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While Chromebooks have a reputation for being cheap, in recent years we’ve seen a growing number of models with higher price tags and better specs.
The HP Chromebook x360 14 is an excellent case in point. With a 14 inch full HD touchscreen display and 360-degree hinge you can use it in laptop or tablet modes. And thanks to its Intel Core i3 Whiskey Lake processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, it has the performance of a mid-range Windows laptop rather than a typical Chromebook.
HP’s notebook has a list price of $599, but Woot is selling a refurbished model for less than half that price today. And if you’d prefer to buy new, Amazon has the laptop for $449.
Here are some of the day’s best deals.
Chromebooks
- Refurb HP Chromebook x360 14″ convertible w/Core i3-8130U/8GB/64GB for $280 – Woot
- Dell Chromebook 11.6″ convertible w/Celeron N3450/4GB/32GB for $169 – Best Buy
- Refurb HP Chromebook 13 QHD+ w/Intel Core M for $140 and up – Woot
- Refurb HP Chromebook 14 w/Celeorn N3350/4GB/32GB for $140 – Woot
- Lenovo 100e Chromebook 11.6″ w/MT8173C/4GB/32GB for $119 – Best Buy
Windows laptops
- Lenovo Flex 14 convertible w/Core i5-10210U/8GB/256GB for $750 – Microsoft Store
- Samsung Notebook 9 Pro 13″ convertible w/Core i7-8565U/8GB/256GB for $750 – Best Buy
- Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 13.5″ w/Core i5-1035G7/8GB/256GB for $999 – Best Buy
Storage
- SanDisk Ultra 256GB microSDXC card for $35 – Amazon
- WD My Passport 5TB USB 3.0 portable hard drive for $100 – Best Buy
Audio and video
- Xiaomi Mi Box S 4K Android TV media streamer for $30 – Walmart
- Jabra Elite 65t true wireless earbuds for $90 – Amazon
- Refurb Jabra Elite 65t true wirless earbuds for $50 – Newegg
- Aukey true wireless earbuds for $20 – Amazon (coupon: R998JHY5)
The prices of microSDXC cares in the 256 GB to 512 GB
range seem to be going up, the 512 GBs used to be as
low as $80, now they’re up to $110.
On the other hand, the 1 TB SanDisks are now down to $250, so
the price is getting to be more reasonable (just a
slight premium over 2x the price of the 512 GB version).
Friends don’t let friends buy chromebooks.
Still can’t find a use case for Chrombeooks,
especially since the BlueStacks Android emulator
runs on Windows.
Tragically my children began using them. Still trying to fix that…
If you could replace the storage it would make a good Linux laptop but as is it’s got a fixed lifespan unless you can solder in a new eMMC. I’m not buying despite a pretty great price tag for the 16GB model.
I take it that there’s no hidden m.2 slot inside the laptop. If it were, this would make a great Windows10 Pro laptop (or even Linux) based on the specs listed.
It’s eMMC only. What’s so maddening about this machine is that there is an M.2 slot (not compatible with storage) for the wifi card, so it seems that the only reason that HP didn’t put the storage on an M.2 card is because they were being cheap. As a result a generally capable machine will be mostly useless once the Chrome updates stop coming.
(Sent from my old 6 year old Acer C720 with an upgraded M.2 drive and running Windows.)
Some of these Chromebooks do, some don’t. There are a lot of web pages devoted to converting Chromebooks into windows laptops, and there are typically a handful of models that can successfully load and run Windows but they always have something not 100% working in the end. Some of the components in Chromebooks are specifically sourced from vendors that don’t provide Microsoft the Windows drivers.
Considering the price difference between these Chromebooks and refurb laptops, it may be worth paying a few extra dollars and get a refurb Windows laptop.