(Credit: PCMag / Best Buy / Walmart)
As November moves closer and closer to Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year, the deals are starting to hit. November 28 is going to see massive price drops on just about everything you would ever want, including top tech. Chromebooks are popular in school settings, but as Chrome OS gets better, they're staking out claims for productivity, content creation, and even gaming (thanks to cloud-based services). Leading up to Black Friday, we're already seeing some wild discounts on well-constructed Chrome laptops from top brands, with cuts as deep as 60% off of already-low retail. Keep checking back for more top deals all month!
Lenovo Chromebook Deal
Our portable PC expert Brian Westover said that the Lenovo Flex 5i was "one of the best performing ChromeOS laptops we've seen" in our review, noting that it delivered on Lenovo's typical sturdy and stylish build quality, responsive keyboard, and large, bright touchscreen. The Chromebook Plus platform guarantees a higher level of performance, and the Core i3 processor and larger-than-normal RAM loadout let you multitask easily. Battery life is also decent, although the more potent silicon means that it doesn't keep pace with less power-hungry models. A $250 discount is astounding.
Acer Chromebook Deal
If you're looking for a pure value proposition, you're not going to do much better than this capable Acer with an included carrying case for $119. In our review of the Acer Chromebook 315, we were impressed by its surprisingly big screen and solid port selection. With a dated Intel Celeron processor and skimpy storage, it's not going to compete with Windows laptops, but for students and casual users it's more than good enough for everyday productivity tasks, Web browsing, and watching streaming videos.
HP Chromebook Deal
Since Chrome OS is built around touchscreen support, there are numerous Chromebooks that double as tablets thanks to 360-degree hinges. The HP Chromebook x360 14 is the definition of a midrange machine, with minimal system RAM and storage, but it's well-built, easy to use, and capable for most ordinary tasks. You can read our full review for a complete rundown, but our major negatives were that the screen's not too bright (a common situation for low-powered laptops), and the speakers aren't premium. For a 41% discount, it's a steal.
Saving money is the bread and butter of Chromebook design, and one of the best values on the market is the Asus Chromebook Plus CX14, which is $180 off at Best Buy right now. In our review, we were impressed by its steady productivity performance, good battery life and wide selections of ports, although they're arranged a little weirdly. It's not the sturdiest Chromebook on the market, with an all-plastic chassis, and the 16:9 screen is slightly dim, topping out at 300 nits, but it can do the job.
Check out our in-depth coverage of all the Early Black Friday deals, steals, sales, and discounts that we've found so far!