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Whether you’re shopping for a Chromebook for school or as an inexpensive device for the family to use, Black Friday or Cyber Monday can be a great time to shop for Chromebook deals. We’ll tell you which Chromebooks to buy, where to find them, and of course the best Chromebook deals currently offered by major retailers, now with updated deals for Cyber Monday.
If you want any advice on which Chromebook to buy (do I really need an Intel chip, or can I buy a Chromebook with an Arm chip instead?), You’ll find buying advice and links to popular retailers below our Chromebook Sales list. Our buying guide below points out a number of errors that you may not be aware of.
Chromebook offers may also appear on our the best laptop deals for Cyber Monday, too.
From: Costco
Was: $ 349.99
Now: $ 199.99 ($ 150 off)
Right now, this is the best deal on the best Chromebook we can find on Black Friday, and we feel comfortable recommending it without reservation. This is a 14-inch Chromebook with a 1080p screen, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of onboard SSD storage, with an updated Celeron N4500 processor that launched this year. There’s a 720p webcam, and it even comes with an additional wireless mouse and a free laptop sleeve! Support lasts until June 2026.
Of course, you will have to be a Costco member to get this deal, which is the only downside. Otherwise, buy this now!
See HP 14-inch Chromebook (14a-na1043cl) for sale at Costco
From: Best Buy
Was: $ 299
Now: $ 199 ($ 100 off)
We like the fairly wide 15.6-inch screen, and Samsung’s screens tend to be very good. This Chromebook offers 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage, which is pretty normal when it comes to SSDs. A couple of USB-C and USB-A ports round out the I / O capabilities. We’re a little less excited about the N4000 Celeron, a chip made in 2017, which might be a bit slow if you’re used to having a lot of tabs open to the time. But the price is correct and the support should last until June 2026. Walmart also carries this same Chromebook for the same price: $ 199.00.
See the 15.6-inch Samsung Chromebook 4+ at Best Buy
From: Target
Was: $ 299.99
Now: $ 199.99 ($ 100 off)
On paper, we’d recommend the Samsung Chromebook 4+ offering, above, if only because the Celeron N3350 processor inside is small – this is a 5-year-old chip. But we don’t see any slow performance complaints, and there’s a large 1080p display on top of the 4GB RAM / 64GB storage. We think this Asus Chromebook offering is a bit dodgy due to possible slow performance, but if there’s a Target near you, you can always buy it and return it if it’s not working. Support should last until 2016.
See the Asus Chromebook C523NA-TH44F at Target
From: Amazon
Was: $ 499.99
Now: $ 279 ($ 220.99 off)
This Chromebook has some cool features, including a 12-megapixel rear camera (facing the world) that kids can use to take photos. However, with a 12.2-inch (1080p) screen, it can be a bit small for some users, and at three pounds it can be a bit heavy to carry. However, it folds up to create a tablet mode, which is great for Android games. And it includes a stylus! This is an all-time low price (discounted by an additional $ 5 starting Tuesday!), So if you can live with its mix of pros and cons, this deal is worth considering. The support lasts until June 2024.
Buy the Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 on Amazon
Lenovo
From: Walmart.com
Was: $ 299.99
Now: $ 229 ($ 70.99 off)
If you like the concept of a Chrome OS tablet but think the Chromebook Plus V2 price is too high, consider the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet, which we reviewed last year. You can buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet for $ 229 at Walmart.com, $ 70.99 off the MSRP of $ 299.99. This tablet ships with 4GB of memory and 64GB of onboard storage.
Support runs through June 2029, which could be the longest support lifespan of this holiday’s offerings.
Buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook at Walmart
If you don’t know whether or not to buy a Chromebook or laptop, we suggest you start with our guide to Chromebooks versus laptops, where we explain how each platform works, which one is better for work and play, tips on which laptops and Chromebooks to buy, etc. Google is also trying to promote the “Plus” and “Premium” branding to designate what more expensive Chromebooks can do. Those terms aren’t as common on retail sites, but here’s Google’s explanation of what each one means.
