography, but it is otherwise perfect for taking a quick snap or two to add to a presentation or email.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Heat

While the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 is a tablet, we still ran it through our standard heat test of streaming a 4K YouTube video for at least 15 minutes. The hottest point on the Duet 11 was right above the pen icon on the top back of the tablet, which hit a high of 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

This is well below the Laptop Mag comfort threshold of 95 degrees, so you shouldn’t have any problems keeping a hold of the Duet 11 tablet even after sustained usage.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9: Software and warranty

Like all Chromebooks, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 is pre-loaded with Google’s ChromeOS and its standard suite of software, including Chrome, Google Gemini, the Google Play Store, and Clip Studio.

The Chromebook Duet 11 comes with a one-year Courier or Carry-in warranty. To see how Lenovo customer service scored in our annual ranking, check out our Tech Support Showdown.

Bottom line

I’m not sure I’d be able to replace my laptop with a Chromebook full-time, but as a tablet, the Chromebook Duet 11 offers incredible value. Starting at just $359 you get solid performance, good battery life, an impressive display, decent audio, and quality cameras.

With the top-spec coming in at under $400, the Chromebook Duet 11 is hard to argue against. Sure, it may have some memory bottlenecks due to only having 4GB of RAM, and the folio keyboard may feel a bit mushy, but the Duet 11 more than makes up for those faults.

After spending some time with it, Lenovo's Chromebook Duet 11 has made me a believer in the value of a good Chromebook.

Restarting your Chromebook isn't necessarily difficult, but there are plenty of reasons why you might be blocked out of one method or the other. And considering there are different ways to restart the device, ranging from shutting it down and turning it back off again to performing a full reset, you'll want to know every way you can do it.

Some of the best Chromebooks are also the best college laptops, and of course, if you're on a budget, you might be running something lower in processing power or RAM that will need occassional resets to keep it running as best as possible. 

And don't worry, Chromebook is intuitive and there are methods of restarting it without losing progress in your work and other projects. However, there are also ways to perform a hard reset that can result in lost progress in your work, but will also clear the cache and can potentially improve performance.

So without further ado, here are a few ways you can restart your Chromebook.

How to restart a Chromebook

There are several ways to restart your Chromebook, so even if you find yourself stuck with one or more methods not panning out, you can alternate between each to see what works.

1. The first method is by simply pressing and holding the Power Button for a few seconds. A screen will appear with a menu that allows you to select the Restart option. You can also select the Shut Down or Sign Out option. In the case of Shut Down, you will have to turn it back on manually.

If that doesn't work, you can alternatively hold the Power Button down for around eight seconds, and the Chromebook will shut off. From there, you can turn it back on by pressing the Power Button again.

2. If you'd prefer to do it through the Chromebook's operating system itself, you can simply select the widget that holds the time in the bottom right. From there, click the power icon (when hovering over it, it will say Shut Down) and the Chromebook will begin to turn off. You can then press the Power Button again and it will turn the laptop back on.

This is one of the best methods of shutting down the PC, as allowing the operating system to take care of this function will ensure that your work will be saved before it shuts down.

3. Chromebook also has a method of force resetting the laptop built into its keyboard. By pressing Ctrl + Shift + Q twice in quick succession, the laptop will go into a hard reset state. 

This is probably best reserved for emergencies, like if your laptop isn't responding or you cannot access certain parts of the user interface. Keep in mind that this performs a full restart of the PC, so you will lose any in-progress work.

4. Another way to force it into this hard reset state is by holding the Refresh and Power Button at the same time. Once your Chromebook starts back up, you can release the Refresh button.

More from Laptop Mag

• Best student iPads in 2024
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• Best Chromebooks of 2024

After October Prime Day Chromebook deals include discounts on various Chrome OS laptops. Chromebooks are generally budget-friendly even at regular price. However, if you're watching your spending closely, Amazon's October Prime Day deals will help ease the pinch of inflation. 

Right now, Chromebooks start from just $234 at Amazon with Lenovo IdeaPad 3i for $234. So if you want a cheaply priced laptop that doesn't skimp on performance, a Chromebook is worth considering.

Extended October Prime Day Chromebook deals are still going strong at Amazon. Check out my favorite discounts below. For more fall savings on mobile tech, gaming, and more, visit our extended October Prime Day 2024 deals list. 

Best extended October Prime Day Chromebook deals — Quick links

• Acer Chromebook 314: was $449 now $342 at Amazon
• HP Chromebook Plus x360 14: was $559 now $423 at Amazon
• Lenovo IdeaPad 3i Chromebook: was $289 now $234 at Amazon
• Acer Chromebook Plus 514: was $399 now $361 at Amazon
• Acer Chromebook 516 GE: was $599 now $562 at Amazon

Best extended October Prime Day Chromebook deals 

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Amazon Prime Day is upon us, and there are some fantastic deals to be had, but forget about Jeff Bezos's house of commerce for a second — we've found some amazing deals on Chromebooks at Best Buy. 

