Engineered to withstand accidental drops, spills, and sudden shock, the Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Chromebook ($341.05 as tested) is a good match for the classroom or for users who spend lots of time on the road. Powered by a quad-core Intel Celeron CPU and 4GB of RAM, this 11-inch chromebook delivers a typical school-day's-worth of battery life and can handle multiple video and audio streams without a hiccup. However, it's a bit heavier than most 11-inch chromebooks we've looked at (but not by much), and it lacks the features and aesthetics that come with our Editors' Choice, the Asus Chromebook Flip (C100PA-DB02)( at Amazon).

Design and Features
Like the Dell Chromebook 11 Non-Touch($299.00 at Dell Technologies), there's nothing fancy about the ThinkPad 11e Chromebook, but its MIL-SPEC-rated chassis is more about durability than style. Done up in matte black with reinforced hinges and corners, an extra sturdy lid, and a rubber bumper to protect the display, this laptop is built to endure high and low pressure and temperatures, vibration, and exposure to dust. It measures 0.87 by 11.8 by 8.5 inches (HWD), and at 3.1 pounds, it's slightly heavier than most chromebooks, such as the Dell Chromebook 11($299.00 at Dell Technologies) (2.7 pounds) and the HP Chromebook 11( at Amazon) (2.3 pounds). The spacious keyboard, also reinforced, has that familiar ThinkPad look and feel. Its chiclet-style keys are well spaced and offer plenty of room for comfortable typing, and the upper row contains all of the usual Chrome OS keys; the only thing missing is a Trackpoint controller. The touchpad is roomy and responsive and uses an integrated bar for mouse-button commands.

The 11.6-inch display has a 1,366-by-768 resolution and a matte, anti-glare coating, but it lacks the touch capabilities that you get with the Dell Chromebook 11 Touch($163.00 at Amazon) and the Asus Chromebook Flip (C100PA-DB02)( at Amazon). Color quality is good, and horizontal viewing angles are wide, but there's a noticeable loss of luminance when viewed from the top and bottom, a fairly common trait of laptop displays that use Twisted Nematic (TN) panels. A 720p webcam and microphone array is embedded in the upper bezel. The built-in speakers are a bit trebly, but moderately loud and distortion-free.

The left side of the chassis holds the power port, a 4-in-1 media card slot, a charging USB 2.0 port, and a headphone jack. Over on the right side are an HDMI 1.4 port, a USB 3.0 port, volume controls, and the Power switch. There's also a cable-lock slot. The ThinkPad 11e Chromebook has 16GB of eMMC (embedded MultiMediaCard) flash memory, and wireless networking comes by way of Intel's 7260 dual band 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 combo adapter. Lenovo covers the system with a one-year warranty.

Performance
The ThinkPad 11e Chromebook's 1.83GHz Intel Celeron N2940 quad-core CPU and 4GB of DDR3 RAM provide lots of power. Pandora audio and YouTube videos played smoothly in testing, despite having eight tabs open at the same time, and Web surfing was brisk. Boot time is around 8 seconds, which is right on par with other chromebooks, such as the CTL Chromebook J2( at Amazon) and the Dell Chromebook 11 Non-Touch, but not quite as fast as the 4-second boot time we saw with the Dell Chromebook 11 (Core i3)($299.00 at Dell Technologies).

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The ThinkPad 11e's 4-cell sealed battery provided a respectable 7 hours 35 minutes of battery life in our rundown test. That'll get you through a full day of school without needing a charge, but can't match the Google Chromebook Pixel( at Amazon) (12:00) or the Asus Chromebook Flip (C100PA-DB02) (11:15).

Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkPad 11e Chromebook may cost a little more than most other Chrome OS laptops, and it is a bit heavier, but it is built like a tank and is well-suited to classroom duty and life on the road. Its quad-core processor handles multiple audio and video streams with aplomb, and its keyboard is standard ThinkPad quality. That said, a touch-screen would help take the sting out the $340 price tag. If the lack of a touch screen is a deal-breaker, check out our Editors' Choice, the Asus Chromebook Flip (C100PA-DB02). Not only does it offer touch-screen capability, but it has a convertible display that allows you to use it as a tablet.

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