Bottom line, buy a Chromebook with an appropriately sized screen, a powerful enough processor (a Celeron or better), and one that’s not too old. That’s a problem – Chromebooks have a scheduled shelf life. After a certain period of time, they will not receive patches or other updates, and many discounted Chromebooks may not be compatible for that long.
How can you know? You can check it yourself at Google Automatic Update Expiration Page (AUE) to see how long certain Chromebooks will receive updates. As a general rule of thumb, add six years to the Chromebook release date. However, to be absolutely sure, check the Chromebook Settings menu. And don’t trust the retailer! Best Buy announced a 13.3-inch Galaxy Chromebook 2 as a Black Friday sale. According to the AUE page, support expired in 2019.
We recommend a 1080p screen, with a size of (probably 13 inches or more). Kids may be fine with an 11-inch Chromebook, but we prefer a 1080p screen for the eyes of adults and even children. Eye strain is real!
There really is a wide range of Chromebook configurations, with everything from no-name Arm processors to powerful Chromebooks with the latest Core chips. Chrome OS is much less processor-intensive than Windows, mainly because Chromebooks are still web-browsing machines in the first place. A Chromebook with a Core i3, Pentium Gold, or even a Celeron will probably be fine for whatever you ask of it: web browsing, web-based schoolwork, and Netflix and YouTube streaming. Be careful though: Chromebook makers will try to introduce five-year-old Celeron processors inside. It is fine, although it is not ideal.
A Chromebook with an Arm chip inside it will probably be fine too; although the chips from vendors such as Mediatek and other Arm vendors are not as well known. If you’re concerned, we recommend that you simply buy a Chromebook with the most popular Celeron chips inside, but do your research on the chip as well.
At the time of publication, we found a 11-inch Lenovo Chromebook Flex 3 on sale for $ 159.95 on Amazon, normally $ 319.99. That’s a great price, but the Mediatek MT8173C processor inside it was released in 2015. We would only buy that Chromebook if you were happy to give it a try and then return it if it didn’t meet your expectations. (For more information, read our specific article on which Chromebook processor we recommend.)
A short comment on streaming video: YouTube offers an interesting feature called “Statistics for Nerds”, which is actually a really simple way to measure how well your Chromebook runs when streaming video, which will probably be one of the most intensive. in CPU tasks that you will ask your low-cost Chromebook. Just start playing any video, right-click on the video window and select the “Statistics for Nerds” option. Then find the frame counter. Choppy or choppy video occurs when your processor / GPU can’t keep up. A little stuttering is normal and undetectable, and the drop of about one frame per second (as this example shows) will not be noticeable. But if you think to yourself hmm, this looks bad—And you want some numbers to back it up, this tool can help.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Don’t worry too much about memory. You’ll find Chromebooks with 4GB of memory on average, and that will be fine for some browser tabs.
Local storage is another area Chromebook makers will take shortcuts, and this is acceptable, too. Google naturally encourages you to store documents in the cloud. Photos can be stored in the cloud, locally on the hard drive / SSD, in an SD card slot (if one is included), or on an external hard drive. Chromebooks with as little as 32GB of eMMC storage are common. As a result, everything will be a bit complicated, but probably not too much.
Webcams have been an afterthought for many years, and this is really a matter of personal preference. Your child’s teacher may not care how good their students look if taught remotely, but Zoom and Google Meet meetings are still an important part of work life. Look for at least a 720p webcam if this matters to you.
While Google itself maintains a well organized Chromebook store, does not highlight any offers or discounts. You will have to search the retailers’ sites to find them. Many retailers combine Chromebook deals with laptop deals, as do we on our list of the best laptop deals for Cyber Monday. In the list below, we’ve linked directly to Chromebook offerings where we could.
Updated Nov 29 with the updated Cyber Monday Chromebook offers.
As a senior editor at PCWorld, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other topics. He has previously written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.
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