Are you looking to buy a new Chromebook for yourself, your kids, or anyone else
for that matter? Not sure which one to buy or what you should be looking for when you do?
Well here I'm going to share with you the recommended specs that I think you should
be watching out for when you go shopping, and give you my recommendation as to some of the best
Chromebooks available for you to buy regardless of your budget. I'll also cover what I consider some
of the core accessories that you absolutely should consider buying as well, and I'll be sharing with
you my secret to ensuring that the Chromebook that you buy will last you as long as possible!
Welcome to my Tech Gear…
Let's get into it!
Probably one of the most important things you need to look at is the screen, both the size and
its resolution. Also, whether it's touchscreen or not. Most Chromebooks are going to be, by default,
an 11.6 inch screen. Most of them will also be an HD screen. Now that's 1366 by 768 pixels long and
high. If you do go up to bigger screens though you start looking at 14 or 15 inch screens,
then I think you need to go for a full HD screen. So full HD is 1920x1080. So
it is a higher resolution. Smaller screens HD. Larger screens 1080. Got it? Sweet!
I also think you should absolutely get a touchscreen unless you're on a super tight budget.
Most Chromebooks these days come with Google Play Store integrated into them. So with most of the
games and the apps on the Play Store optimized for a touch experience, and a touch interface,
if you don't have a touchscreen, using those apps, using those games, gets a little bit clunky.
So if you're not going to use the games and apps off the Play Store I'd say you don't have to get
a touchscreen, but honestly you're missing out on a massive part of the ecosystem if you don't.
The CPU, the chipset, the central processing unit and the heart of the machine is crucial,
and don't go cheap with this. So at a bare minimum I think you should be
looking at something like the Intel Celeron N4000 for a basic Chromebook
and then you can move up to things like the Intel Core M3, i3, i5, i7 as your budget increases.
A good keyboard and a touchpad is essential. You don't want it too small and cramped
so just make sure you get a decent size. Your touchpad should be a decent size as well. Also
make sure there's at least a couple of USB ports on the side of the Chromebook
because you're going to want to plug in things like mice, external hard drives,
USB sticks, stuff like that. So make sure it's got at least a couple of USB ports.
Memory. Now there's two kinds of memory we need to concentrate on. There is the RAM,
or the memory that it needs to run, and the storage space on the device as well. So for the
memory I would say don't get anything lower than 4GB’s. Anything lower than that and it's really
going to struggle running games, and certainly with multitasking it's going to struggle as well.
Storage wise I wouldn't go for anything lower than 32GB’s. I would actually say 64GB is
probably the sweet spot. So look at that when you're looking at the specs of your Chromebooks.
Battery life is critically important here because Chromebooks are labeled as all day
devices so you do want a battery life that's eight hours or higher.
Fortunately most Chromebooks are, but certainly there are some that are coming in at about
five / six hours of battery life and for me that's nowhere near enough. Some of
the class leading ones actually have up to 12 hours of battery life which is awesome.
So I think we would all agree that build quality needs to be good, it's the type of build quality
that is going to change depending on who's going to use the Chromebook. So if you are going to have
an adult using it for instance you want something that's probably svelte and thin and stylish,
maybe an aluminium chassis, all that kind of stuff that looks good. If you are giving it to
a seven-year-old kid...probably you don't want it built like that! You want it built like a
rock! So if they drop it, which they will, it's going to survive the fall. So for that there is
a military standard grade build, so it's an 810G or an 810H. So you will see Chromebooks that are
labeled for that so they are built tough. So certainly a couple of the Chromebooks that I'm
going to recommend are specifically targeted at younger children so you'll be good in that area.
So just to recap, on the spec, for screens, HD resolution on 11.6 inch screen full HD
on larger screens. Touchscreen if you intend to use the apps and the games from the Play Store.
Intel chipset. 4GB of memory. 32GB of storage. All-day battery life, and a good quality build.
And with that in mind let's get to some recommendations…
I will place purchase links to all of the Chromebooks I'm about to mention
in the description down below for you,
where all the prices are correct at the time of making this video.
First up is budget. Now these are going to be great for kids in junior or grade school,
or middle school, or junior high, or you know, the younger end of the kids. Now
they're going to be wanting an inexpensive Chromebook that will also take a few knocks,
so as I've mentioned military grade tested is an absolute necessity. 810H or 810G certified.
First up we have the Acer Chromebook 311, also known as the C722. This comes with an 11.6 inch
HD screen, so it's 1366 by 768, and it's a touch display. It also comes with an Intel
Celeron N4000 processor, 4GB RAM, and 32GB of storage. It's got up to 10 hours of battery life,
so it is easily going to last you all day at school, and it only cost $200! That is
a really good buy, for what is a really good spec of Chromebook, and that for me is the bare minimum
of what you should be looking for in getting a Chromebook that is going to last you for years.