The star of the show here is undoubtedly the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 for $429 — that's the cheapest we've ever seen it. In our Acer Chromebook Spin 714 review, we gave this fantastic laptop a 4.5 out of five-star rating, and one of our coveted Editor's Choice awards to boot. Why? Because it offers almost 13 hours of battery life, a sleek design, a solid keyboard, and a 1440p webcam. We thought that was tremendous value at $699, and now you can save $270 on one of the best Chromebooks out there.

If you're looking for something even more budget-friendly, then $150 off this pair of Lenovo Chromebooks should pique your interest. First, we have the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 for $229. This nifty little 11-inch Chromebook is ideal for people on the go, and you can even detach the keyboard to use it as a tablet. But ff you'd prefer a larger screen at a similar price point, the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i is down to just $279. For $50 more than the Duet 3, you get a bump up to a 15-inch display and double the RAM. Both are great options, it just depends on your needs.

Need something with a little more grunt? We've got you covered with $100 off the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE, currently down to just $549 at Best Buy. Powerful and Chromebook don't often go together, but thanks to the Intel i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD, this Acer offers excellent performance, especially at this price.

Rounding out this barrage of deals is perhaps the most intriguing proposition of them all though — ASUS Chromebook CM14 for just $149. A functioning computer for under $150, what a world we live in. It's not going to win many power battles, but you're getting a competent machine for browsing and streaming, with excellent battery life to boot. We're predicting this one will fly off the shelves.

Amazon's biggest sale event of the year, Prime Day, is on right now and we've been rounding up the best Prime Day Chromebook deals. If you didn't find what you're looking for here, head to our main Amazon Prime Day deals roundup for discounts on laptops and more. 

Best Prime Day Chromebook deals — Quick links

• Browse: Prime Day Chromebook deals
• Shop: Amazon's entire Prime Day sale
• Best Buy: Chromebook deals from $139
• Target: Chromebook deals from $169
• Walmart: Chromebook deals from $179

5 Chromebook deals in Best Buy's anti-Prime Day sale

If you've ever wished for a new key on your laptop that can offer assistance in writing emails, suggest attachments, or show your recent browser history to easily add links and provide options for emojis and GIFs, Google's Quick Insert key is the answer to your prayers.

Earlier this week, Google announced two new Chromebooks and a suite of AI features including the Quick Insert key coming to Chromebook Plus laptops. Quick Insert gives users easy access to Google Drive integrations, Google's Help Me Write AI assistance, recently opened browser links, tactical calculation and conversion tools, plus an emoji and GIF library. It is built into Chromebook Plus at the operating system level, so it works across all your apps.

While the physical Quick Insert key only exists on the new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, all Chromebook Plus users can access the same functionality with a keyboard shortcut.

How to use Quick Insert

Chromebook Plus owners who have a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus laptop can just use the Quick Insert key on their keyboards. The Quick Insert key has replaced the launcher key on the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. This keyboard change will become standard on future Chromebook Plus laptops.

For now, all other Chromebook Plus users can use the Launcher Key + F shortcut to open the Quick Insert menu.

Once you've pulled up the Quick Insert menu, select which Quick Insert feature you'd like to use.

Help Me Write is powered by Google's Gemini AI models to assist in creating new text, editing existing text, or helping change the tone.

The browsing history will bring up your recently opened websites to add links without copying and pasting between windows, saving you a bit of application juggling.

Google Drive integrated search to attach files, photos, or videos from your Google Drive without needing to leave your current work.

Emoji keyboard and GIF search to add to any text field across all of your apps.

Calculation, conversion, and date tools to drop specific dates or convert units without opening a browser window.

In the future, the Quick Insert menu will also offer Google Gemini AI features like image generation in addition to its current offering list.

Will the Quick Insert key can change how we use Chromebooks?

A ChromeOS feature rarely makes me want to drop my MacBook or Windows work laptop in favor of a Chromebook. While Quick Insert may sound like just a beefed up right-click menu or the sort of thing text editing or AI apps already offer. But, Quick Insert is built into ChromeOS for Chromebook Plus, which means it works on anything you do on your Chromebook. That's a level of AI integration you just don't get with Windows 11 or macOS.

Perhaps it's the specifics of my very niche job, writing articles about laptops and hardware for Laptop Mag, but, the ability to quickly drop links and attachments without needing to browse my Google Drive or hard drive, or open up multiple browser tabs and flip between them sounds like an absolute timesaver.

Of course, quickly being able to drop links, attachments, reaction emojis or GIFs can help a ton of people regardless of what they use their Chromebook for. Students often need to email attachments. So do teachers, writers, artists, and financiers.

I'm not saying the Quick Insert key is a groundbreaking change in how we use Chromebooks, but it is an incredibly handy utility. And I wish I had something similar on non-Chrome machines.

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Google has two new Chromebooks coming and they're leaning heavily into AI.

At a press event in New York last week, Google showcased the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus and the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 refresh. Both of those devices, announced on Tuesday, are coming with a new array of AI features native to ChromeOS. That includes Quick Insert, a feature that offers one-button AI integration, and Welcome Recap a feature that quickly gets you caught up from when you last used your laptop.

