The Chromebook, an idea cooked up by Google, used to be a strange type of computer. Only capable of running a web browser, it felt like something far too limited to be of much use. How wrong that feeling was.
Today, the Chromebook has blossomed into the perfect cheap, general use laptop for anyone who wants to visit websites, chat, make video calls, stream movies, play a few games and look at their photo collections. The reasons for this are twofold.
One is the rise of the web app, which puts a fully functional application like Zoom or Google Docs inside a web page, and the other is the newfound ability of Chromebooks to run Android apps. They’re still not going to work for things like video editing or playing the latest PC games, but anyone who wants a reasonably priced, versatile laptop will find a lot to like in a Chromebook.
As they’re still designed for use with web apps and Cloud storage, particularly Google Drive, Chromebooks tend not to have a great deal of on-board storage, and their processor and RAM specs tend to be low, both as ChromeOS is a lightweight operating system based on the Chrome web browser, and to keep the price down.
To this end, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth come as standard, as do USB ports (both Type-A and Type-C, the latter often used for charging and video output, while Micro SD card readers are common. Screens, too, sit towards the lower-resolution end of the spectrum, but you can still get a great computing experience out of one, and your wallet will thank you.
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Asus Chromebook Flip CX5
Best for: just about everyone
The Chromebook Flip is a firm candidate for the top spot on this list, as it does everything you’d want from a Chromebook, and looks good while doing it. The price may be a bit high - and gets higher if you decide to upgrade the processor to an i5 or i7, or the internal storage to 256 or 512GB - but the fact you get a 1080p 15.6in touchscreen, 8GB of RAM and a nice keyboard make it extremely attractive. The base Intel i3/128GB configuration should be perfectly fine for most users.
You can use the Flip in a standard laptop mode for productivity tasks, but when you feel it’s time to relax you can fold the hinge all the way around so it stands up on its tiptoes, or even fully flat like a tablet. These modes make it ideal for watching movies or playing Android games, while for more creative pursuits, such as viewing the photos from your digital camera, there are three USB ports for peripherals such as flash drives or your camera, and an HDMI port you can use to hook the Chromebook up to an external monitor, plus a Micro SD card slot to enhance the storage capacity.
Buy now £649.00, Amazon
Acer 314 14" Chromebook
Best for: extreme budget computing
Acer’s line of Chromebooks has always been a popular one, with its use of lower-powered processors such as Intel’s Celeron range leading to lower prices but, thanks to Chrome OS’s low hunger for resources, little drop in capability. This one is a bit different, as there’s a MediaTek MT8183C processor - an Arm-based chip like the ones used in Android tablets - at the heart of it, backed up by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The 14in screen has a 1080p resolution, which means you’ll get a sharp picture when streaming, but it isn’t touch sensitive.
These low specs don’t really matter, because Chromebooks are meant to be cheap and low-spec, and Chrome OS thrives with modest resources at its disposal. The MediaTek MT8183 first appeared in early 2021, has eight cores and a GPU, and is a budget processor, but draws very little power, meaning it won’t hit your battery life nearly as hard as something more hungry for electricity like an Intel processor. There’s also a version of this Chromebook with an Intel Celeron processor, but it’s more expensive.
Elsewhere, you get four USB ports, including one that can hook up to an external monitor, and a Micro SD card slot, making this an excellent budget choice.
Buy now £199.00, Currys
HP 11a-na0000sa 11.6" Chromebook
Best for: carrying in your pocket
An 11-inch laptop is about as small as it’s possible to go without creating something totally unusable or having to type with your thumbs. It may be smaller than an iPad Pro, but packs a full keyboard and trackpad. You could fit it in a large coat pocket, as long as you’re sure it won’t fall out.
As an Arm-powered device you can expect the battery life to be good - HP quotes up to 15 hours’ use from a charge - and the eight-core MediaTek MTK 8183 chip provides a good balance of price and performance. There’s also 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and two USB ports plus a Micro SD card slot. The screen isn’t anything special, with a resolution of 1366 x 768, and isn’t touch sensitive.
Being a small laptop has its benefits, but means the keyboard and trackpad can be cramped and difficult to use if you’re accustomed to something larger.
Buy now £249.00, Currys
HP X2 11-da0504na 11" 2 in 1 Chromebook
Best for: cloud gaming and streaming
Small but mighty, the HP X2 stands out because of its screen. It’s a touchscreen that can be detached from the keyboard to use as a tablet, and has a resolution of 2160 x 1440. That’s sometimes known as Quad HD, and sits between the 1080p and 4K standards. It’s popular with PC gamers, as it gives a sharp picture without putting the strain on the GPU that a 4K image would.
There’s not a desktop-class GPU pushing this screen, however, so it’s best used for streaming. Netflix and its ilk are going to look excellent with that many pixels squeezed into a 11-inch diagonal, but it’s cloud gaming where this device will really shine. Xbox, PlayStation and Nvidia all have subscription services that allow you to stream games through apps or web pages, the heavy processing happening in a data centre somewhere and sent to you via the internet.
