Best Buy has a lot of great technology products for sale, so it is no surprise that you’ll find some of the best Chromebooks there. Both in-person, and online, you’ll find a Chromebook that fits your needs at Best Buy from companies like HP and even Acer. There are even a lot of different Chromebooks you can buy for all kinds of budgets.
We’re talking about premium Chromebooks, tablets, mid-range Chromebooks, education Chromebooks, and so much more. The number of Chromebooks is so large that we’ve put together a list of options for the best available and in stock today at Best Buy. Check it out, and navigate to your favorite section with the links below.
Navigate this article:
- Best overall: Acer Chromebook Spin 714
- Best for media consumption: Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2
- Best tablet: Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5
- Best for education: Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook
- Best mid-range: Samsung Chromebook 4+
- Best 17-inch: Acer Chromebook 317
- Best for kids: HP Chromebook x2 11
Best overall: Acer Chromebook Spin 714
Typically if you shop at Best Buy, you’ll find the best product by sorting by the highest price and by choosing what’s in stock. That’s what we did, and we came across one of the newest Chromebooks offered at the retailer. It’s the Acer Chromebook Spin 714. This Chromebook is actually one of the best from Acer, and it’s priced decently at $729. It has some newer specifications, too, and is a really good buy. Here’s more on why.
The first thing of note is the 12th-generation Intel processors and the overall specs on this unit. This Chromebook has the 12th generation Intel Core i5-1235U CPU. This generation CPU is rarer to find in Chromebooks, as they’re what are in the latest Windows laptops instead. Chromebooks typically have an older generation Intel CPU. There’s a lot to like, too, as 12th Gen Intel CPUs offer performance cores and efficient cores to help make your everyday use of this Chromebook amazing. Then, with the RAM, there’s a total of 8GB on this specific model. It’s about average on a Chromebook, and helps support multitasking, and even running Android apps. Even better for all that, this Acer is also using a traditional SSD instead of eMMC or flash storage. That means file transfers and other things will go by much faster.
Next, we want to get into the details of the keyboard and display. Most Chromebooks might have a low-resolution screen, but this one doesn’t. The display is tuned to the newer 16:10 aspect ratio. This is a taller display, so you can fit more content on the screen. And speaking of content, there’s a lot of room for that here. The resolution is set to 1920 x 1200. You’ll be able to enjoy all the content you watch on the screen in any of the various modes of use (tent, stand, tablet, or laptop.) As for the keyboard, it’s what we like to call an island style. This is where the keyboard is in the middle of the Chromebook. The keyboard is also backlit, so you’ll be able to work in the dark. Not every Chromebook has this feature, and it looks pretty great with even lighting across all keys.
Ports are great on this Chromebook, too. Despite the 3.04-pound weight and 0.70 inches thickness, there’s a great selection. You’ll find 1 USB-A, 2 Thunderbolt ports, a headphone jack, and HDMI. The other thing we want to mention includes the garaged stylus. You’ll be able to use this to draw on the screen without worrying about attaching the pen to the side of a Chromebook or the top of the screen. Garaged means that the stylus comes built into the chassis. When traveling, you can keep it secure.
- The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 is the best Acer Chromebook you can buy for your money at Best Buy thanks to the amazing display and new Intel CPUs
|
Features: |
|
|
|
Pros: Cons: |
Best for media consumption: Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2
Chromebooks aren’t just for work or school anymore. When people have downtime, they might end up using a Chromebook to watch movies or stream content from apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. For that, you’ll need a really vibrant, color-accurate display, similar to a television screen. Best Buy sells a lot of great TVs, but a Chromebook for sale at the retailer with a screen technology similar to that of a TV is the Galaxy Chromebook 2.
This is actually the first Chromebook with a QLED display, just like the original Galaxy Chromebook which was the first with an OLED display This followup model, though reduces some of the premium features to attain a more reasonable price. The most impressive feature here is definitely the display. You’ll be able to get awestruck by every image with the world’s first jaw-dropping QLED display on a Chromebook, which produces over 100% color volume.