To support all of the new AI features, Google is bringing the Google One AI Premium subscription plan to Chromebooks rather than just Chromebook Plus models. You get three months of free Google One AI Premium for purchasing a Chromebook and one year of free Google One AI Premium for buying a Chromebook Plus. Google One AI Premium lets you use Gemini integration features in Google apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Gmail.

Here's everything you need to know about Google's new AI-centric Chromebooks.

More Google AI in Chromebook Plus

One of the biggest changes you can expect is (drum roll) a new key: on the new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, Google changed the keyboard. The old launcher button is being moved near the space bar, while the Quick Insert button is taking its place near the Shift key.

The Quick Insert key is a multipurpose key that brings up a dropdown menu allowing you to access several AI features, add reaction emojis or GIFs, access a list of your recently opened browser tabs to add links without needing to copy and paste between windows, tools to make simple calculations, and a Google Drive integration to quickly attach files, photos or videos from your Google Drive without needing to exit your current workflow.

Right now the Quick Insert key will only be available on the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, but all Chromebook Plus users can use the Quick Insert feature by using the Launcher Key + F keyboard shortcut. 

Because it allows for a more seamless workflow, the Quick Insert feature has me rethinking my stance on Chromebooks. I've not been a huge fan, as I often rely on software that need a macOS or Windows x86 operating system, but the switch to ChromeOS has never felt more tempting.

Google is also adding other AI features to Chromebook Plus laptops like Help Me Read to summarize PDFs and articles with a right click, Live Translate built into the Operating System so it functions across all apps and windows, an updated Recorder app that offers AI transcriptions, and new video call features like studio-style mic and appearance enhancements to get rid of under-eye bags for your morning Zoom calls.

Long story short: This is a pretty significant update to the AI offerings launched on Chromebook Plus earlier this year.

Google AI is coming to All Chromebooks

Google also put some of the most highly requested AI features on all Chromebooks.

All Chromebook owners are able to chat with Gemini with a simple shortcut pinned to the shelf on all Chromebooks, so they can start using Gemini to help plan trips, generate images, or initiate a search.

Welcome Recap now pops up when the Chromebook is first woken from sleep or powered on. For the uninitiated, Welcome Recap gives an overview of where you left off during your last session, including calendar reminders, quick access to recently opened files, or hand-off suggestions from your Android or iOS phone.

All Chromebooks also get access to the Focus feature, so you can set tasks and dedicate focus time to get it done. Chromebook owners can now set a soundscape or YouTube Music playlist, with an automatic "Do Not Disturb" feature.

Lastly, all Chromebook users are able to pin important files to the home screen for easier access.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus

Samsung has joined the Chromebook Plus lineup with an ultra-portable, thin and light laptop. The sleek Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus comes in a Neptune blue color, weighs just 2.58 pounds, and is less than half an inch thick. This makes it Google's thinnest and lightest Chromebook Plus laptop yet.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is powered by an Intel Core i3-100U (Raptor Lake Refresh) processor with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 15.6-inch OLED screen. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus's keyboard features the first iteration of the new Quick Insert ChromeOS key.

Google and Samsung claim 13 hours of battery life for this laptop, which is not insignificant considering its ultra-thin design and OLED display panel.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus will be available starting this month.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 refresh

Lenovo has refreshed the compact and durable Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 with a MediaTek Kompanio 838 Processor with up to 8GB of RAM, up to 128GB of storage, and an 11-inch LCD display.

The Chromebook Duet features an 8MP back-facing camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. The Chromebook has AI Super Resolution on the front and rear-facing cameras for added picture quality. The tablet is packaged with a keyboard and kickstand case, though the Lenovo USI Pen 2 is sold separately.

Google has also optimized the Goodnotes application for touchscreen Chromebooks that are stylus-compatible, for enhanced note-taking and journaling. All applicable Chromebooks will receive three complimentary months of Goodnotes later this month.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 starts at just $339.99, and is expected to go on sale on October 13, 2024.

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The season's best back-to-school Chromebook deals slash hundreds off today's top-rated Chromebooks. For students, parents, and teachers back-to-school shopping for an affordable laptop, a Chromebook is a budget-friendly Mac and Windows laptop alternative. 

Currently, Best Buy has the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 on sale for $299 ($100 off). For just under $300, you're getting a solid laptop for homework, writing term papers, casual gaming, and streaming videos. If you don't want to spend a fortune on a new computer, this is one of the best back-to-school laptop deals you can get. 

In our Acer Chromebook 515 Plus review, we gave it 4 out of 5 stars for outstanding performance, sturdy design, and comfy keyboard. If you want a budget-friendly laptop for school, the AI-driven Acer Chrome Plus 515 is a wise choice. 

And that's just one of the best back-to-school deals on Chromebooks worth your while. See my 5 recommended discounts below. 

5 best back-to-school Chromebook deals

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The best Chromebook deals in June continue to offer solid discounts on today's best ChromeOS laptops. Whether you need a computer for yourself, surprising a grad, or gifting dad, it's a great time to save on a Chromebook.

I'm sharing today's best discounts on Chromebooks made by Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung in partnership with Google. For example, the newly released $649 Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 might be the Pixelbook Go successor I've been waiting for. It has the same premium build, top-firing dual speakers, and ribbed base as my beloved Pixelbook Go.

