Summer vacations are just beginning, but now is a good time to get a jump on back-to-school laptop shopping. Chromebooks are a great pick for students because of their ease of use and low prices. If you will need to buy a Chromebook for the next school year, you can save some money by picking one up now. Best Buy and Amazon are running sales on Chromebooks that can save you up to $200. Let's take a look.
Note CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page.
Read more: See all Chromebook deals at Best Buy
Read more: See most popular Chromebooks under $500 at Amazon
The x2 won an Editors' Choice Award for its compelling design that makes it easy to shift from laptop to tablet and back. This 2-in-1 Chromebook features a detachable keyboard that quickly turns the touch display into a tablet. It also includes a stylus, which oftentimes is sold separately to add to the bill. The 12.3-inch touch display features a crisp 2,400x1,600 resolution, which is powered by an Intel Core m3 processor and 4GB of RAM. Without a microSD card slot, you are stuck with a measly 32GB of storage.
The display doesn't detach, but it can rotate 360 degrees to put this Chromebook into tablet mode. A Core i3 processor and 8GB of RAM power the large, 14-inch Full HD touch display. It has 64GB of internal storage -- better than the paltry 32GB on some Chromebooks -- and provides a microSD card slot so you can expand the storage space.
This Dell Chromebook features an eighth-generation Intel Core i3 CPU, 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage. These are a great specs for a Chromebook, which often relies on older CPUs and supplies only 32GB or 64GB of storage. And it boasts a roomy display instead of a cramped 11- or 12-inch panel. Its 14-inch touch display has a 1,920x1,080 resolution and can be rotated 360 degrees into tablet mode.
This 12.2-inch Chromebook won't set the world on fire in terms of performance with its Intel Core m3-7Y30 processor and 4GB of memory, but the efficient Core m3 CPU should provide ample battery life. And it serves up an ample 128GB of storage with a microSD card slot if you need to add more. It also supplies not one but two cameras -- a rear-facing 13-megapixel camera and a front-facing 1-megapixel camera. Despite its small size, the display boasts a 1920x1,200 resolution and can rotate 360 degrees.
CNET's biggest complaint about Google's premium Chromebook was its premium price. With its current discount of $200, the Pixel Slate becomes a more attractive. The 12.3-inch touch display features a super-fine 3,000x2,000 resolution. It also features rear- and front-facing 8-megapixel cameras. You'll need to spring for a separate keyboard, however, because the Pixel Slate includes only a stylus.
There are three Pixel Slate models on sale, and each is $200 off.
- Core m3 CPU, 8GB RAM, 64GB storage for $599.
- Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage for $799
- Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB storage for $1,399
Amazon also has the Pixel Slate at the same of similar discounted prices. The two lower-end models have the same discounts as you'll find at Best Buy, and the high-end model is $5 cheaper at $1,394.