If you want to push the boat out a little bit more and get something with a flip screen,
so that two in one, then look at something like the Asus Chromebook Flip C214.
This is pretty much the same spec. So it's an 11.6 inch HD screen,
military grade tested to 810G, same processor - Intel N4000, 4 GB RAM, 32GB of storage.
That's going to cost you $278. So you're paying extra $78 to have that flip screen.
If your heart is really set on a two-in-one model and you want something that's a
little bit better spec, than the two here I would thoroughly recommend.
First one up is the Lenovo Chromo… Chromo?! Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5,
which is a 2-in-1. It is a full 13 inch full HD touchscreen. The size of the actual Chromebook is
not that much different than the 11 inch models because the bezels on the 13 inch screen are so
thin. It also comes with an Intel Core i3 processor, 4 GB RAM and 64GB of storage. It
still has 10 hours of battery life and it's going to cost you $376, but you are getting a 13 inch HD
touch screen. You're getting a better processor with it, and you're getting twice the storage.
If you do want to push the boat out and get something a little bit higher spec
then look at the Acer Chromebook Spin 713. This is an awesome Chromebook, but you are going to
pay for it. I'll get to the price in a minute. You are going to get a 2k screen, so this is
2,256 by 1,504, in a 13.5 inch screen. The ratio is different. It's a 3:2 screen whereas everything
else has been generally a wide screen. So that's a format that's more similar to an iPad size screen.
What that means is that you're going to get more real estate for viewing web content and it's super
useful. It also comes with 10 hours of battery life. Now the price is going to depend heavily
on the spec that you get for this Chromebook. So the base model comes with an Intel Core i3,
4GB RAM, and 64GB of storage. That will set you back $499. If you up the spec you can also
get an Intel Core i5 with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. That's going to set you back $729 though.
That is quite a jump and I think for what you use a Chromebook for the bass spec is plenty enough.
If you absolutely have to have the best of the best then look at the Google Pixelbook
Go. The base spec is an Intel Core M3 with 8GB RAM and 64GB of storage,
13.3 inch full HD touchscreen, it's got 12 hours of battery life, that's going to set you back
$649. That's the base model. If you want to go to their top of the range
model then you can get an Intel Core i7 with 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage,
and it comes with a 4k screen! You're going to be paying $1,399! For a Chromebook! It
is a crazy price difference. If money is no object though that is the best of the best.
Now accessory wise I certainly think there are a couple of accessories that you should get
in order to make the most of your Chromebook. First up is a mouse. Just get a bluetooth
wireless mouse. I just got the default Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse. It's really easy. It was cheap
to buy. Pairing it up is super easy. It takes one battery which is a AA, which lasts about a year I
think. It's really good. Definitely recommend getting that. I'll place the link in the
description down below for that as well, along with also getting some protection for it. So it
doesn't matter whether that's a sleeve, a case, a backpack, a tote bag, whatever, just get something
to protect your Chromebook. If you are going to get one for your kids I would say get one that is
big enough to store not just the laptop, or the Chromebook, but also store the mouse as well.
And now we get to my last thing,
which is the secret I think which is crucial when picking your Chromebook…
Now every Chromebook has a shelf life. So generally it's eight years that Google say
that they will support a Chromebook until they stop supporting it and it stops getting
security updates, and firmware updates, and things like that. Now, it's not eight years from when you
bought it. It's eight years from when the model came out. So if you buy a model, and it's brand
new this year, it will have eight years of security patches and updates, which is great.
However, if you buy a cheap model because it's on sale, but it's a model that's four years old,
you've only got four years of support left! So, it's absolutely crucial to make sure that you get
the longest shelf life that you possibly can. Fortunately there is a website for this where
you can go to and it will give you a list of every laptop, from every manufacturer,
and when their support is going to run out. I will place a link to it in the description down below.
It's google's official webpage so you are going to get the most up-to-date information.
If we look at the Chromebooks I've actually recommended just now and we look at their expiry
dates, most of them are going to expire in 2028. So, from the date of this video you've got about
seven years of shelf life, or seven years of support, before it stops getting updates.
It is worth pointing out that the Chromebooks don't stop
working when they get their shelf life hit, they just won't get updates anymore.
So I hope this has helped you understand what I consider to be the bare minimums of
when you go shopping for a Chromebook. Hopefully it's given you some ideas
of what you should be looking out for. Again, I've placed a link to
all of the Chromebooks I've mentioned in the description down below for you.
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And as always…
See in the next one!