With a starting weight of just 2.6 pounds, a MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 chip inside, and up to 17 hours of battery life (rated), the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 is thoughtfully engineered to be portable, powerful, and reliable.

Generally speaking, Chromebooks are fast-booting, battery-efficient, and easy to use. Chromebooks also support native Linux and Android apps, which is ideal for programmers and developers.

More importantly, Chromebooks are secure, less prone to viruses, and offer smooth, unproblematic system updates. You will never have to worry about seeing that dreaded Blue Screen of Death.

Many of today's Chrome OS laptops, like the Intel Core i5-charged Acer Chromebook 516 GE and Intel Ultra 5-charged Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714, are as powerful as their counterparts. These premium Chromebooks are adequate for day-to-day tasks, video editing with Adobe Photoshop, and cloud gaming.

So if you're looking for a Mac and Windows laptop alternative, plenty of Chromebook deals are up for grabs.

From budget Chromebooks to powerful ChromeOS laptops for cloud gamers, students, and business pros, here are today's best Chromebook deals:

Best Chromebook deals right now — Quick links

• Acer Chromebook 311: was $229 now $129 at Best Buy
• HP Chromebook x360: was $429 now $279 at Walmart
• Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook: was $499 now $299 at Best Buy
• Asus Chromebook Flip CX5: was $599 now $349 at Best Buy
• Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714: was $699 now $579 at Best Buy
• New Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14: $649 at Lenovo
• Amazon: Chromebook deals from $179 at Amazon
• Best Buy: Chromebook deals from $129 at Best Buy
• Walmart: Chromebook deals from $279 at Walmart

Best Chromebook deals right now

Best Buy kicks off back-to-school month with a massive sale on Chromebooks. If you're looking for an affordable 2-in-1 laptop for your productivity needs, here's a deal you might like. 

Currently, Best Buy has the HP Chromebook x360 14 on sale for $469. It usually retails for $699, so that's $230 in savings. If you're looking for a sub-$500 laptop, this is one of the best Chromebook deals within your budget. 

While we didn't get a chance to test this model, the HP Chromebook x360 (14c-cd0053dx), its rating averages 4.7 out of 5 stars at Best Buy. Besides its convertible design, satisfied customers praise its bright touchscreen, backlit keyboard, and fast performance. Others praise its ample ports, solid build quality, and long battery life.

Best Buy didn't put an expiration date on this deal; however, if this 2-in-1 Chromebook ticks all the boxes for you, I recommend you act now as the back-to-school buying season is in full swing. 

Today's best HP Chromebook 2-in-1 deal

Amazon's Prime Day Chromebook deals offer the lowest prices ever on top-rated Chrome OS laptops. This is your friendly reminder that this is the last day of Amazon's Prime Day so you'll want to make haste.

If you don't want to spend a fortune on a new personal computer, there are plenty of budget-friendly Prime Day Chromebook deals under $400 to score. Whether you're picking up an affordable laptop for work or back-to-school season, you don't want to miss today's Chromebook deals. And not just at Amazon, Best Buy, and HP offer some great Chromebook deals during Prime Day. 

You still have plenty of time to find the perfect Chromebook for your use case and budget. See our hand-selected discounts below. For more summer savings on mobile tech, gaming, and more, visit our Prime Day 2024 deals list. 

Amazon's Prime Day ends July 17 at 11:59 p.m. PT/2:59 a.m. ET which is technically tomorrow for the east coast.

Lowest Prime Day Chromebook deals

Google has a plan to ensure that Chromebooks can keep up with the blistering pace of Google AI updates and it involves turning to the Android tech stack.

According to a Chromium Blog post published on Wednesday, Google will "be embracing portions of the Android stack, like the Android Linux kernel and Android frameworks, as part of the foundation of ChromeOS."

For reference, a tech stack is defined as "the set of technologies used to develop an application, including programming languages, frameworks, databases, front-end and back-end tools, and APIs" by Heap.

Google plans to bring these Android-based components to ChromeOS as part of an effort to "continue rolling out new Google AI features to users at a faster and even larger scale."

More specifically, incorporating the Android tech stack into ChromeOS will enable Google to "accelerate the pace of AI innovation at the core of ChromeOS, simplify engineering efforts, and help different devices like phone and accessories work better together with Chromebooks."

Let's take a closer look at what's in the Android stack, as well as the pieces ChromeOS will be incorporating sometime in the "future." 

What parts of Android are coming to ChromeOS?

According to the Android Developers website, "Android is an open source, Linux-based software stack" comprised of System Apps, the Java API Framework, Native C/C++ Libraries, Android Runtime, a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), and the Linux Kernel.

If ChromeOS is gaining the Linux Kernel and Android frameworks from the Android stack, what does that mean for your Chromebook?

Well, the Linux Kernel is known as "the foundation of the Android platform," essentially responsible for all basic functions. On an Android smartphone, it's in charge of power management and houses drivers for your audio, display, keypad, Bluetooth, camera, shared memory, and Wi-Fi.

