Snag A Capable Laptop at a Discount Price with April’s Best Chromebook Deals

When Google got into the operating system market, it was seen as a longshot, but after some growing pains, we’re on board with ChromeOS. As Windows continues to grow in resource demands, Chromebooks work the opposite way, leveraging less to give you more. ChromeOS extracts peak efficiency out of dated and inexpensive hardware, making it a top choice for lightweight computing for work, school, or entertainment. If you mostly use your PC for email and Web browsing, it’s a great choice.

Every day you can find our team testing laptops in the PC Labs, and we’ve been impressed with how Google has continually refined ChromeOS to make it a real competitor in the portable PC space. It’s power-efficient for long battery life, fast, resistant to malware and viruses, excels at cloud applications, and sees frequent free updates. No matter what you need a budget laptop for, there’s a Chromebook that’ll satisfy, and we’ve got discounts on some of the best brands.

The deals below typically hover around a few hundred dollars, so you’re getting a ton of bang for your buck. There are also a few Chromebook Plus offers, which follow a set of standards Google has laid out for increased capability.

The Chromebook Plus platform is Google’s set of standards for ChromeOS laptops that push performance beyond the everyday, and this Acer model got an “Excellent” rating in our review for doing just that. With a peppy Intel Core i3 processor and a generous 8GB of RAM, it handles productivity and education tasks with ease, and the MIL-STD 810H certified chassis is tough enough to take a beating. You won’t get a ton of bells and whistles here, as the keyboard isn’t backlit and the screen brightness clocks in at just 250 nits, but for an everyday carry it’s a reliable option. Amazon has a 7% price drop right now, and you even get a free carrying case.

Onboard storage is one of the most common pain points for Chromebooks, as their cloud-based operations typically don’t let you access much of your stuff offline. While the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 only includes 64GB installed, this offer comes with a bundled USB docking station that includes 160GB of much-needed extra space. We reviewed the baseline IdeaPad 3 chromebook, and gave it an “Excellent” rating for its solid battery life, good build quality and comfortable, spill-resistant keyboard. This model just drops the weight to make it even more portable.

A Chromebook for gaming? It’s more likely than you think. While the Asus Vibe CX34 isn’t tricked out with the latest Nvidia GPUs, it’s designed for entertainment in a different way: by linking up with cloud-based gaming services that outsource the processing to remote servers. While we don’t have a full review of this unit, we did preview it at CES, and were dazzled by the budget portable’s best-in-class connectivity and flexible 2-in-1 design, along with the 16:10 touchscreen with a 144Hz refresh rate. A 38% price cut makes it even cooler.

For a budget option, we’ve got a few choices depending on your brand loyalty. The Acer Chromebook 315 is a solid option at retail, but for 57% off it’s a big bargain, with a decent silicon loadout and good port selection. In our review, we noted that it was more than good enough for everyday tasks, although it didn’t blow us away with battery life. The full-sized keyboard has a dedicated number pad, which isn’t common, and we were impressed by the smooth, responsive OceanGlass touchpad. This bundle comes with a carrying case as well, which is a nice perk.

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A 50% price cut on a Chromebook that comes with some additional external storage? Sign us up. The Asus CX15 is a solid midrange Chromebook, with a larger-than-normal screen, decent Celeron processor, and ridiculously long battery life. Asus says that it’ll go for as long as 12 hours of constant use on a single charge, which is a school or work day plus commutes with time to spare. This bundle remedies the common storage complaint by including a USB hub along with a 512GB SD card, giving you way more room for files than any other machine in this rundown.

If you want a machine that’s built for durability at a decent price, HP’s Fortis line of ruggedized laptops are worth a peek. We have a thorough review of the baseline Plus x360 here, noting that although it didn’t bring a lot of extra features to the table, it performed ably in all of our benchmarking exams and the touch screen was colorful and responsive. This is another model with split storage, featuring 64GB of internal eMMC space and a 64GB SSD card and included reader. The Fortis upgrade is built to meet MIL-STD 810H military standards, with drop-resistant construction and Corning Gorilla Glass over the screen.

We gave an “Excellent” rating to this 360-degree Chromebook in our review, with high points being the Chromebook Plus Spin 514’s super-sturdy military-grade MIL-STD-810H durability aluminum frame, zippy performance and responsive high-resolution touchscreen protected with antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass. We did comment that it’s a little heavy for extended use as a tablet, but that’s a minor criticism. To pick up a Windows convertible with the level of power this machine pumps out would cost you almost twice as much, and with a $200 discount it’s even more attractive.

Another budget-minded Chromebook at a serious price drop, the IdeaPad Slim 3i is lightweight and features epic battery life, clocking in at over 15 hours. The ARM-based processor works well with Chrome OS, and although the component loadout is pretty skimpy, for an ultra-budget laptop it’s more that capable of getting the job done. Lenovo also always overdelivers when it comes to build quality, and the all-plastic case feels sturdy and durable. See how it compares on our list of the best Chromebooks we’ve reviewed.

If you ever wondered how we test laptops, wonder no more! We wrote a deep dive into our extensive process.

About Our Experts

K. Thor Jensen

Contributing Writer

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Experience

K. Thor Jensen is a writer and cartoonist living in the Pacific Northwest. He has contributed to dozens of prestigious outlets, including PCMag, Tested, Clickhole, and Newsweek. His second graphic novel, Cloud Stories, was released in 2017.

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Joe Osborne

Deputy Managing Editor, Hardware

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Experience

After starting my career at PCMag as an intern more than a decade ago, I’m back as one of its editors, focused on managing laptops, desktops, and components coverage. With 15 years of experience, I have been on staff and published in technology review publications, including PCMag (of course!), Laptop Magazine, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, and IGN. Along the way, I’ve tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops and helped develop testing protocols. I have expertise in testing all forms of laptops and desktops using the latest tools. I’m also well-versed in video game hardware and software coverage.

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