Chromebook vs. laptop: Buying advice and recommendations

Should you purchase a Chromebook or a Windows laptop computer? It’s a typical query: Both gadgets can surf the net, entry apps, and so forth, at dwelling, work, or college. But there are clear variations between their respective platforms, particularly as regards to the current push in AI.

We sort out the query from a number of views, starting with the fundamentals after which diving deeper. In some methods, the 2 classes have moved nearer collectively, as a lot of our work is carried out on the net. But advances within the capabilities of native CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs additionally set up clear variations between what they’ll and can’t do. We’ll outline the variations after which advise you on which gadget to buy.

Who should purchase a Windows laptop computer?

If you need probably the most energy and suppleness out there, purchase a contemporary Windows laptop computer. See our roundup of the best laptops for a variety of shopping for suggestions, and our daily laptop deals (up to date virtually day-after-day) for the most recent gross sales on prime laptops.

A laptop computer PC powered by Microsoft Windows provides a number of benefits. Windows laptops can run nearly any app, your selection of any browser, and choices that embrace native video games, utilities, apps, and antivirus packages. You can tweak and configure your PC as you select.

The comfort of Windows calls for extra computing horsepower and sometimes the next worth in comparison with most Chromebooks. On the opposite hand, in the event you want a powerful PC for gaming or video editing, Chromebooks can’t compete. While you’ll be able to carry out a few of these features by way of an online app, these gained’t work with out a persistent web connection.

Who should purchase a Chromebook?

Traditionally, primary Chromebooks have been the most affordable resolution, principally providing not rather more than an online browser and a few non-compulsory Android apps. Numerous American school rooms have settled on Chromebooks for in-person and distance studying, and sometimes make them out there for loaning to college students. More lately, nevertheless, Google has tried to make Chromebooks an instrument of AI, and also you’ll see Google’s Gemini AI featured on its extra premium Chromebook Plus gadgets, with extra superior specs.

If you wish to get monetary savings, and you’re employed (and play) virtually completely on the net, purchase a Chromebook. See our roundup of the best Chromebooks for purchasing suggestions.

Essentially, Chromebooks are finest for net work: searching the net, working on-line on paperwork, and utilizing net streaming companies like Netflix or Amazon Prime inside an online browser. You may also obtain and use Android apps for gaming and leisure, although they could not run the identical as in your cellphone.

You’ll nonetheless see fairly cheap ($100 to $300) Chromebooks peppered all through Amazon’s record of “best-selling laptops,” however there are premium Chromebook Plus Chromebooks and Chromebooks for gaming now, too. Pay consideration in the course of the holidays or peak gross sales durations like Prime Day, when costs can drop actually low—by round $100 or extra. Just be sure to’re not shopping for a Chromebook that’s fallen out of the help window. (We’ll discuss extra about that, under.)

The effectivity of Chromebooks can work in opposition to them in sure conditions, although. Does your printer use a specialised app? Chances are that your Chromebook will print to your printer, however an older printer may not work all that effectively with a Chromebook. Ditto for a specialised mouse app. It’s typically laborious to know what’s going to work, and what gained’t, however Chromebooks will typically do all that you just want them to.

What’s the distinction between utilizing a Chromebook and a laptop computer?

While it’s straightforward to deal with what you’re going to do with both a Chromebook or a Windows PC—net searching! video games!—it’s straightforward to lose sight of the little issues.

Simplicity

One of the perfect options of a Chromebook is Google’s strategy to updates and safety. Everything takes place behind the scenes. Windows downloads updates for antivirus and different packages within the background, however others require a reboot. If you don’t have Windows correctly configured, these reboots may even happen whilst you’re utilizing the PC, which could be massively annoying. While Chromebooks often have to be rebooted to use updates, the method is faster and fewer intrusive, as Google reloads the pages you have been on fairly rapidly. 

