The best Chromebooks in 2023

1. The list in brief 2. Best overall 3. Best value 4. Best 2-in-1 5. Best tablet 6. Best for gaming 7. Best for DIYers 8. Battery life chart 9. How to choose 10. How we test

The best Chromebooks for your needs can be hard to find because there are so many options, from cheap, low-cost Chromebooks to more powerful premium models with bigger, brighter screens, better build quality and beefier components. 

Many provide amazing battery life, and most run Android apps thanks to Chrome OS support for the Google Play Store. Oh, and if you're unfamiliar with Chrome OS, it's easy to learn, as it's an extremely lightweight alternative to Windows 11 and macOS. Chromebooks are a popular choice for students and teachers because they're typically cheap and easy to use. Everything you do on a Chromebook, unless you're emulating Android apps or one of the experts running Linux on a Chromebook, will happen in a Chrome window.

All that being said, the best Chromebooks are great laptops. Some are among the best 2-in-1 laptops, with touchscreens ideal for Android apps (which are not as good when used with a mouse and keyboard alone). And while Chromebooks are mostly seen as devices for students, the category now includes multiple elegant models that are viable replacements for business laptops. 

No matter which Chromebook you buy, make sure you check out our best Chromebook deals page to save some money along the way!

Alex Wawro is a lifelong journalist who's spent over a decade covering tech, games and entertainment. He oversees the computing department at Tom's Guide, which includes managing laptop coverage and reviewing many himself every year.

In a hurry? Here's a brief overview of the laptops on this list, along with quick links that let you jump down the page directly to a review of whichever laptop catches your eye.

Best overall

Best Chromebook overall

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is a premium Chromebook that will get you through a day of work or school for under $500. While its 2021 internals are aging, the gorgeous QLED touchscreen and decent speakers make it feel premium. If you can find one in the Fiesta Red paint job, so much the better. 

Read more below

Best value

The best cheap Chrome tablet

Lenovo's Chromebook Duet is a great, cheap Chrome tablet which packs the utility of a Chromebook into a slick little slate that comes with a detachable keyboard included at no charge, making it a great budget Chromebook to boot.

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Best 2-in-1

Best 2-in-1 Chromebook

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 delivers good battery life, great performance and a bright, colorful display for an affordable price, making it our top recommendation for those seeking a Chromebook which transforms into a tablet. 

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Best tablet

The best Chrome tablet

The pricier Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 is a well-built Chrome tablet that offers a nice screen and enough power to get work done. It's suited to browsing the web or remote learning, and the included keyboard cover is good enough for writing emails or short assignments. 

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Best gaming

The best Chromebook for game streaming

Acer's Chromebook 516 GE is built for game streaming, pairing a speedy Intel CPU with a 16-inch WQXGA 120Hz display. It can't compete with dedicated gaming laptops, but its much cheaper and lighter.

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Best for DIYers

The best for DIYers

The Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition is a truly unique Chromebook that's designed to be easy to upgrade and repair, making it a great investment for folks who prioritize long-term value. The option to buy and hot-swap ports via the unique Expansion Card system is also unparalleled.

Read more below 

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Our expert review:

Taking away the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook's 4K display was probably the best thing Samsung could have done to make this Chromebook a hit. Now it's way more affordable, but still sports a great QLED display and longer battery life — 7:50 vs the previous gen's 5:55. It's also going to sound great, plus its Core i3 configuration provides a ton of speed for Chrome OS.

We weren't as happy with the vertical travel in its keyboard, which is a bit shallow. This creates a slight learning curve you'll adapt to over time. But to get a Chromebook that looks this good — wow that Fiesta Red color option stands out in a sea of silver Chromebooks and PCs. Plus, at under $450, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 delivers solid value for the money. 

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 review.

Our expert review:

Sometimes, it's amazing how much you can get for $300 or less. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet, for example, is a 2-in-1 Chromebook that offers something Microsoft's Surfaces and Apple's iPads won't: it's keyboard is included by default.  Not only do you get that value, but the Chromebook Duet's tablet display is excellent in its own right, with a surprising amount of color output and a crisp 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution.

