Chromebook vs. laptop computer variations: Which one will have to you purchase? by means of NewsFlicks

In Mashable’s 2011 evaluation of one of the most first Chromebooks, our creator stated it “may trade the sector of computing.” And what? They have been type of proper: Most modern lists of the very best laptops below $500 to $700 are Chromebooks the entire manner down.

Should you simplest call to mind Chromebooks as crude laptops aimed at scholars, it is time to meet up with the days. More recent fashions have most commonly shed the class’s recognition for fugly clunkers, for something, discovering a happier medium between sturdiness, practicality, and top class options.

Sure, Chromebooks nonetheless have some tool quirks that cap their price for positive use circumstances. However until your workload revolves round not easy area of expertise apps, or your laptop is your number one gaming gadget, a Chromebook more than likely makes extra sense than an inexpensive Home windows laptop computer or Apple MacBook.

I have widely examined some widespread Chromebooks, having written in regards to the very best laptops for Mashable since 2023, so agree with me after I say that they’re certainly value it for lots of customers. If you are no longer positive which taste of laptop computer is a better pick out for you, learn on for my primer on what makes Chromebooks other from common PCs.

First off: What’s a Chromebook, precisely?

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 is among the latest Chromebooks.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Chromebooks are laptops that run on Google’s ChromeOS as a substitute of Microsoft’s Home windows 11 or Apple’s macOS. They reinforce Android apps from the Google Play Retailer in addition to cloud-based apps (that means apps you get right of entry to over the internet). Google choices like Gmail, Pressure, Meet, Medical doctors, Sheets, Slides, and YouTube come pre-installed on all Chromebook fashions.

ChromeOS is principally simply the Chrome internet browser, so Chromebooks paintings very best when they are attached to the web. Then again, you’ll be able to trade your Google Pressure settings to allow offline use of Medical doctors, Sheets, and Slides information and folders.

Google rolled out an preliminary batch of Chromebooks in 2010 as a part of a faculty pilot program, and the primary consumer-facing fashions made by means of Acer and Samsung hit cabinets a yr later. (We reviewed the latter.) Further producers entered the fray quickly after, together with Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Google itself. Google now now not makes its personal Chromebooks, referred to as “Pixelbooks,” having discontinued the road in 2022.

What’s a Chromebook Plus?

The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is a brilliant mid-range choice.
Credit score: Sarah Chaney / Ian Moore / Mashable composite

In past due 2023, Google expanded the Chromebook class to incorporate Chromebook Plus laptops. Those fashions are assured to fulfill positive upgraded {hardware} and function necessities, they usually reinforce some unique tool options. Extra on the ones momentarily.

Chromebook vs. laptop computer: Specifications

Chromebooks do not glance a lot other from common laptops.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable

When the general public call to mind Chromebooks, they more than likely image the cumbersome, thick-bezeled schooling fashions that colleges continuously factor to Okay-12 graders, which might be designed to be rugged above all. However maximum consumer-ready Chromebooks appear to be another price range laptops, save for an figuring out brand within the corners in their lids.

Chromebooks vary size-wise from 11 to 16 inches and are available each clamshell and convertible designs. (Convertible/hybrid laptops have touchscreens and 360-degree hinges so they are able to double as capsules.) Chromebooks’ chassis are in most cases made out of plastic in dull sunglasses of silver and grey. On account of their plastic builds, and since they lack heavy-duty {hardware}, they skew lighter than different reasonable laptops.

Chromebooks and standard price range laptops also are very an identical at the within. Each are designed for elementary on a regular basis duties, similar to surfing, phrase processing, and streaming, so their specifications are similarly elementary. You’ll be able to in most cases get a small quantity of RAM (both 4GB or 8GB), an entry-level processor, built-in graphics, and a teeny chew of onboard garage — any place from 64GB to 256GB. Some low-end Home windows laptops have 512GB of native garage, however that is not vital in a Chromebook, which stashes maximum of its knowledge within the cloud.