In reality, “quick” is among the finest options of a Chromebook. While they’re much less full-featured than a Windows PC, booting, resuming, and simply utilizing a Chromebook typically feels extra environment friendly than it does on Windows. Part of that’s the simplicity: Google takes care of many of the mundane duties of powering a PC, like safety and driver updates. “Blue screens of death” happen on Windows; Chromebooks hardly ever crash.

Further studying: 9 reasons why you should buy a Chromebook

Apps

At this level, net apps permit you to work inside Google’s Workspace setting or Microsoft’s 365 setting, no matter whether or not you’re on a laptop computer or a Chromebook. That contains electronic mail, phrase processing, and extra. That goes for leisure and streaming apps like Netflix, too. Even productiveness apps like Adobe Photoshop exist on each platforms.

The actual distinction is that Chromebooks help Android apps, and Windows laptops help native Windows apps. Not all apps are coded for Android. Generally, Windows is the extra versatile platform, however not by as a lot because it used to. The key distinction is in video games: Mobile video games are extra accessible to Chromebooks. Traditionally, Windows video games have run finest on laptops, however the rise of cloud gaming signifies that Chromebooks can entry most of these with out subject, too.

Working on a number of screens

A refined distinction between a Windows laptop computer and a Chromebook is the flexibility to help a number of screens. Most trendy Windows laptops now help Thunderbolt or USB4, specs that sometimes permit you to join to 2 exterior, high-definition shows with ease. That can enhance your productiveness tremendously.

Chromebooks have a tendency to make use of older USB-C connections, not only for charging however for exterior shows. That means you’ll most likely be left with help for a single exterior show, presumably at an older 1080p decision. You’ll discover the distinction.

Printing

Some extra mundane duties could be irritating to Chromebook customers, too, similar to printing, file administration, and utilities. This is the place the variations between the 2 platforms can turn into abrasive, particularly in the event you’re used to doing issues in a sure means.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Take printing, for instance. The world’s printers have been designed from the bottom up for Windows and Macs, and might print both over a wi-fi community or from a USB cable. Chromebooks, however, have struggled with direct printing or utilizing the extra superior options of sure printers. Google Cloud Print was the corporate’s workaround, requiring a Wi-Fi enabled printer; nevertheless, this function was phased out by the top of 2020. In common, although, a contemporary Chromebook will print simply nice on a contemporary printer.

Accessing recordsdata

Accessing Chrome OS requires clicking the “home” circle within the lower-left nook, then both swiping or clicking the uncovered up arrow to entry the Chrome OS apps, a few of which could be saved within the taskbar dock for straightforward entry. My personal private choice is for the Windows Start menu, both in Windows 10 or Windows 11; it’s simply simpler to search out the apps you’re on the lookout for.

I’d additionally give the sting to Windows’ File Explorer in its capacity to search out recordsdata. Still, a Chromebook benefit is the flexibility to keep away from searching by means of each nook and cranny. Google exhibits you what recordsdata you’ll want, and hides the remainder.

Alternative inputs and peripherals

While some Chromebooks permit for inking—you’ll typically want to produce your individual stylus or use your finger—it simply isn’t the precedence that it’s on some Windows gadgets, similar to Microsoft Surface Pro tablets.

Windows makes it a lot simpler so as to add peripherals, in the event you worth the utility software program that lets you tweak and tune the settings of a webcam, for instance. Peripherals connected to Chromebooks are likely to ship what they promise–a 1080p webcam will work, as will a wired mouse–however with out the bells and whistles that very same peripheral would provide on a Windows PC.

Shutterstock / Lazy Bear

To be honest, Windows 11 seems much more like a Chromebook than it did earlier than. The Windows 11 taskbar (for now) can solely be oriented on the backside of the display, the place apps pop up from a Start menu that appears considerably just like the Chrome OS launcher.

Our colleagues over at Computerworld embrace a Chromebook cheat sheet that you could be discover helpful with extra particulars on the ins and outs of Chromebooks.

Windows vs. Chrome OS: What’s the distinction?

