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Best Chromebooks Under $300 (Student, Senior, Watching Movies)

These are the best laptops with Chrome OS Under 300 dollars in 2021, you can use these top rated Chromebooks for watching movies, studying and professional use.

Chromebooks are very simple to use laptops based on the Chrome browser and widely used in academic environments such as schools or institutes.

With the arrival of 2021 and taking into account the 2020 that we have passed, keep in mind that having a cheap laptop is never a bad idea. Especially if you need a laptop to work or study. If you want a laptop that is simple to use, cheap and durable, Chromebooks are the best option, especially if you want to use it for studying. 

They are very simple portables with automatic updates that keep them virus free. They are based on the Chrome browser and in the cloud, for example to save files. But they also have a webcam and microphone to make video calls.

Chromebooks are laptops that everyone can use , that accept multiple users and parental controls, therefore it is possibly one of the best purchases you can make to the little ones to study remotely.

These are some of the best Chromebook under $300 you can buy in 2021. They are available in stores, where you can buy them with free and fast shipping if you sign up for Prime.

List of best Chromebook Under $300

  1. Acer Chromebook 314 14-inch Full HD
  2. Acer Chromebook 311 C733
  3. HP Chromebook 11, 11.6″
  4. Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook 11.6
  5. Asus Chromebook C223 Laptop- 11.6″

1. Acer Chromebook 314 14-inch Full HD

Acer Chromebook 314 14-inch Full HD

This Acer Chromebook 314 is one of the most common laptops with Chrome OS that you can find in all stores. It is normal because it is cheap and has technical characteristics that make it a good option considering its value for money.

Considering that you don’t need a lot of power to run Chrome OS, this Acer Chromebook 314 has a 14-inch screen, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

14-inch laptop with Chrome OS and Intel Celeron N4020 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB SSD. Perfect for working or studying based on the internet and cloud services.

It is available for under 300 dollars and although it is not the cheapest at the moment, it is one of the cheapest among those with a 14-inch screen.

These are its characteristics.

  • 14-inch Full HD screen
  • Intel Celeron N4020 Processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 64GB eMMc

2. Acer Chromebook 311 C733

Acer Chromebook 311 C733

This Acer’s biggest selling points are its price and rugged build quality, but it’s letdown by a dull display. The Chromebook 311 C733 is significantly more expensive than its n.6in rivals, but you get what you pay for in terms of ruggedisation. While it’s over 2cm thick and comparatively heavy at 1.25kg, the build is very solid, with a thicker lid and a chunky, rubberised bumper protecting all the edges on the base.

With a spill-proof keyboard, it’s clearly aimed at the education market, but you might be glad of its tough construction if you’re carrying it around all day from class to class or job to job.

In fact, there’s a lot that’s very practical about this Chromebook. Connectivity is basic, with just a single USB-C 3.1 and a matching USB A port, along with audio and microSD ports, but they’re all on the left hand side of the unit, and the limited connectivity makes sense on a school-ready, ruggedised machine.

The keyboard and trackpad are both no-nonsense affairs nothing luxurious, but usable, responsive and hard wearing. The battery life is fantastic too: we hit 12hrs 7mins of video playback before the C733 ran out of juice.

The big disappointment here is the screen. While the peak brightness isn’t dreadful at 237cd/m2, there’s precious little contrast, blacks look grey and the whole display looks fuzzy and dim. It barely covers 50% of the sRGB gamut and overall color accuracy is poor.

It’s adequate for browsing and a little light work (or homework) but it’s not the sort of device you’d want to watch videos or play games on – although parents buying one for education duties might consider this a plus. The sound, meanwhile, goes loud, but with a painfully thin and treble heavy tone.

Performance is exactly what you would expect from a Chromebook in this class. The Celeron N4000 processor dates back to 2017, and it’s a two core, two thread relic without the power to keep dozens of tabs open or run several more demanding apps at once. Stick to browsing and light productivity apps and you won’t feel the gears grinding, but you have to be realistic about what a Chromebook like this can achieve.

Consequently, if you’re in the market for a more rugged budget Chromebook, this is a thoroughly decent option, but if not then you don’t have to spend a lot more to find faster processors and better screens.

3. HP Chromebook 11, 11.6″

HP Chromebook 11, 11.6

If you are looking for a Chromebook for a very young student and you want it to be Chrome OS because it is easy to use and you have a lot of control, as well as getting rid of viruses, this HP Chromebook 11 is a good device for the little ones.

It has an 11.6-inch screen and 32GB of internal storage. Perfect size so that it is not intimidating for the little ones and that can be used wherever you are.

11-inch laptop with Chrome OS perfect for the little ones in the house. Good cheap equipment to study at home with a webcam and microphones to attend online classes.It is one of the cheapest laptops due to its size and technical characteristics. This small laptop costs below $300.

These are the technical characteristics of this HP Chromebook 11.

  • 11.6 inch HD screen
  • Intel Celeron N4120 Processor
  • 4 GB RAM
  • 32 GB eMMC

4. Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook 11.6

Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook 11.6

Incredibly cheap and surprisingly nippy, but the compromises could be a step too far. If there’s one good reason to get excited about the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Chromebook. The price for under $250 is an astonishingly tiny amount to pay for a fully featured laptop, even one with a basic specification and an 11.6 inch screen.