This will likely replace the foundation of ChromeOS, allowing for generative AI features that are already available on Android, like AI-generated wallpapers and Magic Editor in Google Photos.

Furthermore, "the entire feature-set of the Android OS is available to you through APIs written in the Java language." Put simply, the Java API framework provides the building blocks needed for developers to create Android apps that mesh well with the OS.

Android apps are already available on ChromeOS, but incorporating this framework will make them work seamlessly. 

By bringing the base components of Android OS into ChromeOS, Google will be able to roll out AI-related updates more easily and frequently for Chromebooks, ensuring they don't get left behind while Android phones start debuting cool AI-powered features.

Unfortunately, there's no timeframe for this major change. According to the Chromium Blog post, "These improvements in the tech stack are starting now but won't be ready for consumers for quite some time."

When it's time to roll out the new ChromeOS with integrated Android stacks, it'll be a "seamless transition to the updated experience." 

To close out the post, Senior Director of ChromeOS Engineering Prajakta Gudadhe and Senior Director of ChromeOS Product Management Alexander Kuscher write, "We've never been more excited about the future of ChromeOS."

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The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is among the first in a new line of Chromebooks with AI baked into the hardware — no cloud required. And much unlike other recent efforts to weave AI into my everyday life, the Spin 714’s on-device AI features were incredibly helpful in my hands-on testing. 

This new Chromebook is the latest example of an emerging trend I’ve noticed over the past several months: The best AI is the one you hardly notice. 

This year has seen an explosion in AI projects from tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Apple. Each has a different approach to AI, but all too often, these projects overpromise and underdeliver. In contrast, the subtle on-device AI features on the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 are so effective that it’s easy to forget you’re using AI. 

What makes on-device AI on the Spin 714 unique? Is it enough to justify picking up one of the new Chromebook Plus laptops? Here’s a look at what these laptops get right with AI. 

Practical and straightforward: The secret recipe for on-device AI 

Right now, it seems like every tech company is trying to add AI features to their products however they can, with varying degrees of success. The most infamous recent example is Google’s AI Overviews feature, marketed as the next generation of Google Search. However, users rapidly began spotting strange and dangerous suggestions in the AI Overview results when the feature launched, ranging from eating glue to jumping off bridges. 

Google attempted to reinvent Search using AI, only to learn the hard way that AI often doesn’t perform as expected on such a large scale. That’s part of why the AI features on the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 are so impressive – they’re simple. They don’t overhaul the Chromebook experience, but they do work. They follow the adage of “K.I.S.S.”: keep it simple, stupid. 

The AI features baked into the Spin 714 and the other laptops in the Chromebook Plus line-up are mainly small-scale utilities like live captions, local image search, webcam effects, and Google’s Magic Editor. They don’t require much processing power, so they can run entirely on-device rather than through the cloud. They’re also practical. There are tangible everyday uses for these features, and they succeed at what they claim to do.

For example, I turned on the live captions feature whenever I watched a video on Spin 714. Today, more and more people use subtitles or captions for the content they watch and listen to, partly because actors seem to be mumbling more often and because text helps keep people engaged.

The live captions feature allows me to turn on captions for anything and everything, regardless of whether the content’s creator added subtitles. That includes content where captions are usually impossible, such as video calls. While there is a bit of lag, the live captions feature on the Spin 714 works for video calls in real-time. It’s convenient, but it also improves accessibility by making video calls more inclusive to those with hearing challenges.

The live captions feature perfectly exemplifies AI that balances simplicity and practicality. It has a clear, legitimate use for AI that’s easy to turn on or off as needed and does what it promises to do. As a result, I used it daily, unlike the AI Overview feature on Google Search, which many people are now turning off.

The critical role of privacy in on-device AI 

The new Chromebook Plus laptops' small-scale, on-device AI features also address a growing concern about AI tools: privacy. 

At its annual Microsoft Build developer conference this month, Microsoft announced a suite of its on-device AI features, including one known as “Recall.” This feature allows the Copilot AI to “recall” anything you’ve done on your device, from websites you looked at recently to documents and apps you’ve used. The Copilot AI can use that information to find things for you, like a Google Search, but it uses all your activity on your laptop. 

The feature quickly raised privacy concerns. Naturally, many users were unsettled about AI monitoring everything they do on their laptops. What would Copilot do with all that data? What would happen to it if your laptop was hacked? How can you be sure Copilot isn’t monitoring your activity? 

These questions tie into concerns about the transparency and access of large-scale AI tools. The Recall feature didn’t connect with users because the drawback of severe privacy concerns outweighed the potential convenience of searching your device using Copilot. 

In contrast, the AI features on the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 are simple enough to raise minimal privacy concerns. They run entirely on-device and have limited access to users’ content and activity. Plus, they’re easy to turn off. Since these features are uncomplicated and have narrow access by default, they’re much less intimidating than Recall. As a result, people are more likely to make use of the AI features on the new Chromebook Plus laptops than the more “advanced” AI tools on Copilot+ PCs.  

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 nails the on-device AI experience 

The goal of any AI features in consumer tech should be to enhance the user experience without compromising functionality or privacy. While many other AI projects seem caught up in making the next groundbreaking advancement, the on-device AI features on the new Chromebook Plus laptops are refreshingly simple. 

