Top rated Chrome OS laptops

If you’re looking for the absolute best Chromebook that you can buy today, look no further than the Acer Chromebook Spin 513.

It’s one of the most lightweight Chromebooks available, weighing in at just 1.2kg. This means it looks sleek and modern, and we found it to be quite the portable laptop during testing. In addition, the Spin 513 is a convertible laptop, meaning you can flip the display over and use it as a tablet with the bundled stylus, which we found to be mighty convenient. The hinge didn’t feel rattly and wobbly either, with the construction of the Spin 513 underscored by a general sturdiness.

Inside, it packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c processor. Our performance tests showed that this chip can breeze through basic tasks with ease. For instance, it meant the Spin 513 featured some excellent thermal performance and remained quiet, even under heavy workloads. And if you want, you can even plug in a compatible SIM card and take advantage of 4G connectivity when you’re out and about.

The display is good too, with the Spin 513 featuring a 13-inch IPS panel that offers great viewing angles, while we also found that its Full HD resolution served up good quality output. There’s also excellent battery life, with this particular Chromebook lasting for 13 hours and 5 minutes in our battery test.

Reviewer: Reece Bithrey
Full review: Acer Chromebook Spin 513 review

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet is a fantastic option for those craving a 2-in-1 device, giving you the dual functionality of a laptop and a tablet in one convenient package.

Its Media-Tek Helio P60T processor features eight cores, which we found to make it nippy during testing when we were using it for general web browsing. The battery life of around 13 hours is also stellar, and puts it up against more expensive laptops, even beating off the likes of the Dell XPS 13 OLED.

We also found that the 2-in-1 design means it’s extremely portable and great for those on the move, weighing just 450g. The keyboard cover it comes with is also detachable, enabling you to use the Chromebook Duet as a tablet.

We found its 10-inch touchscreen to offer up some really good colours, which worked great for everyday usage, whether we were indulging in some cloud gaming or enjoying episodes of BoJack Horseman. In darker scenes, the Chromebook Duet did struggle a little during testing. But overall, its display performed reasonably well. There are plenty of other Chromebook laptops that flaunt a 2-in-1 design, but the Lenovo Chromebook Duet remains our favourite due to the bargain price and extremely lightweight design.

Reviewer: Ryan Jones
Full review: Lenovo Chromebook Duet review

The Acer Chromebook 314 is the cheapest Chromebook on our list, but for the price, you’re getting a candidate that offers up features that pricier Chromebooks can’t necessarily compete with.

For instance, we found its battery life to be excellent, with the Chromebook 314 lasting for thirteen and a half hours in the office benchmark. This means it’s got serious endurance, and will last comfortably for a working day before needing to be recharged.

According to our test results, its dual-core Intel Celeron CPU offers up a snappy real-world performance for basic productivity tasks. The 4GB of RAM is enough for opening a few Chrome tabs and apps such as Slack and Spotify without too much of a noticeable slowdown, although the 32GB of eMMC storage will likely fill up quickly. For expansion though, you will find a good selection of ports, including USB-A, USB-C and microSD.

The Acer Chromebook 314 has a noticeable weakness. Its 14-inch display features a low resolution of 1366×768, which is just above 720p, resulting in a sub-par and grainy picture quality. On-screen colours look flat and dull too, which means this isn’t the best option for watching Netflix. There’s also no touchscreen here, which may well be a deal breaker for some.

But if you just need a Chromebook for writing essays and don’t care about the screen quality, then this is one of the very best laptop bargains currently available.

Reviewer: Reece Bithrey
Full review: Acer Chromebook 314 review

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 may have a compact 12.4-inch display, but this is still a great option for streaming video thanks to its impressively high 2560 x 1600 resolution screen resolution. Our tests also showed the panel to offer outstanding contrast, ensuring a vibrant picture for video via the likes of Netflix and YouTube.

We also found the dinky frame makes this laptop extremely easy to carry around, while its weight of just 1.28kg means you’ll probably struggle to feel its heft when tucked inside a bag. If you opt for the LTE model, you can even slot in your SIM card for on-the-go connectivity beyond the reach of your router.

The 2-in-1 design means you can also use this laptop like a tablet, although it doesn’t match up to the likes of an iPad. Our biggest grip with this tablet is the processor, with our tests showing it to be only powerful enough for the simplest of tasks. Our benchmarks also showed battery life to be relatively poor, lasting just six hours of video playback.

But if you’re going to be using this Chromebook at home in reach of a power adaptor, then this is still a fantastic option. You’ll struggle to find a Chromebook at this price with a superior screen.

Reviewer: Ryan Jones
Full review: Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 review

The Google Pixelbook Go is a brilliantly designed laptop with a minimalistic, matte black frame. Tipping the scales at just over a kilogram in weight also means we found it to be a great option for those wanting something wonderfully portable.

The mid-tier model, complete with an eighth-gen Intel Core i5 processor and 128GB, offers a speedy performance for ChromeOS, but it’s really the software that restricts the Pixelbook Go. Google’s own premium Chromebook occupies an odd position where it’s a premium laptop on the outside with a less powerful OS on the inside, and splashing out on a high-class laptop for simple tasks seems like a backwards purchase.

A 4K model is available if you’re willing to spend four figures on a Chromebook, but our sample’s 1080p panel is perfectly functional with crisp colours and touch input. It’s serviceable for day-to-day usage, but if having a top display on a Chromebook is a top priority, then the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook with its 4K OLED panel may be a better bet.

We found the Pixelbook Go’s battery life to be stellar too, with it offering a good amount of endurance. During testing, we found it lasted for nearly 12 hours before conking out in our battery loop test, and lasted for a working day comfortably with around 20% juice to spare.

The Google Pixelbook Go hits the sweet spot between performance and price, making it a great alternative to more expensive laptops for those who only need a machine for web browsing, video streaming and word processing.

Reviewer: Max Parker
Full review: Google Pixelbook Go review

Best performance Chromebook

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 Chromebook is a brilliant high-powered Chromebook for those who want more oomph to power their ChromeOS experiences.

We found its Intel Core i5-10210U processor to deliver a good performance for tasks that a Chromebook is traditionally designed for: web browsing, video streaming and basic office tasks. The 8GB of RAM also provides good headroom for multitasking, with no real faltering with a load of browser tabs open simultaneously.

The 13.3-inch Full HD panel on the Flex 5 is also a major plus point. It’s also a touchscreen, which we found make this a very versatile laptop. In actual fact, it’s a better display than some Windows laptops that occupy the same £500 or so price point, including one of our favourite budget laptops, the Surface Laptop Go from Microsoft.

The Flex 5 also features a good battery life too. We measured it to last nearly 13 hours before conking out in our video loop test, which puts it firmly ahead of similarly-priced Windows laptops, and allowed it to smash Lenovo’s own quoted 10 hours of battery life.

Overall, this is a great Chromebook with good performance to back it up. Just watch out for the thin-sounding speakers and plastic trackpad, which we weren’t big fans of. But if you’re after power in a Chromebook at a more affordable price, the Flex 5 is an excellent option.

Reviewer: Andrew Williams
Full review: Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 Chromebook review