Tech Talk

Christmas decorations are going up and Chromebook prices are going down, which can only mean one thing: Black Friday is almost here! While last year's Chromebook shortage didn't give us quite as many deals as we'd like, this year, you can already get hundreds off many of the best Chromebooks around. There are tons of choices to consider such as the bright and beautiful Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (both generations are on sale), to the compact and kid-friendly Lenovo Flex 3 and Flex 5. There's a Chromebook deal for everyone this Black Friday, and we're here to help you find the best one for you or your little munchkins.

Where to find the best Black Friday Chromebook deals

• Best Buy: We've just seen a $99 Chromebook here
• Amazon: Arguably the biggest selection of deals right now
• Walmart: Loads of Chromebooks under $200
• B&H Photo: 14-inch Lenovos spotted at $169
• Newegg: Has just stepped up with plenty of sub-$200 offers

Black Friday Chromebook deals: Acer

Black Friday Chromebook deals: ASUS

Black Friday Chromebook deals: HP

HP Chromebook x2 11

$399 at Best Buy

With the HP Chromebook X2 11, you'll enjoy an ultra-portable Chromebook that can transform into an even more incredible Chrome OS tablet. HP includes fast charging, along with a rechargeable USI pen and a detachable keyboard case, giving you everything that you need.

Black Friday Chromebook deals: Lenovo

Black Friday Chromebook deals: Premium Chromebooks

Black Friday Chromebook deals: Student Chromebooks

When do the Black Friday Chromebook deals begin?

When it comes to Chromebook deals, there may be some stellar deals between November 25 and December 1, but Chromebook deals tend to cycle through various models essentially all year. Especially Best Buy, which hosted most of the best Black Friday Chromebook deals last year, already boasts impressive deals on budget Chromebooks, business-class Chromebooks, and everything in between.

While shipping constraints have pinched supply for everything from phone cases to couches, Chromebooks have generally managed to stay well-stocked at most retailers. This means that unlike a Pixel 6 or an Oculus Quest, you could probably wait until Black Friday itself for the deepest price cuts — but retailers might also start rationing their Chromebook supply to ensure they don't sell out by 8 a.m. Black Friday morning.

If you're after a Chromebook model that's a year or three old — say a Google Pixelbook Go or a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook — you're better off buying as soon as you see discounts of $200 or above. For 2021 models, you'll either want to buy early (the weeks before Black Friday) or wait for Black Friday's day-of deals.

What Chromebook brands or type should I look out for?

Acer: The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is almost always on sale at Best Buy, between the three configurations of the CP713-2W (2020) and the CP713-3W (2021). The Spin 713 with 4GB of RAM is a steal at $279 just for the 13.5-inch 2K-resolution touchscreen; its 400 nits of brightness make it easier to use in lighter environments and even outdoors. The 8GB/128GB configuration of the CP713-2W has mostly sold out this fall after earlier Black Friday deals in October, but if it comes back in stock below $450, I recommend snapping it up.

The current 2021 Chromebook Spin 713, with the 11th Gen Intel Evo Core i5, has been discounted from $700 down to $619 about twice a month since it launched this summer, and the Black Friday deals have it down to a quite respectable $529. Could it drop as low as $500 or $469 on Black Friday? Maybe, but I doubt it'll last long if it does. If you want a new Chromebook and you demand an excellent screen, the Acer Spin 713 is absolutely the best one to buy.

Every Black Friday, we see every model Acer Chromebook 311 and Chromebook Spin 311 ever produced go on sale, and this year will be no different. Make sure you go for a 311 model, not a Chromebook 11 model — the older 11 models are closer to their expiration dates — and if it has 16GB of storage, close the tab and walk away. Also, touchscreen models will undoubtedly be available for under $200 (possibly under $125), so get the touchscreen for easier interaction with apps and games.

ASUS: The previous two years, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 was always a reliable Black Friday deal, but alas, it's too outdated now, with its 8th-Gen Intel processors, and the same goes for the C433. These days, the ASUS Chromebooks you'll want to pay attention to are large laptops with a few distinct purposes, starting with the easy-to-love ASUS Chromebook Flip C536.