They offer clear, practical uses and succeed at what they claim to do. They’re narrow enough to minimize privacy concerns since they don’t rely on sending data to the cloud. They’re also easy to turn off and don’t detract from the user experience, regardless of your use. 

This is what on-device AI should look like. Large-scale features like Windows Recall have minimal benefits and significant privacy risks — ambitious AI projects like Google’s AI Overview over-promise and under-deliver. The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is the perfect case for why those big, ambitious applications for AI aren’t always the best solution. Everyday users need practical, small-scale AI tools that enhance the user experience without overcomplicating it. 

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Check the storage before you buy a Chromebook. If you don’t, you might regret it. No, I’m not talking about whether it has at least 128GB, we need to dig a little deeper than that.

A wave of new Chromebooks are hitting the shelves this year and they’re packed with new storage components that you’ll want to get your hands on. Even a mostly web-based operating system like ChromeOS benefits from better storage performance.

I reviewed the HP Chromebook 14a and, while I’m not an avid Chromebook fan, I appreciated that HP outfitted it with UFS storage instead of eMMC. UFS storage in Chromebooks is not new, but there are plenty of eMMC Chromebooks still available. But what’s the difference? Well, on the most basic level, UFS is faster.

Even some of the best Chromebooks are outfitted with older eMMC storage. But it’s time to avoid laptops with this type of storage. Here’s how big the gap is between UFS and eMMC.

UFS vs. eMMC: What’s the difference?

There’s a critical speed difference between UFS and eMMC, so let’s talk about it.

eMMC 5.1 clocks in at 330 megabytes per second and 200 MBps for sequential read and write speeds, respectively. Meanwhile, the most recent UFS 4.0 scores a whopping 4,200 MBps and 2,800 MBps read and write speeds. Even the older UFS 3.1 comes in at 2,100 MBps and 1,750 MBps read and write speeds.

Keep in mind that the speeds listed above are estimates published by Samsung for its storage devices, so speeds may vary per device. Unfortunately, it's also often unclear which versions are outfitted in Chromebooks. It’s not exactly a spec listed on most sites.

However‌, that shouldn’t matter. The gap between eMMC and UFS is so large that even the best eMMC drive should still fall considerably short of the worst UFS drive. Lucky for you, it’s pretty easy to spot whether a Chromebook sports eMMC or UFS storage.

Laptop listings aren’t exactly subtle with their naming conventions, as most of the specs just show up. For example, the HP 15.6 Chromebook at Best Buy features “64GB eMMC” right in the title. However, not all sites are as obvious. If you’re purchasing the new HP Chromebook 14a at HP, you’ll have to look under the title to find “128GB UFS storage.”

If you can’t find the spec anywhere on the landing page, find a “See all specs” or “Tech specs” button. That should get you to where you need to go.

Chromebooks that support UFS and eMMC storage usually land under $500. More expensive Chromebooks find themselves outfitted with full-blown SSDs.

Now it’s important to clarify that technically SSDs use flash memory just like UFS, and the speed tests are even comparable, as outlined by Principled Technologies. So pining for an SSD in a Chromebook may not be necessary. The benefit of SSD in laptops, however, is the larger storage capacities. While UFS is technically capable of up to 16TB of storage, most laptops will only go up to 256GB of UFS storage.

Outlook

Don’t overthink it. Just buy a Chromebook with UFS storage. Avoid eMMC — it’s slow and old, kind of like my knees. Since ChromeOS encourages most operations on the web, storage isn’t the first thing you think of, however, the type of storage will severely impact the boot times of the laptop, apps, and ultimately general performance.

Most Chromebooks are underpowered compared to their Windows counterparts, so if you want to get the most out of your laptop, you need to futureproof it with better components. Like UFS storage.

The affordability of Chromebooks is part of their appeal, so if the price difference between Chromebooks with eMMC versus UFS is breaking your budget, check out our best Chromebook deals page to find something efficient and economical.  

If you recently purchased a Chromebook (or have had one for years) and you don't know about Chromebook perks, you're missing out.

Google offers special perks to every Chromebook device, from free subscriptions and permanent game copies to significant discounts on popular apps and services. Plus, the company regularly slots in new perks, so if no perks look interesting to you right now, check back in a few months!

Some perks are reserved for new Chromebook users or Chromebook Plus devices only, but most perks are available to every Chromebook user. Regardless of your Chromebook type, here's how to redeem your perks.

How to redeem your free Chromebook perks

To redeem most Chromebook perks, you can follow these simple steps:

1. Head to the Chromebook perks page in your browser. 

2. Click the Get perk button next to the offer you want to redeem. If you're not on a Chromebook, a message pops up that reads: Not so fast; this perk is only for Chromebooks.

3. Read the terms and conditions for the Chromebook perk you're redeeming, and click Continue.

4. Click Allow when prompted with a message to check your device's eligibility for the perk. 

5. Follow the rest of the on-screen instructions to redeem the perk. Some perks will have a code to copy and paste into another site, while others will let you join or subscribe directly from the Chromebook perks page.