Smaller hands may find the Chromebook Duet's keyboard a little on the tight side, but at this price, any keyboard is a surprise and a steal. Making things even better, the Chromebook Duet features ChromeOS tablet optimizations that are long overdue to take advantage of all of its screen space. On top of all of that? It lasted for 12 hours and 47 minutes, nearly 13 hours. 

Read our full Lenovo Chromebook Duet review.

Our expert review:

When it comes to finding a great Chromebook, you are always looking for an affordable (enough) mix of performance, design and endurance. That's due in part to its Intel Core i5-10210U CPU, which provides a ton of speed for Chrome OS (anything more would be overkill), and 8GB of RAM for managing all the Chrome tabs you can throw at it. 

Plus, its sharp 2256 x 1504-pixel screen provides bright and vibrant picture output. On top of that, it lasted 11 hours and 54 minutes on our web-browsing based battery test. The only major issue you could have with the Spin 713 is its size, but that's going to be an issue for all 13-inch laptops. 

Read our full Acer Chromebook Spin 713 review.

Our expert review:

The Lenovo Duet 3 (or Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3, depending on where you buy it) is a great Chrome tablet that can be yours for as low as $359. This is effectively a bigger, more expensive follow-up to the Chromebook Duet Lenovo released in 2020, a surprisingly capable and inexpensive Chrome tablet that's still on this list. 

We loved the original Duet for its great battery life, solid performance and decent packed-in keyboard cover, all of which could be had for roughly $250. Lenovo's new Duet 3 costs a bit more, but it also delivers a bigger, brighter display, more ports, and the added power of a beefier Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chip. It's one of the best Chrome tablets you can buy, and the fact that Lenovo includes the keyboard cover at no extra cost helps it double as a surprisingly effective 2-in-1 Chromebook. While the original Duet further down this list is a better buy if you're short on cash, those who can afford it will be well-served by this excellent Chromebook.

Read our full Lenovo Duet 3 Chromebook review.

Our expert review:

Advancements in ChromeOS and cloud gaming services have made the idea of a "gaming Chromebook" that can play the latest and greatest games a viable option, and the Acer Chromebook 516 GE was one of the first to hit the market.

With a starting price of $649, a big 16-inch (2,500 x 1,600 pixels) display and a surprisingly low (for a 16-inch gaming laptop) weight of 3.9 pounds, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a solid big-screen Chromebook for not a lot of money.

Admittedly, the 12th Gen Intel CPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD in our review unit didn't give it a lot of horsepower or space to run games, but since you're meant to mostly play games via cloud gaming services like Amazon Luna, GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass you just need a rock-solid Internet connection. And since it sports an Ethernet jack (a rarity on Chromebooks) you can count on being able to plug into wired Internet for optimal gaming. 

Read our full Acer Chromebook 516 GE review.

Our expert review:

The Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition is a ChromeOS variant of Framework's signature 13-inch laptop, which is more repairable and upgradable than anything else on the market. Each laptop Framework ships comes with a screwdriver so you can crack open the case and swap out parts yourself, and everything from the memory to the screen bezel to the mainboard is user-replaceable.

It's not for everyone, but if you're the DIY type and love the idea of being able to tinker with your laptop's innards this is the best laptop for you. The Framework laptop is currently only available for purchase from the Framework website, and the price tag starts at around $1k — though you can pay even less for the DIY Edition if you're willing to assemble your laptop yourself and provide your own memory, storage, operating system, and Wi-Fi card. It's a great ultraportable that doubles as a learning device you can take apart and fix or upgrade yourself.

Read our full Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition review.

Our expert review:

It might not have the battery life you expect from a Chromebook, but that can be excused when you take a look at how the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook breaks so many of the other typical rules of what a Chromebook should be. Its Fiesta Red chassis goes beyond eye-catching and hits drool inducing before you can say "wow that's a Chromebook?" It even comes with Samsung's S-Pen stylus, which is best used in tablet mode.