Chromebook Plus fashions have to fulfill some spec minimums that ensure better-than-baseline efficiency. Those come with:

• No less than a Twelfth-generation Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 collection processor

• No less than 8GB of RAM

• No less than 128GB of garage

• A 1080p webcam with temporal noise relief

• An IPS show with a solution of a minimum of 1080p (Complete HD)

Once more, the ones are simply minimums. Google’s most up-to-date Chromebook Plus gadgets blow previous them with OLED and a pair of.8K touchscreens, 256GB of speedy SSD garage, 5MP webcams, 12 to 16GB of RAM, and high-end chips with neural processing devices (NPUs) for dealing with AI duties.

What are some great benefits of a Chromebook?

Chromebooks are perfect for workloads that revolve across the Google ecosystem.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Cheapness is a Chromebook’s most evident enchantment. Costs vary from the low $200s for probably the most primitive configurations and most sensible out round $800 with the newest, maximum complex Plus fashions. As with all more or less laptop computer, specifications and construct high quality strengthen the extra you spend.

Affordability apart, there are a number of different causes to believe purchasing a Chromebook.

Simplicity and straightforwardness of use

Should you’ve ever used Chrome, you have low-key used a Chromebook. Between their easy OS and their pre-installed Google apps, Chromebooks will make other folks embedded within the Google ecosystem really feel proper at house.

Putting in place a Chromebook is as simple as choosing a WiFi community and signing right into a Google account. Android smartphone customers can get began even quicker by means of scanning a QR code that kicks off an information switch.

Chromebook customers additionally give you the chance of syncing their Google account job to the gadget for an much more seamless setup enjoy. Chrome tabs, bookmarks, passwords, topics, and skimming from earlier classes will populate routinely, so you’ll be able to pick out up proper the place you left off on some other laptop or telephone.

Integrated safety

Chromebooks have a number of layers of integrated coverage towards malware, viruses, and different safety assaults, together with automated tool updates each 4 weeks. All fashions launched since 2021 get 10 years of those updates.

Nice battery lifestyles

Contemporary-gen Chromebooks examined by means of me and different Mashable writers are slower than most inexpensive Home windows laptops and MacBooks. Then again, they are very sturdy competition on battery lifestyles.

Google charges Chromebooks at as much as 10 hours of use in line with price, however the median battery lifestyles for our checking out pool is 12 hours and 47 mins. One new Chromebook Plus we attempted lasted simply over 18 hours, hanging it on par with M4 MacBooks and Qualcomm-powered Home windows laptops. Now that is spectacular.

Gaming is workable

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is a gaming-ready Chromebook. (That is a factor!)
Credit score: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Chromebooks can run the Android variations of video games like Roblox, Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Amongst Us in the community, however they lack the vital {hardware} to reinforce extra graphically in depth PC video games (i.e., devoted GPUs). Thankfully, cloud gaming products and services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming be offering a very easy workaround: They assist you to circulation video games from robust faraway servers proper onto your Chromebook’s display.

All Chromebooks reinforce cloud gaming, however a few of them are higher at it than others. One such type is the $649 Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (brief for “Gaming Version”), which options a big 120Hz show, an RGB keyboard, and a mid-range Intel processor.

Chromebook Plus is AI- and creator-ready

Chromebook Plus fashions have unique AI options that you will not in finding on same old Chromebooks. Those come with a integrated Gemini chatbot, custom-generated wallpapers, Are living Translate, Assist me learn, and webcam improvements. Two of the most recent, priciest Plus fashions throw in an extra tab-sorting device and an on-device symbol editor throughout the Gallery app. (They are the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 and Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514.)

Chromebook Plus house owners additionally get complimentary trials of Adobe Categorical Top class, a photograph enhancing app referred to as Luminar, and Google’s AI Professional provider, which unlocks equipment like Veo 3 Speedy and Gemini 2.5 Professional. Those perks are supposed to spotlight the machines’ talent to care for mild multimedia enhancing and AI duties.

What can a regular laptop computer do this a Chromebook can not?

The Asus Zenbook A14 is my No. 1 price range Home windows laptop computer.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable

The most important distinction between Chromebooks and common price range laptops truly boils all the way down to the type of tool they are able to run.

Tough desktop apps

Some widespread productiveness and inventive apps are simplest to be had for Home windows 11 and macOS. Two widespread examples are the Microsoft 365 apps and the Adobe Inventive Cloud suite. Unfastened, pared-down internet variations of them paintings on Chromebooks, however the full-featured desktop variations don’t.