What free perks are available on your Chromebook?

There's no set schedule for Google to rotate or update available Chromebook perks, but they do change.

Right now, these are the redeemable Chromebook perks: 

• Google One Storage: New Google One members can get 12 months of Google One for free via their Chromebook, a $23.88 value. 
• YouTube Premium: Google is offering new users three months of YouTube Premium for free, a $41.97 value.
• Boosteroid: Chromebook users can get one month free of Boosteroid (regularly $9.99/month), a cloud gaming service.
• LumaFusion: Pro Video Editing: This isn't a free perk but a 25 percent discount for the LumaFusion app, a $7.49 value.
• Adobe Photoshop: This perk is for three months free of Adobe Express Premium ($29.97), available only for Chromebook Plus devices until December 31, 2024.
• AI Premium Plan: For new Chromebook Plus devices, users can unlock one year of Gemini Advanced for free, a $239.88 value. 

In the past, Google has offered some pretty sweet Chromebook perks, including free games like Stardew Valley, Fallout Shelter, Doom, and Doom II. If you own a Chromebook, it's worth checking the page consistently or monitoring the r/chromeos community for the best perks.

If you're redeeming any subscription-based perks, mark the date you need to cancel if you don't want your card to be charged automatically. 

A resurgence of Chromebooks has arrived, and I’m here to tell you where the HP Chromebook Plus 14a fits in Google’s enlightened AI era. Like most things concerning AI, it’s complicated.

For $449, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a lets you work on a comfortable keyboard packed into a sturdy design that’s cooler than most when put under pressure. However, its Intel Core i3-n305 processor can’t keep up with the competition, and as with most laptops at this price most, the 14-inch display isn’t anything to gawk at. And the gray area it really finds itself in is battery life — landing between a full workday’s worth of energy and long-lasting competitors.

The HP Chromebook Plus 14a is a solid laptop, and it’s totally worth getting if you want a comfortable browsing experience, but it doesn’t quite cut it for our best Chromebooks page. Let me tell you why.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Specs

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Price and configurations

There’s only one configuration of the HP Chromebook Plus 14a. It costs $449 and is outfitted with an Intel Core i3-n305 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of UHS storage (better than eMMC), and a 14-inch 1920 x 1080 display.

If you’re looking for a laptop with a little more power behind it, we recommend checking out our best laptops under $1,000.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Design

The HP Chromebook Plus 14a is just thick and heavy enough to feel like it could take a few tumbles in a school bag. The gray exterior, accompanied by the glossy HP logo and a Chromebook Plus logo in the top left is inoffensive but boring. I didn’t expect anything spectacular at this price, maybe a little more color?

Popping open the lid revealed more of the same — a gray deck with a compact keyboard walled in by a pair of vents. The bezels on the display are relatively thin, and it’s nice to see the webcam on top sporting a privacy shutter.

At 3.2 pounds and 12.8 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a is among the lightest of its competitors. The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (3.7 pounds, 14.2 x 9.39 x 0.79 inches) and Asus Chromebook CM14 Flip (3.44 pounds, 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.7 inches) had a little more heft to them. Meanwhile, its 2-in-1 sibling, the HP Chromebook Plus x360, is just barely lighter, at 3.1 pounds, 12.72 x 8.28 x 0.81 inches.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Ports

There aren’t many ports on the HP Chromebook Plus 14a—some notable absences are an HDMI port and a microSD card slot.

On the left, you’ll find a headphone jack and a USB Type-C port, while the right holds room for a USB Type-A port and another USB Type-C port.

Need more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Display

You should always temper your expectations when shooting for a budget laptop, especially with its display. The HP Chromebook Plus 14a’s 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 display is a little dimmer and duller than average, but I won’t hold it against it.

I watched the Borderlands trailer and the background of Cate Blanchett’s ship looked like the crew didn’t pay the electricity bill. However, while dull, Blanchett’s red shirt and hair presented cooler tones and didn’t look artificially saturated. The stitching in her vest also looked sharp.

According to our colorimeter, HP Chromebook Plus 14a covered 41.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is a bit duller than the average Chromebook (49.7%). It’s slightly more colorful than the CM14 Flip (40.7%) but is bested by the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (43.4%) and HP Chromebook Plus x360 (45.5%).

At 289 nits of brightness, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a wasn’t as bright as the average Chromebook (304 nits). However, its display is brighter than the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (271 nits), CM14 Flip (262 nits), and HP Chromebook Plus x360 (236 nits).

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Keyboard and touchpad

I click-clacked away on the HP Chromebook Plus 14a’s keyboard and found it to be surprisingly comfortable. I love that I can feel the font under my fingertips, which makes it easier to find my way around the keyboard.

I typed 80 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is slightly below my usual 81-wpm average. It took a little bit to get used to, as the keys are smaller than what I’m used to. Some people might not like the smaller shift and backspace keys.

The 4.7 x 2.6-inch touchpad offers a thick click without depressing the chassis too far, and the texture is softer than I expected for a budget laptop.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Audio

It's nice to see top-firing speakers on a budget laptop, but the HP Chromebook Plus 14a still sounded a little congested.