The C536 is normally $569, but Best Buy has already brought it down to $399, which is pretty phenomenal for a 15.6-inch touchscreen 2-in-1 with an 11th Gen Intel Core i3, 8GB of RAM, and a full, backlit keyboard complete with a number pad. This is the Chromebook I'm actually writing this guide on right now because the large screen makes split-screening and setting out all my work easy, even when my eyes are mad at me for not getting enough sleep.

If 15.6 inches is a bit too big for your backpack, another ASUS model to catch on sale is the 14-inch ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5. It has the same processor, RAM, and storage, but the CX5 is usually sold at $725, steep even with the built-in USI stylus, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and sleeker design. If it drops to $600 or below, hop on it. Otherwise, the C536 is a bigger, better bang for your buck.

One of the best Chromebooks for students, the 2.5-year-old ASUS Chromebook Flip C214, will hopefully see some deals this Black Friday, especially on the frequently price-gouged stylus model, but I wouldn't pay more than $260 for it. It's only guaranteed Chrome OS updates until June 2025 (though it could get extended to June 2026), and it's the same platform and powerset as most $160 to $230 Chromebooks like the Lenovo C330, Dell 3100 2-in-1, or Acer Spin 311. You just pay more for extra kidproofing, and if you need that, head down to the student section at the bottom of this guide.

HP: Before we dive into the bulk of HP Chromebooks, you'll see them discounted for Black Friday. The just-released HP Chromebook x2 11 is the deal to really watch. This 11-inch Chrome OS tablet has a premium build, gorgeous 2K touchscreen, a magnetic keyboard, and kickstand in the box, and debuted priced about $175 too high. Black Friday has already brought it down to a quite reasonable $399, and I'm cautiously optimistic to see it drop further to $350 sometime during the extra-long weekend of Black Friday. This is the Chrome OS tablet experience that feels every bit as premium as Samsung or Apple, and its Snapdragon 7c processor will sip battery while you read, watch Netflix, or browse Reddit.

HP Chromebooks are legion, which complicates the process of buying one on Black Friday. Approximately 40 versions of the HP Chromebook 11 between the 11 generations, two processor types (Intel and AMD, and EE Education Editions. The HP Chromebook 14 is almost that bad, but not quite. While you can only really tell how old an HP Chromebook is by checking the model number against its expiration date for Chrome OS updates, here's the quick and dirty version you can use on Black Friday:

If a Chromebook has a barrel plug instead of USB-C, it's too old to be worth any amount of your money. For HP 11/14 models with a Generation, if it's before G6, it's about to expire (or already has).

The HP Chromebook x360 14c has 2020 and 2021 models which can be solid Chromebooks (with slightly dim screens) at the right price. 10th Gen Intel processors are in the 2020 model, which you should buy below $450. 11th Gen processors are 2021 models and should earn their keep at $550 and below.

HP also makes some of the only current-generation desktop Chrome OS solutions: the HP Chromebase 21.5-inch All in One Desktop might get down into a reasonable price range like the x2 11 mentioned before, and the HP Chromebox G3 will likely see its first significant deals this Black Friday. So if you want a Chromebook for Nana, but she needs a big screen with Big Font, HP is what you want.

Lenovo: This brand makes three of our Best Chromebook selections and a small army of education, business, and consumer Chromebook models. From the compact couch-friendly Lenovo Chromebook Duet to the tough-but-handsome ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook, Lenovo knows how to deliver a Chromebook for every size, function, and budget.

The Lenovo Duet went for $200 last Black Friday, and this year I'm hoping to see it come down towards $150 and impulse-buy territory. The Duet offers a better overall experience than any sub-$300 Android tablet, and it'll get security updates until June 2028 while also coming with the keyboard and kickstand in-box.