Windows PCs run Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows 11, the dominant working system for conventional PCs for greater than 25 years. Google Chromebooks run Chrome OS, optimized for each Google Chrome and Android apps.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Periodically, Microsoft forces a transition to a brand new model of the working system. Windows 10 will end support in October 2025, for instance, and there’s a pointy break from the Windows 10 aesthetic just like the Start menu to the extra useful Windows 11 desktop. Google now ends support for a given Chromebook 10 years after its date of manufacture, which can be earlier than you acquire it. But Google simply retains on rolling out new variations of Chrome OS–at press time, it’s on model 136–and any modifications happen regularly over time.

Using Chrome OS seems like utilizing an online browser, with the tabbed browser interface as the first aesthetic. I normally launch (net) apps instantly from the taskbar. Using Windows seems like shifting from app to app, launching native apps from the Start menu and instantly from recordsdata.

Chrome OS can’t run Windows or Mac apps, natively, although you might have been ready to make use of an app like Parallels to take action. It may also run Google’s rather more complete library of Android apps, discovered on the Google Play Store. Windows laptops can run Windows apps, naturally, in addition to net apps (net pages) saved to the PC.

Microsoft appears to be phasing out efforts to compete instantly with Chromebooks by means of specialised variations of the Windows OS. For the previous couple of years, Microsoft has marketed Windows 10 S and Windows 11 S (or Windows 10/11 Home in S Mode) as its working system for faculties and a direct competitor to Chromebooks. It was primarily a locked-down model of Windows 10, stopping the flexibility to run third-party apps. Windows 10/11 S and Windows 11 SE (a particular version for training) are primarily lifeless.

Much of that is moot to most consumers. All new Windows laptops are presently bought with Windows 11, of which the Windows 11 24H2 Update is the most recent model. You can learn our Windows 11 superguide for extra. Chromebooks merely improve to no matter model of ChromeOS is present after you obtain it.

Further studying: How to turn an old laptop into a Chromebook

Microsoft gained’t help Windows PCs perpetually, however the firm has sometimes supplied free upgrades from one OS to the subsequent. (Windows 11 broke that cycle, by enforcing certain hardware requirements.) After the Chrome OS help window expires, nevertheless, that’s it: Google is not going to present new options or provide safety patches. You’ll must learn evaluations or seek the advice of your Chromebook documentation to search out out when help expires, although Google’s trying to make that easier.

Which could be personalised extra, a Chromebook or a PC?

Typically, Windows PCs have supplied an infinite number of choices to permit you to tweak things as you like. Most of that is already constructed into Windows, although there are wallpaper theme packs and even a Bing Wallpaper app to permit additional customization. Windows now features a “Spotlight” function that pulls from Microsoft’s intensive database of licensed nature pictures, which might modify your desktop wallpaper day by day.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Chromebooks have typically not supplied as a lot personalization capabilities. But Chromebooks now provide the flexibility to decide on between many alternative wallpapers, or you’ll be able to create your individual utilizing AI. Otherwise, the fundamental UI stays the identical.

Can you run Windows apps on Chromebooks?

Not actually. For years, Parallels for Chromebook allowed enterprise customers with a Parallels license to primarily run Windows apps inside a digital machine on Chrome OS. In February 2025, Parallels said that Parallels Desktop for Chrome OS would finish life in April 2026.

Now, the one solution to run Windows apps on Chrome OS is with a Parallels product known as DaaS (Desktop as a Service) which primarily streams a Windows desktop on to a Chromebook, like cloud gaming. Google additionally purchased Cameyo in June 2024, an organization with the identical concept. Maybe some day Google will natively provide the flexibility to run Windows on Chrome OS by way of this Cameyo expertise.

A greater resolution could also be Windows 365, Microsoft’s program for operating Windows by way of the cloud. Windows 365 is basically the Windows equal of cloud gaming—Windows lives within the cloud, and is “streamed” all the way down to the native PC. However, Microsoft designed Windows 365 for enterprise customers, so customers don’t have entry to this for now.

How are the specs of a laptop computer and Chromebook completely different?

Inside, the one actual variations are the processor. Windows PCs have a variety of microprocessors powering them, normally chips from AMD and Intel, or extra lately, a Qualcomm Snapdragon.

Chromebooks typically favor lower-performance Intel Atom chips (branded as Pentium or Celeron), Snapdragons, or lesser-known processors from the likes of Mediatek or Rockchip, which might be suited to the lighter calls for of Chrome OS. But AMD has made aggressive, current strikes to bring its powerful Ryzen chips into Chromebooks, and Intel’s Core chips (sometimes a Core i3) can seem in Chromebooks, too.

More lately we’ve seen pricier company and luxurious Chromebooks embrace Intel Core CPUs—however the jury’s nonetheless out on who pays upwards of $1,000 for a Chromebook. In October 2022, Google unveiled a line of gaming Chromebooks with high-end shows and processors designed for cloud gaming. Finally, in 2023, Google launched the Chromebook Plus specification, with at the very least an Intel Core i3, 8GB+ of reminiscence, and at the very least 128GB of storage. That final classification continues to stay round.

Though you’ll discover that many Chromebooks and cheap laptops function the same HD (1366×768) or Full HD (1920×1080) show, Windows normally requires extra strong reminiscence and storage. While a Chromebook can run acceptably on 4GB of reminiscence, 16GB of reminiscence has turn into the everyday reminiscence loadout for a “good” Windows laptop computer.

Laptops sometimes embrace extra native storage for the Windows OS and related apps: 128GB is barely acceptable, however 256GB has turn into the minimal. Chromebooks, in the meantime, don’t want rather more than 32GB or so, assuming Google-oriented customers are making the most of the Google Drive on-line storage, or stashing Android apps on an SD card. Less storage means much less value; many Chromebooks additionally use cheap eMMC flash storage to save lots of even additional. Both Chromebooks and Windows laptops permit exterior storage. 

Kingston

You’ll sometimes discover a higher-quality show on a laptop computer, with 1200p or 1440p shows turning into extra widespread. Lovely OLED shows are additionally turning into extra widespread on laptops, much less so on Chromebooks.

How is AI dealt with in laptops and Chromebooks?

Since 2024, AI has turn into the subject of dialogue inside expertise circles, and each Microsoft and Google are keen to ascertain themselves as a pacesetter.

Microsoft embeds its Copilot AI assistant into the taskbar, the place you’ll be able to open it and ask questions of its cloud-based assistant. (Cortana, discovered on Windows 10, is basically lifeless.) Otherwise, how Windows integrates AI may be very scattershot. Certain features, like Copilot and generative AI artwork features in Paint, faucet into the cloud. Others, similar to Paint’s Cocreator and Microsoft’s controversial Recall function require a Copilot+ laptop computer, which incorporates what’s known as an NPU able to 40 TOPS. These NPUs are the one means sure native AI features could be accessed–older laptops are out of luck.

Windows laptops can also faucet into different Copilot features within the Edge browser, similar to summarizing an online web page, or assistive instruments in Microsoft 365. Those could require a Microsoft 365 subscription or different subscription, nevertheless. There are different AI features scattered round Windows, too: Live Captions transcribe video you play again, Windows Studio Effects blur your background, and extra.

Microsoft

Google’s strategy to AI is extra simple. It too places the Gemini icon into the taskbar, and you may question the cloud-based AI. (Buying a Chromebook Plus additionally provides you a 12 months’s price–about $280–of a premium Gemini subscription, which supplies you entry to superior Gemini features.

But it, too, scatters AI options across the OS. When you go online, a “welcome recap” reminds you of what you have been doing and what you might have arising. You can search your browser historical past utilizing pure language queries. Gemini can summarize net pages. Chromebook Plus Chromebooks include apps like Recorder, which might transcribe spoken phrases and establish the speaker. Like Windows, Chrome OS makes use of AI to blur your background throughout a Meet name and applies filters.

With all the consideration paid to AI, you’ll be able to positively count on AI to reshape each Windows and Chrome OS over the subsequent few years.

Is a Chromebook or laptop computer higher for workplace work?

Productivity apps—phrase processing, spreadsheets, and the like—signify nearly all of the working day. Here, each Windows and Chromebook customers have a number of decisions, and each are truthfully about equal. Chromebooks can run Microsoft’s Office apps as net apps or Android purposes, whereas Windows PCs can run Google Workspace apps on the net. (Google Workspace was previously named G Suite, and earlier than that Google Apps.)

You would possibly assume that Office could be restricted to Windows, however that’s not true both: Office.com, also referred to as Office Online, runs in an online browser, and—assuming you might have a subscription to Office 365 (now known as Microsoft 365)—provides almost all of the performance that the Office 365 suite does. In reality, Google asks you if you wish to obtain the Microsoft 365 app in the course of the Chromebook setup course of, supplying you with a head begin.

The Google Workspace suite additionally runs on-line. Though Workspace apps have a less complicated interface, their deal with collaboration provides them a novel twist. Both Google Workspace and Office Online will run on both a plain Chromebook or Windows PC; nevertheless, in the event you want entry to a neighborhood copy of Office, solely a PC will suffice. 

The gist is that productiveness is feasible on both a Chromebook or Windows PC with a minimal quantity of effort, although you could wish to pay for a subscription for both Office or Google’s suite of apps to get most profit and cupboard space. You may discover Windows PCs a bit less difficult to configure for printing.

Can a Chromebook play video games in addition to a Windows PC?

With the huge historical past of traditional PC video games out there to Windows machines, the PC is clearly dominant the place gaming is anxious. However, there are additionally video games which might be “exclusive” to Chromebooks, due to 2016’s Chrome OS 53, and its capacity to run Android apps and video games. All Chromebooks made since 2019 (and a few earlier fashions) have this functionality. But the excellence is just not fairly as profound because it as soon as was.

Put merely, Windows is the finest gaming platform outdoors of a console. App shops like Epic and Steam run natively, and Windows lets you run video games regionally in addition to by way of cloud companies like Xbox Cloud Gaming, which continues to be in preview three years after its launch, or Nvidia’s GeForce Now.

Shutterstock / Lazy Bear

While you gained’t be taking part in the most recent Battlefield recreation on a Chromebook as a local app, Chromebooks have two issues going for them: First, they’ll run Android video games by way of downloads from the Google Play Store. And if a recreation can run within the cloud, likelihood is that it may be performed by way of a Chromebook, too. It’s a bit of iffy, as Valve’s Steam for Chrome OS is a bit of iffy (our tutorial on how to play Steam games on a Chromebook has extra) however different cloud companies run effectively.

If your Chromebook is among the cheaper, much less highly effective selection, don’t despair. Cloud gaming companies can come to your rescue—and operating them is the subsequent neatest thing to loading and taking part in them on the Chromebook itself. In addition to the older Parsec cloud gaming service, you now have Nvidia GeForce Now, the Blade Shadow service (hailing from Europe), and even Xbox video games. We explain how Xbox cloud gaming runs on a Chromebook. Just just remember to both have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription in place, or personal an Xbox outright.

Google believes strongly in cloud gaming, and launched a wave of cloud gaming Chromebooks to make the most of the development. We’re nonetheless a bit of skeptical of whether or not these gadgets are price the additional cash, although the improved {hardware} can be utilized for gaming or productiveness alike.

Google

Windows PCs’ time with Android video games has come and gone, although. Microsoft tried out the Windows Subsystem for Android, then killed it in March 2025 when nobody actually used it.

Which provides extra apps, Chromebooks or Windows PCs?

Games definitely fall into the class of native apps, however so do the quite a few apps and utilities that may make on a regular basis duties a bit of simpler. Here, it’s additionally a combined bag.

This is form of a lopsided comparability, since Microsoft doesn’t reveal the variety of apps contained in the Microsoft Store. Even if it did, that quantity wouldn’t reveal something in regards to the high quality of apps discovered inside it. App shops are infamous for together with “knockoff” apps or crapware, and Microsoft has been significantly weak. Chrome OS doesn’t embrace the kind of crapware Windows PCs additionally typically ship with, requiring apps like CCleaner to tidy up.

One of the strengths of Windows, although, is its historic archive of bits of code, utilities, and different apps which have collected in dusty previous hard-drive folders, FTP websites, and elsewhere. Batch resizing apps for photographs, customized calendar apps, macro managers—everybody has their favorites, and Chrome OS merely can’t compete. Windows PCs are the platform to run nearly all the pieces.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Chromebooks can run net apps, plus the Android apps that may run below Chrome OS: There have been virtually 3 million complete within the Google Play app retailer as of June 2020. Not each Android app will run on a Chromebook. Chromebooks don’t embrace GPS chips, so location-specific apps gained’t work. Ditto for individuals who depend on rear cameras that the Chromebook could or could not have—Pokemon Go, as an example.

Although we definitely don’t assume that is for everybody, some Chromebooks can run Linux, however it would take some fiddling. Our associates over at Computerworld have an up-to-date information on how to run Linux on a Chromebook.

Which lasts longer, a Chromebook or a PC?

The longevity of a PC is principally decided by how demanding Windows is, in comparison with the {hardware} powering it. The willingness of the PC maker and part makers to offer drivers additionally performs a job. Hardware failures will finally happen. Every processor that Intel launches is accompanied by statements evaluating the brand new chip to a 5-year-old PC, with efficiency enhancements within the 30 to 40 p.c vary. Otherwise, a PC’s lifespan may go on for years, even a long time, so long as the working system is saved updated.

Or we thought so, anyway. Windows 11 instantly reduce off hundreds of thousands of PCs from an improve to Windows 11, due to new {hardware} restrictions. Older PCs, even Surface gadgets made by Microsoft, have been reduce off. Could Microsoft do that once more sooner or later? We don’t know.

Right now, Microsoft is ending help for Windows 10 PCs in October 2025, which primarily signifies that these PCs danger affected by vulnerabilities until customers pay for some additional support or merely improve to Windows 11, if Microsoft’s automated {hardware} checks permit it.

A Chromebook lasts so long as Google is prepared to help it. In the start, it was simply 5 years after the unique manufacturing date for any Chromebook (hold this in thoughts in the event you’re shopping for an older Chromebook, or a used one). More lately, Google’s begun extending the time it helps Chromebooks, and now it’s extended that to 10 years, total.

If you already personal a Chromebook, go to the Settings menu, then to About ChromeOS > Additional particulars and you need to see an express assertion telling you ways lengthy it has earlier than it exits help.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Just to be clear: A Windows PC or Chromebook that has exited its help window signifies that it gained’t obtain function and safety patches. That can depart both platform weak to beforehand undiscovered malware or different assaults, with quite a lot of penalties.

Which is safer, a Chromebook or a Windows PC?

Security isn’t a query that may be answered completely, however Chromebooks and Windows PCs differ essentially right here. The relative simplicity of a Chromebook provides a much smaller “attack surface” than a Windows PC does. The complexity of Windows PCs, together with the software program Windows helps, offers hackers many extra alternatives to assault. 

Google developed Chromebooks with safety as a precedence, utilizing all the pieces from remoted, “sandboxed” processes to verified boot to assist defend your system. (Our sister web site, TechAdvisor, has a extra detailed explanation.) For individuals who fear about web sites that hijack your browser or obtain malware, a Chromebook’s defenses defend you with out making you concentrate on it a lot. 

Keeping a Windows PC protected is usually a rather more difficult enterprise. Security begins as quickly as you start setting up a new PC. Regular upkeep is required for each your antivirus software program and the Windows working system, although most occurs mechanically. Still, holes are always being found. You must be vigilant, or at the very least not too lazy, to guard your Windows PC. Fortunately, Windows’ built-in Windows Security software program is far higher than it was once, sufficient that Windows can principally deal with itself. 