Its Core i5 CPU is so fast I watched four 1080p YouTube videos on it, without any stutter, just to see if I could. Oh, and it's crazy thin and light, competing on size and weight with the MacBook Air and the Dell XPS 13. Its best feature, though, is its gorgeous 4K AMOLED display that makes colors pop and offers bright hues. It's so great that it reminds us that Netflix needs to add Chrome support for 4K video. 

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook review.

Finding the best Chromebook these days begins with a simple question: do you need a touchscreen? An increasing number of Chromebooks offer 2-in-1 designs with a touchscreen, allowing you to use Android apps from the Google Play store. However, those systems tend to be on the pricier side. If you want just a basic laptop on the cheap, a Chromebook without a touchscreen is the way to go.

As for screen size, an 11-inch display is good for younger kids, but a 13-inch display is better for older students and business users on the move. If you want a Chromebook as a primary home laptop, we would opt for a 14-inch or 15-inch display.. 

Then, think about performance. Are you buying this for a kid who's got modest needs? A Pentium or Celeron processor should be enough. A Core M or Core i5 CPU is better for those who want more performance. Most budget Chromebooks start with 4GB of RAM, but we would get 8GB or more if you plan to work with a lot of tabs open. Because Chromebooks rely on the cloud, local storage isn’t that important, which is why 32GB tends to be standard. You’ll find 64GG to 128GB on more premium models.

One last thing to consider: do you need a Chromebook, or do you just want Chrome OS? Because if it's just the software you like, Google is starting to offer Chrome OS Flex, an education/enterprise-focused version of Chrome OS that you can install yourself on a Mac or PC. If you're of a technical mindset and have an old laptop that could use some up-to-date software on it, you could always give this a try.

To find the best Chromebook, we run every machine we review through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use. 

We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop's display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include JetStream 2 (a Web-based benchmarking suite that runs over five dozen tests designed to measure how well systems handle the kind of applications they’re most likely to encounter on the Internet) and a custom battery test that tasks the machine with browsing the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.

Performance: If you're going to be spending years studying engineering, you're going to need a computer with enough power to handle anything your teachers throw at you. We recommend at least a new mid-range CPU (Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5) and at least 8 GB of RAM, though if you can afford to spend more on on a laptop with better specs it will pay off in the long run.

Graphics and gaming: Most gaming laptops come with discrete graphics cards so they can run the latest games well, but the same card can be equally vital to engineering students who will be using CAD (computer-assisted design) and 3D analysis programs. These kinds of applications really benefit from the power of a good GPU, so if you're expecting to do any graphics or 3D work it's a good idea to invest in a laptop with a discrete Nvidia or AMD graphics card.

Operating system: Laptops typically come in three flavors: Windows (most mainstream PCs), macOS (MacBooks) and Chrome OS (Chromebooks). Chrome OS isn't good for much besides web surfing, file management, and light computing, so a Chromebook isn't a great choice for serious schoolwork. However, a crafty student could install Linux on a high-powered Chromebook to turn it into a decent laptop for engineering work.

Many engineering students spend a lot of time working with specialized or self-developed software, so Windows is often preferable over macOS because it throws up fewer roadblocks when using such tools. However, even Windows can sometimes get in the way of serious engineering work, which is why many engineering students get Windows laptops and install Linux on them so they can dual-boot into either operating system.

As mentioned above, when making your buying decision be sure to consult your teachers and/or the engineering department at your school for more specific advice on what you'll need for your studies. Whichever system you decide on, it's a good idea to pair it with the best mouse for your particular work situation.

To find the best laptops we run every machine through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use. 

We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop's display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include Geekbench 5 (CPU performance), as well as various 3DMark tests to measure graphics capabilities. We also run a file transfer test to measure how fast a machine's hard drive is, and a custom battery test that has the machine browse the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.

Plus, we run the graphics benchmark test in Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm to get a sense of how well a laptop can handle basic games. When testing dedicated gaming laptops, we run benchmarks for a number of games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry: New Dawn.

Our expert review: