You could say that it’s fall, with winter on the horizon, but you could also call it “laptop season.” Now, more than ever — with many months inside ahead of us — we need a laptop that can move with us, from room to room and beyond. A laptop lets you get mobile with your computing, which, in these times of isolation and quarantine, can be a lifesaver. And it’s a great time to buy one. Right now, Amazon has some amazing deals on Chromebooks and other affordable PC laptops that can not only add a necessary laptop to your life, they could save it.
Asus Chromebook 11.6 — $220, was $270
This Asus Chromebook is a basic approach to work and play, and the price reflects it, but that doesn’t mean it’s without some fantastic features. This is a perfect little workhouse if you, or your kids, just need a machine to get the job done. It has an Intel Celeron N3350 chip, which means it can handle the workload and it’s backed up by 4GB RAM with 16GB of storage space. Now, that’s not enough room to stash all your movies and music, but it’s plenty to store work files (the rest you can place on the cloud). This Chromebook is only 2.2 pounds and has a battery that lasts 10 hours, which means it’s the perfect machine to toss in your bag on the way to work or school and will carry you throughout the day without a charge.
Lenovo IdeaPad 14 — $235, was $309
Unlike the Lenovo Flex, this laptop’s hinge only folds one way, but it’s also half the price of a Flex and can handle much the same workload. This is a great laptop if a bigger screen is what you need for work projects, or for gaming or watching your favorite shows. We don’t see 14-inch laptops for this cheap very often, but it boasts brilliant 1366 x 768 HD resolution, as well as an energy-efficient LED backlight. There’s some muscle, too, including dual-core processing in the AMD A6-9220e accelerated processor, 4GB of RAM backing it up, and a 64GB storage drive. Important here: That storage drive is a flash drive, which means that accessing files will be quicker, and the storage more reliable. You’ll be surprised by the multitasking and the size of the apps and games this machine can handle. It’s loaded with Windows 10, as well, so it comes ready to work.
HP Chromebook 14 — $270, was $298
HP Chromebooks are sleek, look fantastic, and carry all the legendary performance qualities that HP’s name brings. First of all, it looks great; it’s sleek, thin, and subtle. It’s powered by an Intel Celeron N4000 processor, backed up by 4GB RAM and has 32GB storage, which are all pretty standard for a laptop this size and price. What’s neat here are the special little adds that HP has provided, like its super-sensitive touchpad that has gesture capabilities. And then there’s the screen, which is a micro-edge 1080 HD display. But what’s really awesome is the sound: The audio boasts dual speakers produced from Bang & Olufsen. Finally, the battery lasts an impressive 13 hours — that’s as long as we’ve seen on a Chromebook.
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