- I don't know, I think it's like an important thing
to explain to people like what the difference is.
No, they're absolutely not the same thing.
(bright music)
Chromebooks and Windows laptops and Mac laptops
are all physically laptops, they all have screens
and keyboards and they do things that laptops do.
But Chromebooks run Chrome OS, which is an operating system
that's built on the Chrome browser, so it means
that you can do anything that you can do on a browser.
You can check your email, you can check social media,
you can work in Google docs and spreadsheets,
PowerPoints, watch Netflix, you can take Zoom calls.
You can do all of those sorts of things on a Chromebook.
So Chromebooks first started coming out in 2011
and they got a reputation very early on for being crappy
and not being able to do very much.
And around 2014,
they actually stopped being super cheap and super crappy,
manufacturers started making ones that were fast enough.
Most of the things that you wanted to do
could be done in a browser.
And then a couple of years ago actually,
Google added Android apps into Chromebooks
so that kind of fills a bunch of holes of very specific
things that you weren't able to do on Chrome OS before.
(bright music)
So some of the limitations of Chromebooks
are that you can't run specific programs
that you can run on Windows or Mac.
For example, iTunes, Photoshop, or specific Windows games,
you're not going to be able to run those.
Chromebooks do have Chrome extensions and Android equivalent
that fill some of these holes,
but there are definitely certain apps
that you straight up cannot run on a Chromebook.
Chromebooks also tend to have little local storage
and they rely on cloud storage provided by Google
and they work best with an internet connection.
Even though there are some offline,
both for Gmail and Google docs.
Chromebooks tend to be cheaper than Windows laptops
for similar specs, and whenever you have a similarly priced
Chromebook and a similarly priced Windows laptop,
the Chromebook is typically going to be faster.
It's gonna be better made, it's gonna have longer
battery life, and it's typically gonna be more portable
than these cheap Windows laptops.
(jazzy music)
I would say most people are solidly served
by a Chromebook, it'll do everything that you need it to do,
but if you play a lot of games,
you probably don't want a Chromebook unless you're willing
to stream them through one of the games streaming services
that are becoming more popular right now.
If you need a specific app that your school requires
and they don't recommend that you use a Chromebook,
then you probably want a Windows laptop or a Mac.
And if you're like a heavy video or photo editor,
you probably don't want a Chromebook.
(upbeat music)
So you're looking at a $500 Chromebook,
and you're looking at a $500 Windows laptop.
That Chromebook is probably going to be faster,
in the things that you use it for.
Cheap Windows laptops tend to only have 4GB of memory.
And that's a huge limitation on Windows,
Whereas Chrome OS is a lighter operating system
and it runs better on less ram.
And those Chromebooks also tend to be better made,
they have better build quality,
they have longer battery life,
and they tend to be smaller and more affordable.
(bright music)
The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is our top pick
for Chromebooks because it's inexpensive at around $400.
It's fast enough for the things that most people
need to use a laptop for,
it has a great keyboard and track pad,
and it also has a handy touchscreen.
Small and light, and the battery life is decent,
but it's not the best compared to some of our other picks.
So our upgrade pick is the Google Pixelbook Go,
and it costs around $650.
Chromebooks have historically a terrible rep
as being cheap and slow.
This one however, is smaller and lighter
than pretty much every other Chromebook I've ever tested.
It has an excellent keyboard and track pad, and it's about
as well-made as a Macbook Air or a Windows Ultrabook,
but it cost hundreds of dollars less.
It's my personal favorite Chromebook that I tested,
and it's actually what I used to cover the consumer
electronics show earlier this year.
So the Acer Chromebook 712 is our more durable pick
for kids, costs around $300.
It's fast enough which is a really big deal
for such a cheap Chromebook, most Chromebooks
in this price range are miserably slow,
and it's extra durable.
It has bumpers and a spill resistant keyboard.
It can handle up to about
1.5 cups of water dumped into it.
Wirecutter Editor Thorin Klosowski has actually seen
the kids that he tutors dump water into the previous version
of this laptop, and we did the same thing for photos
for our guide, and it's still working.
But it does have a terrible low resolution screen
that looks faded and washed out.
So that's the trade off for such a cheap option.
If you have any questions about Chromebooks
or laptops in general,
please leave them in the comments below
and we'll get to them when we can.
Like, and subscribe.