The processor options, though are not quite as high-end as the original Galaxy Chromebook, but the Intel Core i3 should do the job for most users. Storage on this device tops out at 128GB, but this is still ultra-fast SSD storage we’re talking about. You also retain 8GB of RAM and get improved battery life when compared to the original Galaxy Chromebook.
While this is a touch screen device, and the S-pen is still supported, it’s not bundled with the laptop so you’ll need to purchase it separately. This also means there’s no slot for storing the S-pen in the body of the Chromebook, unlike our other top pick.
Overall, this is the best Samsung Chromebook for you if you can live with the removal of the 4K display and fingerprint sensor. The highly attractive price will sway most users to choose this 2nd-generation device. Keep in mind though that since this Chromebook is all about multimedia, you won’t mind a lot of ports. There’s only USB-C on board on both sides of the device. If you plan to use this at work or school, you’ll need to invest in an adapter to connect it to a monitor.
- With the Galaxy Chromebook 2, Samsung removed a few premium features but also drastically reduced the price. As the first Chromebook with a QLED display, this machine still packs plenty of power and style for most users.
|
Features: |
|
|
|
Pros: Cons: |
Best tablet: Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5
iPads and Android tablets come plenty at Best Buy, but there’s also a growing range of new ChromeOS-powered tablets, too. One of those is the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5. This new Chromebook tablet has a lot of great features that we look for in the best Chromebooks. From an amazing display to a detachable keyboard, as well as long battery life.
Priced at $500 this is a flexible and premium-feeling tablet. But what really makes the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 a great device to own is what’s powering it. Lenovo put the second generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c processor inside this tablet. We put this tablet through our tests and actually found it quite pleasing to use during our review period. There was no lag when gaming and many Android apps ran great. Our web browsing went well, too. Then when it comes to battery, we managed to get an entire day’s worth of work when we used the device. This was despite the power-hungry OLED display, which has flawed similar devices like the original Galaxy Chromebook.
Now let us dive deeper into the included accessories. Typically, a Chromebook tablet has a flimsy and cheap keyboard, the previous Duet Chromebook tablet is a good example of why. Usually, the keyboard is an optional purchase, too, but here, right out of the box you actually can attach this keyboard up to your IdeaPad Duet 5 display, pull out the stand from the back, and get to work. In our review, we were able to comfortably use the IdeaPad Duet 5 on our lap without frustration.
The other part of ChromeOS tablets is how they can be used for multimedia and drawing. The IdeaPad Duet 5 makes these tasks quite fun. You’ll have to buy a USI stylus separately, but once you do, you’ll be able to draw on web pages and use drawing apps from the Google Play Store. Oh, and we do also want to note that the IdeaPad Duet 2 comes with a 16:9 OLED panel. In our tests, the display had really good brightness and great viewing angles, and accurate color reproduction.
There’s one small flaw, though. There is no headphone jack on board this device and it just has two USB-C ports . You’ll need to invest in a dongle for connecting to displays, and USB drives, but this is becoming much more of a common problem with premium Chromebooks in 2022.
- With a vibrant OLED display, spacious keyboard, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet is a road warrior of a ChromeOS tablet
|
Features: |
|
|
|
Pros: Cons: |
Best for education: Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook
The best part of a Chromebook is that it can easily be turned around for use in education. Sometimes, though, Chromebook makers might end up selling specialized devices for students or the education market. Best Buy doesn’t have a lot of these, as you’ll usually need to go through an OEM for that, but we managed to pick out one that fits with good specs for students for use in school or even at home. It’s the Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook.
We’ve picked this Chromebook for its design and overall size and compactness. It’s quite a small device that can fit easily in a bag, or be carried around in hand from classroom to classroom, or from home to school on a commute. The dimensions come in at 11.5 x 8.48 x 0.77 inches, and the weight is 2.64 pounds. If you put it on top of a piece of common legal-sized paper, you’ll see that it’s smaller than that. In other parts We also like the “Abyss Blue” color option, too. It’s quite the stylish color for use in education, when compared to the silver and black laptops you’ll commonly see.