Maximum most sensible public universities actively discourage their scholars from the usage of Chromebooks as their number one computer systems for an identical causes: They do not reinforce the systems had to entire some school coursework. (Conversely, Chromebooks make nice laptops for more youthful scholars as a result of they are no longer very tough.)

The Android model of the Slack app is optimized for cellular view. You’ll’t resize those home windows on Chromebooks.
Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable

Credit score: Haley Henschel / Mashable

I’m going to additionally upload that Android apps can glance funky on Chromebooks if they are simplest designed for cellular view. You will be unable to make their home windows any larger than the scale of a telephone or pill display. They nonetheless run, however you will not get the entire, laptop-y desktop enjoy.

Complete-fledged PC gaming

As discussed previous, Chromebooks shouldn’t have the brawn to obtain and run AAA PC video games in the community (and beginning in January 2026, they would possibly not reinforce Steam). You are additionally restricted to the video games in cloud streaming products and services’ libraries, so titles like Elden Ring, The Ultimate of Us, and Purple Lifeless Redemption 2 are all off limits.

Moreover, the standard of a cloud gaming consultation is closely dependent at the power of your web connection. You could run into problems with enter lag.

Ultimate ideas: Which is best, a Chromebook or a typical laptop computer?

The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is my favourite Chromebook for the general public.
Credit score: Lenovo

I believe numerous other folks could be shocked to determine that the very best reasonable laptop computer for them is in fact a Chromebook.

In 2025, Chromebook {hardware} is best than ever. Positive, most standard laptops nonetheless outpace them, and choices with devoted graphics are nonexistent. However numerous trendy Chromebooks translate to truly just right offers on nicer specifications within the price range marketplace.

Take the more moderen Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14, which begins at $649.99 with a 2K OLED show. The most cost effective OLED Home windows laptops are a minimum of $50 to $100 pricier until you in finding them on sale. The $699 Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514, some other 2025 unlock, has a 120Hz touchscreen, 12GB of RAM, and a 5MP webcam. It is just $50 dearer than the most affordable MacBook you’ll be able to purchase in this day and age, the 13-inch M1 MacBook Air, which has a crappier 60Hz show, 8GB of RAM, and a 720p webcam.

This continues at cheaper price issues. You will not discover a 2-in-1 Home windows laptop computer that is less expensive than the $399.99 Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11, as an example.

I beg any Chromebook skeptics to suppose onerous about what varieties of apps they in fact, actually use regularly. Is the flexibility of a standard laptop computer a need or a glut? Are you positive the internet variations of Microsoft 365 and Adobe Photoshop do not have already got what you wish to have? Would a Chromebook prohibit your workload, or would it not in fact streamline it?

Our reviewer stated the unique 2011 Chromebook used to be nice at “the rest the general public would need to do with a small laptop computer,” and I nonetheless suppose that is true. If you are anyone with a sit back electronic mail process who is simply bopping between Chrome, Gmail, and YouTube all day, a Chromebook is completely as much as the duty.

Between the 2 Chromebook tiers, I love same old Chromebooks for children and for adults who desire a secondary gadget they will use sometimes when touring or operating remotely. (Those get started at $229.) If you need a peppier, premium-feeling Chromebook that is somewhat future-proofed and appropriate to be used as a day-to-day driving force, improve to a Chromebook Plus type. They begin at simplest $369.

Complete-time creatives, hardcore PC avid gamers, and school scholars will have to call to mind Chromebooks as fallback plans. They tick lots of your packing containers, however they make some a very powerful compromises that reduce their long-term viability to your explicit use circumstances. You’ll be able to leave out the tool flexibility of an inexpensive Home windows laptop computer or MacBook. You would additionally have the benefit of the extra onboard garage they provide.

These days 2025, I believe the most productive Chromebook for the general public is the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus, a good looking mid-range convertible that retails for $599.99. If you’ll be able to splurge a little, I am obsessive about the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 ($699 to $799.99). If you are on a stricter price range, I like to recommend the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 ($449.99). Take a look at my entire information to the most productive Chromebooks for extra purchasing steerage.

Store the most productive Chromebooks we have examined:

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