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The best Day 2 Prime Day Chromebook deals are live

Find the best Chromebook deals for Day 2 of Amazon Prime Day 2023 bargains in our curated list.
Mark Hachman
By Mark Hachman
Senior Editor, PCWorld Jul 12, 2023 9:39 am PDT
Prime Day Chromebooks
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Amazon Prime Day Chromebook deals are here, with new, updated deals for the second day of the Prime Day sale. We’ve found the best Prime Day bargains on Chromebooks, listing both the specifications as well as the prices, plus explanations of our choices.

Virtually all of Amazon’s top deals are exclusive to Amazon Prime members. You’ll want to sign up for Amazon Prime (for free) to take advantage of all of Amazon’s Prime Day Chromebook deals. However, we’ve also curated deals from other top retailers, including Best Buy, Newegg, and Target, to find the best Chromebook deals from other retailers.

Best Prime Day Chromebook deals

The Asus Chromebook CX1 is now our top recommendation for a Chromebook deal, followed by the Lenovo 3i. The CX1 is at a low price for the year. (We try to shy away from recommendations with hardware shortfalls, such as the 4GB RAM in the Asus C423. However, we’ll show them if the savings justify it.) For steeper discounts, look to the Chromebooks from Walmart and Best Buy.

We’ve clustered our top picks at the top of our list, emphasizing 8GB of RAM if possible, a 1080p screen, and then a decent processor. You won’t find incredible discounts, but our picks meet our sweet spot for a Chromebook deal, and with hardware you shouldn’t regret.

We generally expect Chromebook deals to be priced between $170 and $250 or so, depending on the configuration. Keep in mind that retailers will dump older Chromebooks for less than $100 — we take a close look at these to determine whether they’re trash or treasure. We’ve factored the Chromebook support window into our recommendations, which tends to extend between two and five years on discounted Chromebooks. We prioritize modern, more powerful Chromebook processors, too.

Acer’s Chromebook 516 GE is one of the few times we’ve seen a gaming Chromebook go on sale, especially one with such a nice display. That might be worth a purchase all its own.

The Lenovo Slim 3’s memory is a little skimpy, but we like Lenovo’s Chromebooks and the price seems like a good one for the other specs.

We originally passed over the HP 15.6-inch Chromebook deal at Best Buy because of the large, but low-resolution, display. We’re recommending it for buyers who are willing to experiment with a USB-C dongle. It’s possible that you’ll be able to connect an external 1080p display to it using the USB dongle/hub, scoring a great deal in the process. But if you don’t want to deal with a potential return, pass it by.

We generally avoid bargain-basement Chromebooks, but some buyers just want to spend as little as possible. Our last three recommendations are made with this in mind.

What to think about when buying a Chromebook

Generally, Chromebooks tend to fall into three categories: ultracheap models at about $100, which can offer solid discounts but can hide gotchas like a subpar screen; midrange $200 to $350 Chromebooks, the typical price point; and premium Chromebooks at $500 and above. The latter are essentially PC laptops with Google’s Chrome OS on top, and might be too expensive for your tastes. Our story recommending Chromebooks over laptops may help you decide, as might our recommendations for the best Chromebooks. We have a more detailed comparison of laptops versus Chromebooks, too.

Discounted Chromebooks used to cut corners, like using 768p screens. We try to highlight more eye-pleasing 1080p screens, but smaller Chromebooks may look just fine with an older screen instead. Unlike a laptop, you should worry less about the processor: An Intel Core chip guarantees solid performance, but Celerons are much more common. Don’t snub either a Qualcomm Snapdragon or Mediatek Arm chip, either. Instead, Chromebooks with more memory generally perform a bit better. Consider a USB-C dongle to connect to an external display, if it doesn’t already come with an HDMI port.

FAQ

1.

How much should I pay for a Chromebook during Prime Day?

Expect to pay between $170 to $250 or so, depending on the configuration. You’ll see bargain-basement options below $100, and more premium versions will cost $300 and above.

2.

How will I know a good deal on a Prime Day Chromebook?

Look first at the screen: a large 1080p display is a good starting point. If the system memory is 8GB, that’s also signals a quality Chromebook. Don’t be so concerned about the microprocessor, as they tend to vary between Intel Pentium and Celeron processors and Arm (Qualcomm and Mediatek) processors. Anything powered by an Intel Core chip or AMD Ryzen (not an A-series) chip should deliver solid performance.

3.

Does a Chromebook’s brand matter?

Virtually all Chromebooks are manufactured by name brands: HP, Samsung, Asus, and so on. If you trust a laptop brand, its Chromebooks should be equally trustworthy.

4.

Are the best Chromebook deals during Prime Day at Amazon?

Amazon hopes so. We check other retailers, though, because we often find aggressive pricing from Best Buy and Target during the week of Prime Day. If we find a Chromebook deal from another retailer, we’ll include it.

Updated on July 12, 2023 at 9:39 AM to reflect current Amazon Prime Day 2023 sales.

, Senior Editor

As PCWorld's senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.

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