Another reason this Chromebook got to our list has to do with what’s powering it. Students sometimes like to fray away from schoolwork and play games or download unnecessary apps from the Google Play Store. This Chromebook comes with a Mediatek MT8183 SoC that’s not exactly the most powerful to support gaming and heavy multitasking. It’s still good enough for the basics like web browsing, though, and using core Google apps like Sheets, or Pages. That’s because it’s paired with 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC storage.
Oh, and let’s not forget the form factor. As a “Flex” device, this means you can convert this Chromebook to various form factors. This includes a tent, stand, tablet, and regular laptop mode. Students will be able to get more use out of this device for watching lesson plans or even presenting content. The display will help support that, too. It’s an 11.6-inch HD display that comes in at 1366 x 768 resolution. That’s not the highest resolution, but for this price of $189, it’s hard to complain as Chromebooks are mainly used for web browsing in education. If you want a higher resolution, you’ll have to buy something much more premium.
As always, we’ll touch on the ports to end this section. Students likely won’t want to use dongles to attach USB drives and other accessories to their computers, and this is exactly what they’ll be able to avoid. The left side of the device has USB-C, and USB-A ports, as well as a headphone jack and microSD card slot. The right side, meanwhile, has USB-A ports. A volume rocker is also there, too, to help control the audio without going into ChromeOS.
- The Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook is great for students and is one of the cheapest Chromebooks at Best Buy
|
Features: |
|
|
|
Pros: Cons: |
Best mid-range: Samsung Chromebook 4+
A mid-range Chromebook is one that falls between high-end and low-end but is still decently priced. You’ll find a lot of these at Best Buy, but the one that we’ve choosen specifcally is the Samsung Chromebook 4+ This Chromebook has great balance with specs, as well as the overall design, and all for $300.
Powering this device is the Intel Celeron N4000 processor. This is a much lower-end processor, so we do have a fair warning. Things like Android apps might not perform the best due to the slower processor. However, paired with 4GB of RAM, we do think you can get through web browsing just fine. Chrome is heavily optimized for lower-end hardware like this.
With the display comes something that’s rare on a $300 Chromebook. It’s a full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution 15.6-inch panel. This means there’s plenty of room for multitasking and using different apps side by side. And, what’s even better is that. Samsung even slimmed the side bezels of the display down a bit. This makes it seem like a more premium device, but there’s still an ugly chin under the display, a common occurrence for this price.
Going to the keyboard and trackpad now, we like both on this Chromebook but have some gripes. There is some nice key travel since this is an island-style chicklet keyboard. But, the plastic coating of the keyboard deck and trackpad might have a little too much flex when typing too fast. There is the added bonus of it being spillproof, however, which is a huge win for durability. Unfortunately, though, there is no backlighting. You’ll have to stick to using this in the daytime or work under lights at night.
And what about portability? Well, your typical 15-inch Chromebook might be quite heavy, but his one hits a sweet spot since it is made of all plastic. It measures smaller than 15-inches at 14.16 x 9.64 x 0.65 inches. The weight comes in at 3.75 pounds, which is below the typical 4-pound mark that we consider “too heavy.”
Similar to some of the other more expensive Chromebooks you’ll find at Best Buy, Samsung includes two USB-C ports for charging onboard the Chromebook 4+. This is in addition to a headphone jack and a single USB-A port. Older USB drives or peripherals should work fine on this system thanks to that bonus USB-A port.
- The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 4+ strikes a good balance for a small price with a big display, good performance, and a decent keyboard
|
Features: |
|
|
|
Pros: Cons: |
Best 17-inch: Acer Chromebook 317
The biggest Chromebooks you can find at Best Buy at 17-inch Chromebooks. There are not many that are currently in stock (which is not surprising due to the pandemic making Chromebooks popular) but one that we did find is the Acer Chromebook 317. At $500 this Chromebook is too hard to pass off.
We say that because this Chromebook is powered by the Intel Pentium Silver N6000 processor. It is true that this is still a lower-end CPU, but it sits higher in power than the Celeron CPUs of the typical budget Chromebook. This is also a quad-core chip, which means that there’s more power for multitasking. It’s not as good as the performance cores or efficiency cores on 12th Gen Intel chips, but with ChromeOS being optimized for lower-end CPUs, we would not worry too much, especially when you account for the 8GB RAM, and the eMMC storage. 8GB of RAM is more than enough for heavy web browsing.
