Shopping for a laptop as a gift can be even harder than buying one for yourself. Plenty of people will be hunting for sensibly-priced laptops this Christmas, and many of the best Chromebooks can fit the bill perfectly: easy to use, affordable, and capable of handling all the day-to-day tasks your giftee might want to do on a laptop.
If you’ve left your holiday shopping til late, you might feel overwhelmed by the options out there. That’s why I’ve compiled this handy little Christmas Chromebook shopping checklist: a guide to help you narrow down the options and avoid any potential pitfalls when it comes to buying a new laptop. If you follow these steps, you’re sure to end up with a gift-wrapped Chromebook that will delight whoever you’re buying for this festive season.
Watch out for underpowered and outdated models
Google first introduced ChromeOS and the Chromebook laptop family (in collaboration with multiple laptop manufacturers) way back in 2011, so needless to say, there have been quite a few Chromebook releases over the years.
What this unfortunately means is that when shopping around online, you’re likely to find some rather outdated models – and unfortunately, some third-party sellers aren’t above fudging the spec sheets and product listings to avoid giving the game away. This is more of a problem for Amazon than for individual retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy, or Currys, but it’s something to bear in mind.
As a general rule of thumb, the best way to check whether a Chromebook is underpowered or outdated is to look at the processor (sometimes listed as the CPU). This chip isn’t likely to be as powerful as the ones you’ll see in Windows laptops – this is thanks to the lower system hardware requirements of ChromeOS – but ideally, you should be looking for a quad-core chip as the bare minimum. More cores are always better, but four is enough for a budget Chromebook to function well.
Once you’ve found the processor in the product listing, punch its name into Google to find out more about it – the release date of the chip (rather than the Chromebook itself) can be quite pertinent here, as you really shouldn’t be buying any laptop with a CPU that’s more than four years old. If you’re not able to find the exact name of the processor on the product listing, steer clear. Some retailers will simply say ‘Intel Celeron’ or ‘Intel i3’ without listing the full name of the processor – this is usually a sign that the chip in question is severely outdated, and they don’t want you to know that.
Check app compatibility
ChromeOS is a fantastic operating system, with an easy-to-navigate user interface and the ability to run smoothly even on low-end hardware – but there is one big problem with it, and that’s software compatibility.
Because ChromeOS uses a software architecture different from other systems such as Windows and macOS, there’s no guarantee that software from those platforms will be available. Without wanting to get overly technical, the bottom line here is that a lot of popular Windows software simply isn’t available on Chromebooks (there is a workaround for this, but it’s a fiddly process that generally isn’t worth the effort). If you know the person you’re buying for wants to use a specific app, look up whether it’s available on ChromeOS.
This is most pertinent for gaming – you won’t be able to play the majority of PC games on a Chromebook, nor will you be able to use any Windows-specific programs or file types. If you’re buying a laptop for a gamer, it probably shouldn’t be Chromebook.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Chromebooks do have access to a wide range of apps through the Google Play Store (the same one you’ll find on an Android phone or tablet), and can do basically everything you’d expect from a standard laptop: if it’ll only be used for everyday tasks like answering emails, browsing the web, and making Zoom calls, a Chromebook will do nicely.
Don’t overspend…
Despite their inherently budget-friendly nature, it can be easy to spend a lot of money on a Chromebook. That’s not to say that the high-end premium models aren’t good, to be clear: after all, the HP Dragonfly Elite Chromebook and the Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition were both very highly rated by us even though they carry a high asking price. But those are fairly specific models; the average person has absolutely no reason to spend a thousand dollars on a Chromebook.
It doesn’t help that some ‘premium’ Chromebooks out there are just a fairly mid-range laptop with a fancy coat of paint and a new name. If you want an actually decent Chromebook that won’t break the bank, you should be looking in the $200-300 (or £200-300, for our UK readers) ballpark. Be prepared to pay a little more if you want a Chromebook with a 360-degree hinge and touchscreen for use in tablet mode, or a ‘Plus’ Chromebook – Google’s official stamp of approval for more powerful and future-proofed Chromebooks.
…but don’t underspend, either
If there’s a sale active while you’re shopping for a Chromebook, you might be tempted by some enticingly low prices. We’ve seen Chromebooks selling for less than a hundred bucks, which is impressively cheap for any laptop – but be cautious.
Generally speaking, a laptop going for that sort of price is going to be very underpowered; unless it’s been heavily discounted (think 50% off or more) to reach the $100 mark, there’s a good chance it’ll only provide lackluster performance.
ChromeOS being able to run on super-cheap hardware gives Chromebooks a bit more leeway than Windows laptops when it comes to budget products – but there’s always a limit. If a Chromebook already retails around $100/£100, odds are it’s a pretty weak-sauce device.
Don’t get a ‘gaming Chromebook’
Okay, this last one is more of a personal peeve of mine, but I’m gonna say it anyway: don’t bother with a so-called ‘gaming Chromebook’. This short-lived initiative from Google and a few of its manufacturing partners to bring PC gaming aesthetics to the Chromebook lineup ultimately fell short – mainly because no Chromebook is a true gaming device.
See, these gaming Chromebooks don’t run games locally; they need you to take advantage of a game-streaming service, like Nvidia GeForce Now or Amazon Luna (the latter of which is included in Prime, though Amazon doesn’t publicize this fact very well). You’re not running the game on your Chromebook – instead, it’s run on a server somewhere and streamed directly to your device from the cloud.
Here’s the thing, though… when the only factor in performance is the strength of your internet connection, any Chromebook can be a gaming Chromebook thanks to GeForce Now or Luna. There’s not much point in paying extra for an RGB keyboard, and if you don’t want to pay a subscription for your games, you’ll be better off with one of the best gaming laptops.