The SnapDragon processor and 8GB of RAM do a good job behind the scenes, and there’s 128GB of storage too, but it’s still an 11-inch laptop, however, which means there are compromises with the size of the keyboard and trackpad. Connect a Bluetooth game controller, however, and you’ve got a neat, portable device that means you can play games anywhere there’s Wi-Fi.
Buy now £549.00, Currys
Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 13.3" 2 in 1 Chromebook
Best for: turning into a tablet
There’s a thin line between Chromebooks and tablets, and it usually comes down to the keyboard. ChromeOS is perfectly happy being interacted with using a touchscreen rather than a trackpad, and its ability to run Android apps means it’s a versatile place to do your computing tasks.
And being able to snap the screen off your laptop and use it as a tablet only adds to that versatility. You can fullscreen an Android app and use it like that, snap two apps side by side, or watch fullscreen video with it propped up on its stand - it helps that the Duet 5 uses an OLED 1080p touchscreen, for punchy colours and good contrast. Put the keyboard back on, and you’ve got a laptop.
Inside, there’s a SnapDragon processor designed for laptops, which leads to excellent battery life of up to 15 hours as well as decent performance, plus 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage (though there’s no Micro SD card slot to expand this). It weighs just over a kilogram with its keyboard, and while that keyboard may be a little flimsy, this useful balance of performance and versatility makes it easily one of the best Chromebooks out there.
Buy now £549.00, Currys
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 13.3" 2 in 1 Chromebook
Best for: mobile media
The Flex 51 calls itself a 2-in-1 but the screen doesn’t detach from the keyboard, instead folding back like the Chromebook Flip. This makes for a thicker, slightly awkward tablet mode, but does enable ‘tent mode’ for watching movies with the Chromebook standing upright.
The model we’ve chosen here has an 11th-gen Intel Core i3 processor inside, a more powerful chip than is usual for this type of device, something that’s reflected in the price. There is a cheaper model with an Intel Pentium processor, but expect a lower level of performance from this to match the price. Elsewhere, the specs are familiar, with 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 1080p touchscreen. There are USB ports and a Micro SD card slot for additional expansion.
A 13in screen is ideal for a portable device, as laptops this size slip into bags more easily than larger ones. It’s light, too, tipping the scales at just 1.35kg.
Buy now £499.00, Currys
Acer Spin 513 LTE 13.3" 2 in 1 Chromebook
Best for: life on the road
Another folding 2-in-1 design, but this time with a Qualcomm SC7180 processor humming away inside. This is an Arm-based chip like the ones used in phones and tablets, but designed for PCs, which means you get superior battery life (Acer claims you’ll get 14 hours of use from a single charge) but still decent performance from its eight processor cores.
The rest of the specs are fairly standard for a Chromebook, with 8GBof RAM (which makes for a smoother, more responsive experience than a machine equipped only with 4), 128GB of storage, and a 1080p touchscreen. It’s an IPS LCD panel, which lifts it slightly over the more budget-friendly TN technology, but it won’t hit the heights reached by OLEDs.
An interesting bonus feature is the 4G mobile data integration, which means you can connect the Chromebook to the internet anywhere you can get a mobile signal, rather than being tied to Wi-Fi hotspots. Chromebooks are online machines by nature, though having the internal storage to cache documents and files for offline use means you can still use one if the Wi-Fi goes out. You’ll need a data plan to use the 4G connection, but the extra subscription can be worth it if you travel a lot.
Buy now £579.00, Currys
Lenovo IdeaPad 3i 15.6" Chromebook
Best for: looking serious
Chromebooks are laptops, of course, but some of them do neat tricks like having screens that detach, or are touch-sensitive, or can fold back on themselves. Not so here. The IdeaPad, despite its name, is not a pad of any sort, but a sensible grey laptop you can pull out in a business meeting to sneakily watch YouTube. There’s a headphone socket so you don’t make too much noise.
And for the price, it’s got some rather nice specs. There’s a 1080p screen, an Intel Pentium N6000 processor from 2021 sporting four cores and a GPU, and 4GB of RAM coupled with 128GB of storage. It’s a good looking laptop too, with a plastic shell that could be mistaken for metal in a favourable light, a large trackpad, and a privacy shutter over the webcam lens, which we like to see. It’s not the thinnest or lightest laptop out there, but at 2.3cm deep and weighing less than two kilograms, it’s no bloater either.
Buy now £329.00, Currys
Verdict
Chromebooks are ideal for students or home computer users, especially now we fill our homes with fast Wi-Fi. Their lack of onboard storage isn’t a problem, and the ability to run Android apps (and even Linux applications if you’re a bit more confident) mean they’re extremely good general purpose laptops, perfect for younger members of the family or users less steeped in the complexity of modern PCs.
And while some Chromebooks can be very cheap, which can be a very attractive quality, we think the best Chromebooks are those that add versatility. Not just a laptop, some like the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 can be folded back to provide a tablet-like user experience, or even detached from their keyboards like the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet. These, along with Chromebooks’ ability to run Android apps, mean you can switch between tablet and laptop modes as your workflow dictates, making them great choices for general-purpose machines.