For student-friendly and budget-friendly 11-inch Chromebooks, the Lenovo C330, C340-11, and Flex 3 are all the same, so just pick your color and your storage size when they drop below $160. I highly recommend 64GB, but if you don't really do Android apps on your Chromebook and just use it as a browser, 32GB should be fine. Unless you can find a 3rd Gen model under $300, skip the 100/300/500e education models; the regular models are pretty tough already, and the e-series models aren't discounted that heavily because they're harder to find.

Moving up to the 13-inch space, the Lenovo Flex 5 has been on the market for over a year and has routinely dropped into the $330 to $270 deal range regularly over 2021. I'm hoping Black Friday deals will get it down towards $230 or even $200 on November 26, but for an i3 Chromebook with a backlit keyboard, up-facing speakers, and a 13.3-inch 1080p touchscreen, anything lower than $250 is a bargain.

The ThinkPad C13 has a price tag like a roller coaster: list prices sit around $700, but configurations can go for as little as $480 or as high as $1300. You'll only really find it at Lenovo's website, though, and it's 45% off right now, if you're as much of a sucker for those bigger key labels and the TrackPoint nub. I highly recommend the Ryzen 5 configuration for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Premium: The premium Chromebook you want to buy this Black Friday is the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (2021) that I spoke of earlier in this guide for three reasons: it has the latest-generation i5 processor for plenty of power, the 2K, its 400-nit touchscreen is one of the best on a Chromebook ever, and Best Buy has it for $529 and may drop even lower.

The Google Pixelbook Go and the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook have fine touchscreens and ultra-thin designs, but they're both two years old and see fewer and fewer discounts. Amazon had a Pixelbook Go sale that dropped it down to $200 last year, but it sold out within seconds of going live at 3 a.m. ET (Midnight PT), and I doubt that's coming back but you can get up to $150 off right now at Amazon and Best Buy.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is the best screen ever to grace a Chromebook, but it can overheat more easily thanks to that ultra-thin design, though throttling and power management have helped limit the heat buildup since launch. Rather than discounting the Galaxy Chromebook, Samsung instead debuted a cheaper Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 earlier this year, but with the Galaxy Chromebook down to $700 — the same price as the i3 Galaxy Chromebook 2 — why buy the downgrade when you could get that glorious 4K screen? Just make sure you buy a listing that is shopped from (and preferably sold by) Amazon.

Chromebooks dominate the education space for a reason: even the affordable ones work well. They're made for every budget, and since they use Google's cloud services, you won't lose your work if it breaks. Instead, just log in on another Chromebook, and you're right back to work.

Students: The best student Chromebooks are mostly 2 to 3 years old at this point — almost none of the ten education models announced back in January have reached consumer retailers, just B2B (business-to-business) channels that school districts and vendors use to buy tens of thousands of laptops in bulk.

Of the currently available models, I wouldn't recommend spending more than $260 on the ASUS Chromebook Flip C214, Dell Chromebook 3100 2-in-1 (or the clamshell variant), Lenovo 300e (1st/2nd Gen), or the older Acer Chromebook 511 or 512. The new Acer Chromebook 511 and 512 can be decent buys depending on the discount, for example, the Snapdragon 7c-powered 511 would be a decent kid-friendly Chromebook with 4G LTE support for $450 or less, but that's still steep to most parents — and it would need a data plan to make proper use of the connectivity.

Walmart has last-generation's Acer Chromebook Spin 511 for $290, which is pretty decent for a Chromebook with a built-in stylus if you need a Chromebook that can go through the wringer. However, even with that, the durability isn't significantly higher than the $130-$190 crowd for anything beyond spill-resistant keyboards.

The Samsung Chromebook 4+ is a decent large-screen Chromebook for kids so long as they don't have eye issues, as the screen's low resolution is especially noticeable at 15.6 inches.

If you need to go bottom of the barrel, here's a rule of thumb: If it has a barrel plug instead of USB-C, don't pay more than $100 for it (if you pay for it at all). Anything with a proprietary charger instead of USB-C Power Delivery charging means that if the kid breaks or loses the charger, you're up a creek, and Chromebooks that old are also close to their expiration dates, while most USB-C-charged Chromebooks have AUE dates of June 2025 or higher.