So, is it the bargain of the century or a cut -price duffer we should warn you off? Inevitably, the truth lies somewhere in between. In terms of the physical design. Lenovo has made the best of a limited budget. The all plastic construction feels cheap, but there’s a nice two-tone effect on the lid. which itself isn’t as weak and flexible as on certain other budget Chromebooks. Bar the massive bezel below the screen, it’s not a bad- looking device. Connectivity isn’t a problem, either, with two USB-A 3 and two USB-C 3 ports.

Where you start lowering expectations is with the screen. A bog-standard 1366 x 768 resolution isn’t a problem on an 11.6in display, but the one here isn’t very bright – Lenovo claims 250cd/m2, but our tests say closer to 200cd/m2 – with awful vertical and horizontal viewing angles. Colour reproduction is exactly what you would expect from a sub $300 laptop – so pretty awful – while the sound is hard on the ears at any real volume.

That’s a shame, because otherwise the IdeaPad 3Chromebook is surprisingly usable. The keyboard doesn’t have Lenovo’s usual premium look and feel, but the flat keys have a fine, crisp action with no wobbles or flexing in the middle, while the touchpad is slick and accurate. Meanwhile, battery life is very respectable, with the Lenovo surviving for well over 11 hours of video playback before collapsing.

What’s more, where others ultra-budget Chromebooks stuff in dated Celeron N3350 and N4000 processors, the IdeaPad 3 has a 2019 vintage N4020 running all up to 2.8GHz. It’s still a dual core, dual thread chip, which has an impact on its benchmark results, but we didn’t experience any painful pauses or slowdowns during testing with half a dozen or more Chrome tabs up and running. Somewhere between this and the Asus C223 there’s a perfect 11.6in budget Chromebook, with a great lightweight design, a decent screen and solid specs. The IdeaPad 3 gets close, but it’s not quite there.

5. Asus Chromebook C223 Laptop- 11.6″

Asus Chromebook C223 Laptop- 11.6

The Asus Chromebook C223makes a fine first impression for a cut-price Chromebook. especially in the natty red finish of our review model. It’s roughly the size of an A4 pad of paper and very slim at just 17.3mm, while the weight is precisely 1kg. The all plastic construction feels cheap, while the lid is thin and a little too flexible for comfort, but the actual build feels very solid even if our review unit had developed the odd scuff during its lifetime as a test machine. 

The screen isn’t too bad. either. Sure, at a maximum 203cd/m2 it’s nowhere near bright enough for use outdoors in strong sunlight, and it can only manage a miserable 57% of the sRGB color gamut, but it produces a crisper image with a little more color depth than, for instance, the Acer Chromebook 311, and YouTube videos and Stadia games look better than they have any right to on a device this cheap. What’s more, they also sound better: the output from the downward-firing speakers near the front is surprisingly big. if a little lacking in finesse.

It’s when it comes to usability that things start to go awry. The touchpad is fine. It’s over 10cmwide, with a smooth plastic finish, and is very responsive to swipes and taps. The keyboard, however, has plenty of travel but a very light and slightly inconsistent action that sometimes makes it hard to work out if it’s registered a keystroke.

Still, Asus wins some points back for connectivity thanks to two USB C 3 ports, with display output and Power Delivery, as well as a single USB A 3.1 port and a microSD card slot. What’s more, the C223’s battery life lasted for two hours longer than Asus’s stated ten hours.

This isn’t a bad Chromebook for the money – until, that is. you get to the performance. It’s based on the ancient dual core Celeron N3350, which is a dual-core Apollo Lake processor that debuted in 2016, and the age is showing. You won’t have any problems with a couple of tabs open running simple web based applications, but keep opening new tabs and you’ll eventually run into waits and pauses, even with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM fitted.The Asus Chromebook C223 made its way to the bottom of the table in every single test, making it just too slow to recommend.

Conclusion

Chromebooks are compact and fast computers, running on the Chrome OS system, developed by Google. Several brands produce it: Acer, Asus, Samsung … Our advice for choosing and our selection of high-performance models. The Chromebook is a laptop computer that integrates the operating system Chromes OS from Google.

It is a computer equipment appreciated for its ease of access, its quality-price ratio, as well as fast web browsing. Its intuitive operation does not require great computer skills and may therefore be suitable for novice users. Just like a gaming PC or a laptop, its choice is based on the type of use you intend to make of it and the frequency of use. Several applications can replace word processing software or spreadsheets. However, the storage capacity remains quite modest. Recordings are mostly done in the cloud.

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  • Areesha

    Areesha is a tech enthusiast and a freelance writer who loves to share her insights on the latest gadgets and innovations. She has been reviewing tech products for over five years, covering everything from smartphones, laptops, cameras, smartwatches, headphones, and more. She enjoys testing out new features, comparing different models, and giving honest feedback to her readers. Areesha’s reviews are always informative, engaging, and easy to understand. Whether you are looking for a new device, a gift idea, or just curious about the tech world, Areesha’s reviews will help you make the best decision. You can find her work on various websites and blogs, such as [TechCrunch], [CNET], [The Verge], and [Gizmodo]. You can also follow her on [Twitter] and [Instagram] to get the latest updates on her reviews and projects. Areesha is always open to suggestions and feedback from her audience, so feel free to contact her anytime. She is looking forward to hearing from you!

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