The laptop market has changed a lot over the last decade. From 2-in-1 designs to ultra-slim ultrabooks, today’s laptop PC landscape offers many more options than yesteryear’s mostly binary choice of “Windows or Mac.” One popular alternative to traditional laptop computers that has burst onto the scene recently is the Chromebook, a lightweight, user-friendly design that ditches traditional operating systems in favor of Google’s Chrome OS.
The best Chromebooks cost as much as most Windows laptops and even some MacBooks. For many people, this totally defeats the purpose of a Chrome OS laptop, which is to serve as a cheaper and more streamlined alternative to standard computers. You’ve got a lot of options for budget-friendly Chromebooks, though, like the $299 Lenovo S330, which is now even cheaper after a 45% discount brings it down to a super-affordable $159 from Walmart for a short time.
The defining characteristic of a Chromebook like the Lenovo S330 is that it comes loaded with Chrome OS, a Linux-based operating system developed by Google. Chrome OS is largely cloud-based, meaning that it stores data online and utilizes Google apps like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs instead of traditional software like Microsoft Office. This mitigates or even largely eliminates the need for large hard drives which is where you normally park all of your software and files.
Many Chromebooks come in at 11 or 12 inches, harking back to the days of those weird little netbook laptops. In contrast to those too-tiny-for-work laptops, the Lenovo S330 Chromebook hits the sweet spot with a 14-inch HD display. This is arguably the perfect size for an all-day work laptop that’s still light and easy to carry around. Under the hood, the Lenovo S330 packs a Mediatek quad-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 32GB SSD. It won’t replace a MacBook Pro, but this Chromebook is a fine choice for a no-frills machine for work or school.
The Lenovo S330 is fairly affordable even at its normal price of $299, but right now, this budget-friendly Chrome laptop is marked down to just $159 on Walmart after a $140 discount. This is one of the lowest prices you’ll find for a brand-name, full-size Chromebook like this, and it would make for a great basic work computer for an on-the-go professional, young student, or anyone else looking for a no-frills daily-use computer that won’t break the bank.
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