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Login safety works about the identical on each platforms. Logging right into a Chromebook requires a Google account and its password. You may also use a cellphone to unlock a Chromebook. (One of the neat issues about Chromebooks is that you should utilize your cellphone as a secondary gadget that can assist you arrange a Chromebook and keep away from coming into Wi-Fi passwords and the like.)

Windows PCs additionally desire a Microsoft account and password, although Microsoft is making an attempt to section out the password in the event you personal an Android cellphone or different authenticated gadget.

On a PC or laptop computer, authentication choices embrace Windows Hello (both by way of a fingerprint reader or depth digital camera, or else with a brief PIN), which offers an off-the-cuff stage of safety that additionally permits you to resume work rapidly and simply. It’s a cross between ease-of-access and safety that Microsoft has invested in closely, and it’s a comfort that the majority Windows customers admire. 

Still, Chromebooks have improved right here as effectively. Chrome OS now helps WebAuthn, a function that lets you log into a web site utilizing your fingerprint or PIN. (Your Chromebook must have a fingerprint reader for this to work.) In this case, your cellphone replaces your PIN as a way of two-factor authentication. I’ve by no means seen a Chromebook log you in by way of your face, nevertheless.

Ashley Biancuzzo

What Chromebook ought to I purchase?

When shopping for a Chromebook, the principle issues to think about are the reminiscence dimension—imagine it or not, that’s extra essential than the processor. More RAM means extra open, out there tabs, and browsing the net is an important job of the Chromebook. Screen dimension and determination are the subsequent precedence: Cheap Chromebooks can have 11-inch, 768p screens. Buy a 13-inch or 14-inch Chromebook with a 1080p (1920×1080) display in the event you can—your eyes will thanks for it.

Chromebooks can have quite a lot of low-end microprocessors to select from, a few of which you will have by no means heard of. PCWorld’s Alaina Yee recommends buying a Chromebook with a Pentium or Celeron processor—and that’s a superb place to begin in the event you don’t really feel comfy parsing Chromebook specs. Anything extra highly effective than that, like an Intel Core chip, is simply nice too.

Our recommendations for the best Chromebooks always change, so verify our greatest picks for the perfect Chromebooks for the most recent.

Amazon

What laptop computer ought to I purchase?

When shopping for a laptop computer, take into account shopping for one among PCWorld’s recommended laptops. Buying a laptop computer is comparatively straightforward: Simply search for an up-to-date AMD or Intel processor, and search for the bottom worth.

Laptops with an Intel Core i3 or an AMD Ryzen 3 must be thought of the minimal specification, with a Core i5 or Ryzen 5 most well-liked. Buy a laptop computer with at the very least 8GB of RAM inside and 256GB of storage. More RAM means extra out there tabs and a bigger number of purposes; paperwork, video, and apps could require extra cupboard space.

Buy a laptop computer with at the very least a 1080p display, and a snug dimension. Remember, a bigger laptop computer is usually heavier, too.

Gaming laptops must be averted until you propose to play video games! Gaming laptops use a discrete GPU, and are typically costlier. But they’re enjoyable! If you’re out there for a gaming laptop computer, choose from one among our top picks in gaming laptops.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

What is healthier, a Chromebook or laptop computer?

While we are able to’t say for sure which platform you’ll desire, right here’s a suggestion: If you assume {that a} Chromebook might be best for you, take a Windows PC, obtain the Google Chrome browser, after which work completely inside it for a day. While each platforms now provide Android apps, Chrome OS nonetheless provides a broader, extra standard vary from the Google Play Store.

It’s honest to say that Windows provides a extra complete expertise, however ChromeOS is normally a considerably easier, cheaper different. The shopping for determination normally works out to one thing like: “I can do virtually all the pieces in Windows with a Chromebook, however…” It’s that final little bit—printing, file administration, and many others.—that can information your determination. Good luck! 

Updated on June 4, 2025, with extra shopping for choices, updates, and additional particulars.