I listened to Hozier's "Too Sweet," and the bass guitar sounded like it was attempting to sneeze — seriously, though, the speakers reproduced muted lows. Crisp and clear vocals carried the track, but it didn’t sound full. The percussion fell to the background as well.

Unfortunately, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a isn’t outfitted with a built-in audio program, so you’ll have to search the Google Play Store for a program to adjust the EQ settings.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Performance

Like the recently reviewed HP Chromebook Plus x360, the Plus 14a has an Intel Core i3-n305 processor. With just 8GB of RAM, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a isn’t running a computing marathon anytime soon. Still, it’s powerful enough to juggle a couple dozen Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos with little slowdown.

On the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a scored 4,087, which is weaker than the average Chromebook (5,215). It falls short of the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (5,052; Intel Core i3-1215U) and the HP Chromebook Plus x360 (4,188; Intel Core i3-n305). Meanwhile, the CM14 Flip’s MediaTek Kompanio 520 CPU scored a measly 1,449 on the Geekbench 5 test.

The HP Chromebook Plus 14a scored 196.82 on the JetStream 2.0 benchmark, which measures how fast large web pages load. It dropped just short of the 211.33 category average. It beat the CM14 Flip (74.5) and is comparable to the HP Chromebook Plus x360 (198.2). However, it was outpaced by the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (275.37).

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Battery life

Battery life is a bit of a gray area for the HP Chromebook Plus 14a. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. On the Laptop Mag battery test, the Chromebook lasted for 8 hours and 50 minutes. It’ll get you through a work or school day, but it’s not quite as long-lasting as the average Chromebook (9:33). While it did outpace its 2-in-1 sibling (7:25) and the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (8:21), the Asus Chromebook CM14 Flip (10:14) survived over an hour longer.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Webcam

HP shoves the weirdest webcam I’ve ever seen in the Chromebook Plus 14a. It's a 1280 x 960 webcam that shoots in a 4:3 aspect ratio — an uncommon resolution paired with an equally uncommon aspect ratio (for laptop webcams). But it is nice to see a privacy shutter.

In the test shot, my hair and face looked fuzzy. The colorful My Hero Academia poster behind me looked drab and muted. The poor contrast washed out the window behind me (with the blinds down). I highly recommend checking out our best webcams (if you feel you need to look your best in a video call).

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Heat

My body temperature is hotter than the HP Chromebook Plus 14a. After streaming a 15-minute video, the underside clocked in at 77.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which is impressively below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 82 and 76.5 degrees, respectively. And the hottest it got was 89 degrees, located between the rubber feet and where the vents start.

HP Chromebook Plus 14a: Software and warranty

The HP Chromebook Plus 14a operates on ChromeOS, a stripped-down operating system free of all the bloatware that comes with something like Windows 11. What’s new to Chromebooks is Gemini.

Gemini is an AI assistant that can help you procure knowledge, juggle tasks, and write better. It’s a bit of a controversial technology at the moment, as we’ve written about in stories such as: What Google failed to learn from Microsoft's most offensive AI chatbot or I used Google Gemini in Gmail and it's not the AI revolution I hoped for ... yet.

With the recent Chromebook updates, you can use Google’s video tool Magic Editor, design unique backgrounds, use the new Game dashboard to add keyboard input to games, access your calendar from the Chromebook shelf, create and send a GIF screen recording, and personalize keyboard and mouse buttons.

The Chromebook Plus 14a comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how HP performed on our Tech Support Showdown ranking.

Bottom line

At $449, I expect to make a few sacrifices, but the HP Chromebook Plus 14a rides the line on important sections like performance and battery life. At the very least, a budget laptop should offer enough performance to match its competitors and enough battery life to keep up with the rest. It’s hard not to recommend something else if you can't do that.

If you’re already going to sacrifice some battery life, you might as well go with the Acer Chromebook Plus 515. It offers better performance and a larger display for a better price.

Otherwise, if you’re looking for something compact, sturdy, and easy to use, the HP Chromebook Plus 14a is a solid choice.

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 adds baked-in AI features to one of our favorite Chromebooks, offering new ways to enhance your productivity and creativity in ChromeOS. It’s one of the first in a new line of Chromebook Plus laptops, which feature built-in AI enhancements and include a one-year free trial of Gemini Advanced.

Like many of the best Chromebooks, Acer designed the Spin 714 to appeal to many users. Starting at $749, the new Spin 714 easily handles tasks like web browsing, word processing, video calls, and casual gaming. It’s a 2-in-1, so you can freely swap between laptop and tablet mode for added versatility.

If you have your eye on a new Chromebook, this one is worth considering. Here's a look at my experience with the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 and a few things you should know before buying one.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (2024): Specs (as reviewed)

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (2024): Price and configurations

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 starts at $749.99. I reviewed that base model, which includes an Intel Core Ultra 5 115U processor, integrated Intel Graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

There is also an enterprise version of the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 designed for schools and businesses that offers more powerful specs. These include up to 512GB of storage, up to 16GB of RAM, and a Titan C2 security chip.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (2024): Design