Best Games For School Chromebook No Download NEW!
Yuk Walke
Before a student hits the university level, the answer is a resounding yes. Especially for elementary/primary school students, a Chromebook is really the only computer that they should be using, since it does exactly what it needs to do and nothing more, all while keeping distracting apps off the device, and featuring some of the best built-in security features of any laptop on the market just by virtue of being a Chromebook.
Once you get to the university level, it really depends on the program of study, but unless its a STEAM program that requires specialized hardware or programs that aren't available on Chrome OS, a Chromebook can carry you through all the way through graduate school if necessary.
While the different brands are largely irrelevant, there are some specs to focus on. First, a reasonably good processor (a Core i3 or Ryzen 3, for example), 8GB RAM, and 64GB SSD storage are a perfectly good setup for a teen's level of schoolwork. If you want to have some special add-in like a 2-in-1 form factor or touchscreen, these might also be useful at this age.
If there is one disadvantage of a Chromebook, it's its app catalogue. While it has access to the Android app ecosystem, most of these are not optimized for Chromebooks and many won't work properly. A lot of the major apps that you might need for work or school might not be available as well. There are always web-based alternatives to just about any app, though, so it's not as if you will never be able to edit a photo or a video on a Chromebook.
Remember when tablets were going to take over the world? With the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook, that might still happen! Okay, probably not, but this is still the best detachable Chromebook money can buy right now.
In our review, we admired the strong performance of the 12th-gen Intel CPU and the phenomenal clarity of the 120Hz QHD+ screen - probably one of the best we've ever seen on a Chromebook, in fact. It's got a ton of storage too, thanks to the 512GB drive. The battery life isn't quite as strong as some of the other laptops on this list, but that's a tradeoff for the superior overall package.
My son is starting high school in the fall and he needs a chromebook for school. The school was not very helpful in what kind of chromebook needed, only saying any Chromebook would do and that they start at $100.
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: an included keyboard. 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. It's so good it won the award for best budget laptop in our Tom's Guide Awards 2021.
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. Plus, at $399 (Celeron) or $549 (Core i3), the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is a pretty good value. We like it so much that we awarded it best Chromebook in our Tom's Guide Awards 2021.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 311's solid battery life and great keyboard help it stand out in a student Chromebook field overflowing with small, budget-friendly options. It's good enough to win a recommendation for best budget laptop in our Tom's Guide Awards 2021. Right now it is just $199 at Amazon.
We love the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook for its lightweight design, excellent performance, and gorgeous OLED screen. It's super portable. The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 offers a bigger touchscreen laptop to play with, or if your older student needs a laptop that can play games too, then the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is the best Chromebook for the job.
Whatever your budget and needs, there's a great Chromebook for you. Read on to find our assessment of the best Chromebooks for students you can buy today. After perusing this story, you might also want to check out our picks for the best tablets or the best phones for kids.
It weighs just 2.2 pounds, making it supremely lightweight for carrying around throughout long school days, and with its touchscreen, it works just as well as a tablet as it does a laptop. The keyboard is completely detachable, too, so you can use the screen in tablet mode at an even lighter weight of just 1.5 pounds. That's perfect for one-handed use, letting you keep the other free for tapping. Storage on this device is quite generous, at 128GB of slower flash storage. However, as with all Chromebooks you still get 100GB of free cloud storage on Google Drive.
One of the best features of Chromebooks is how affordable and effective they can be. A $300 Windows laptop is going to be incredibly slow, and good luck finding a $300 MacBook that's not a decade old. But a Chromebook like this HP model? They can be surprisingly effective. This machine is a good value with its everyday pricing, but with this latest discount bringing it down to just $150, it's an extra great deal, especially for those students who need a lightweight web browsing machine for homework and research.
It also works really well for touchscreen Android applications, which many modern school apps are designed around. That makes this laptop an especially good choice, because it can do almost everything Windows laptops and MacBooks can do, but in a more safe design.
Battery life is great on this Chromebook too, easily making it through a full day of school and then some. At 3 pounds, it's not particularly heavy, so students can likely carry it around with them all day.
If you're an educator or school IT manager looking to use these Chromebooks for multiple students, know that it supports the Chromebook Education Upgrade which makes it easier for teachers and IT staff to create educational environments within Chrome OS for better security and support capabilities. And kids, parents and educators alike appreciate that this Chromebook has enough battery to last a full school day. The keyboard has big, chunky keys that are perfect for smaller fingers to tap away on, too.
Middle schoolers need more from their laptop than younger children, but may not be ready for something fancy and expensive yet. That's OK, because they can still get an awesome Chromebook with all the power and features they need, within a rugged chassis that stands up to the bumps and bangs of everyday life. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go is a lightweight, portable machine with excellent battery life, a great keyboard for typing and impressive connectivity, with support for the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies.
Its webcam and display are low resolution, but that helps keep the battery going for as long as it does. The real standout for this laptop though is its durability. Samsung tested it using military-grade standards, and confirmed it's more than up to the task of everyday use by overzealous middle schoolers. It can survive bangs and even the odd drop from a few feet without breaking, and the hinge is particularly sturdy.
For high school students, having a Chromebook that looks cool is important, so a standout Chromebook like the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is a great fit for that alone. It ticks all the really important boxes, too, like great performance, lengthy battery life, and a lightweight design that makes it super easy to carry around all day. It's keyboard has large, stable keys with backlighting, making it easy to type on in well lit classrooms and in darker bedrooms when it's time for homework.
For college students who need extra performance for their work and would like to do a little gaming in their downtime, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE is the best tool for the job. It has a beautiful, high-resolution display, that makes it great for fitting more on screen at once when doing something productive. Students can also play games and watch movies at higher resolution, and it has a high-refresh rate display to make games and everything else you do on this laptop look buttery smooth. At 16 inches, it has heaps of space for whatever you're working on.
What the experts say: While the port selection on this device is limited to USB-C, that's arguably for the best. It pushes the focus more on to cloud connected computing, which Professor Rambarran calls one of the best security features of modern Chromebooks. "An added benefit of using cloud storage for hosting academic files is reducing the risk of having these files on USB storage devices. Hardware tends to break after awhile and this is a common dilemma with portable thumb-drives. A risk for using thumb-drives would be the possibility of contamination of the device due to viruses or malware when connected to unsecure computers, which can corrupt your files."
To find the best Chromebooks for students, I relied on firsthand testing experience with some of the best laptops in the world along with robust research. I also conducted interviews with parents and technology leaders, talked to educators and students themselves, to find out what they want and need from their laptops.
The parenting and tech teams here collaborated to weigh in their choices too. I cross-referenced all of this background with third-party reviews from other experts and user reviews, consolidating all of that data into this list of the best Chromebooks for students of all ages.
If you just need a Chromebook that gives your child web access for research, and the ability to use Google's various online applications like Slides, Sheets, and Docs, then the cheapest Chromebook will do the job. Our favorite value Chromebook for kids is the HP Chromebook 14. It's not only super cheap, but it looks good, performs well, and is lightweight enough to carry to and from school.
Chromebooks are focused on online services, too, so they're great if you want to work on different machines at work or home, while using this laptop elsewhere. They also tend to be lightweight and offer good battery life, and there are models with robust chassis that help them stand up to the rigors of daily school schedules.
8d45195817