Another reason we selected this Acer is the keyboard. As a 17-inch laptop, it’s massive, full-size, and even has a number pad. It’s even backlit, so you’ll be able to get through spreadsheets in Google Sheets at night. The number pad even means you can avoid hitting the shift key to input numbers. It’s rare to see a Chromebook with a full-size backlit keyboard like this one.
You might also think that 17-inch Chromebooks are heavy, but this one is quite different. Most 17-inch Chromebooks might cross the 5-pound mark, but this one is just under at 4.85 pounds. It’s also thin at about 0.89 inches. For the right person, this Chromebook can be put in a bag for travel really easily.
And speaking of travel, one thing that’s done a lot during travel or on the go might be web browsing or even watching movies. As we often look for in a Chromebook, this one has a Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution display to support all that. At 17.3 inches, you’ll be able to drag windows wherever you please, almost as if you’re at home on an external monitor. There’s even touch support, which helps make managing those windows much easier.
Last up as to why we choose this Chromebook are the ports. There’s no HDMI port for hooking up to a monitor, so dongles will be needed. However, there’s still a wide range of other ports. The left side of this laptop has USB Type-C, USB-A, microSD, and a headphone jack. The right-side has USB-A, and USB-C. All of these USB ports should be speedy enough for data transfers.
- With a big screen and Intel Pentium processors, it's hard to pass up on this 17-inch Chromebook at Best Buy
|
Features: |
|
|
|
Pros: Cons: |
Best for kids: HP Chromebook x2 11
Our last pick from Best Buy is one for kids. With ChromeOS being simple to use and understand, buying a child a Chromebook for their first computer is a great idea. They’ll eventually learn the ropes and you’ll be able to upgrade them to a newer device later on. Our choice for this category is the HP Chromebook x2 11.
While we already picked our favorite Chromebook tablet above, this is a much better option for younger kids. The screen is sized just perfectly, and there are many of the same features. It’s also much smaller, easier to travel with, and has great performance for the price of $570. Again, much like the Lenovo tablet, this device is powered by an Arm-based chip. It’s the lower-powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c, paired up with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage. For using Android apps, this chip is perfect, as Android apps are coded for phones that use Arm chips. Even web browsing will be great because of the 8GB of RAM. And the final part of the benefit of this chip? Battery life, as you should be able to get to 8 hours with no issues.
Going back to the ability to travel with this tablet though, here are some specifics. With a tiny 11-inch form factor, this device comes in at 9.94 x 6.96 x 0.3 inches and weighs 1.04 pounds. That’s so small that you’ll almost forget that it’s even in your bag. The small size even carries over to the detachable keyboard which is included in the price. It doubles as a cover for the screen and has really good key travel, and a decent trackpad.
The screen is great, too for something that’s 11-inches. You typically see this 2.1K resolution (2160 x 1440) multi-touch enabled display on higher-end Chromebooks. It comes with relatively slim bezels similar to that of the iPad. Other than that, the panel hits 400 nits of brightness, which is above the typical 250 nits on budget Chromebooks. Combine it with the stand, and this makes it great for streaming movies or shows on Netflix and propping the tablet on your lap or desk.
The other things that make this tablet great for kids are the cameras. There’s a 5MP wide-vision front camera for web calls and an 8MP rear camera. A kid can grab this Chromebook and take pictures of things around them, and share them with family or friends. Combine that with the included HP Pen, and they can even draw on those pictures by using drawing apps from the Google Play store.
- The HP Chromebook x2 11 combines the power of Chrome OS with the portability of a traditional tablet. You can work anywhere thanks to the optional 4G LTE capability. This is the new top of the line Chrome OS tablet experience.
|
Features: |
|
|
|
Pros: Cons: |
These are all of the best Chromebooks you can buy at Best Buy today. There are a lot of great options and we hope that this list helped you find the right device. If not, there are a lot of other great retailers that you can find Chromebooks from. We touch on those in our guide to the best Chromebooks.
The post Best Chromebooks available at Best Buy in 2022 appeared first on XDA.
source https://www.xda-developers.com/best-chromebooks-best-buy/