Exporting a video from InShot to Instagram, for instance, didn’t always work, with the latter often crashing on me. If you do want to get a little spicy, the Acer Chromebook Spin 314 (2023) does have that 2-in-1 form factor so it can easily double as a tablet if you so choose. It's one of the best notebook workstations we've ever tested, making it excellent for content creation professionals. Finally, the lightweight nature of the operating system also lets the best Chromebooks beat out traditional laptops in some key areas, like portability and battery life.

The webcam is just 720p, and you'll want to bring appropriate adapters to really take advantage of the laptop's Thunderbolt 4 ports. You’re after a fantastic value 2-in-1 Chromebook: The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 really is an awful lot of machine for the money and performs much better than the on-paper specifications imply, the perfect college companion. The bigger screen and desktop replacement form factor cry out for a high-performance spec but the Intel Celeron N4500 doesn’t have the cores or the firepower of the faster Intel Pentium Gold, Intel Core i3 and Intel Core i5 CPUs, and Acer hasn’t backed it up with 8GB of RAM or a speedy SSD. It also meets next-level and industry-leading MIL-STD 810H US military tests 3, which are more rigorous and demanding than ever before.

The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is still the best Chrome-powered laptop on the market - even if its pricing means that it won't be the best pick for everyone, at least not in its higher-end configurations. While this is a mid-range laptop, it has some premium appointments from its sturdy hinges and reasonably powerful specs to the WUXGA 16:10 touch screen.

It's ideal for getting work done with the keyboard cover attached, then converting to tablet mode for some relaxing streaming. The big speaker grilles promise something weighty with good separation but, while there’s a decent stereo spread, the output is tinny and lacking in body or low-end presence. When it comes to CPUs, Intel parts teamed with discrete GeForce, RTX A-series (formerly Quadro), or Radeon RX graphics processors lead the popularity contest over AMD's mobile Ryzen 5 and 7 chips with their integrated graphics. But, if you look hard enough, you’ll find plenty of affordable yet capable and premium-feeling choices as well – case in point, the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (2022). In practice, it’s fine for web browsing, light image editing and productivity tasks, but run a handful of apps simultaneously, or keep a dozen browser tabs open, and you’ll notice a momentary pause when switching between them that you wouldn’t spot on a faster device.

Instead, the 317 comes with a Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 display; the minimum you want on a screen this size. It also trumped both in our multitasking test, reporting a Speedometer benchmark result of 72 while playing 4K video and running the MotionMark 1. Despite being a space-consuming laptop surrounded by a sea of slim and svelte rivals, the Chromebook 317 has a commanding, confident presence that says, “Hey, chunky Chromebooks deserve love, too!

Acer backs the 317 with a one-year warranty and sweetens it with the usual Chromebook perks, including one year of 100GB Google One cloud storage and three-month YouTube Premium, Canva Pro, and SoundCloud Go+ trials.

Charging time requires the battery to be at least 5% charged, with the device inactive and using the included charger. It’s meant to be portable and pawed at, which is why so many of the Chromebooks you see are convertible laptops. More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds. I fired up a new document on Google Docs and plugged away; I didn’t experience any lag or system slowdowns.