Best Chromebook under $300 in 2023

When shopping for the best cheap Chromebooks, it's important to remember four little words: bang for the buck. You don't simply want a dirt-cheap laptop that'll need to be replaced in a month. Instead, look for a Chromebook that balances a reasonable price with reliable performance. Luckily, there are plenty of great Chromebooks under $300 that don't skimp on quality, and we've done the work of gathering the best of the best. 

Whether you want a Chrome OS tablet that transforms into a Chromebook, or just something that you can get for your little one to take to school, the best cheap Chromebooks on the web can be found below. 

• Phone deals: Best Buy | Walmart | Samsung | Amazon | Verizon | AT&T 

At a glance

Get the best Chromebook under $300

Best overall

Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet has been available since its launch in 2020, but this is still arguably the best Chromebook under $300. Not only does Lenovo include a kickstand back cover and detachable keyboard case, but the fact that you can go from using it like a laptop to having a tablet is just extremely convenient.

The Duet offers a compact and portable form factor, thanks in part, to the 10.1-inch touchscreen display. That little display can even reach up to 400 nits of brightness, which outperforms some of the (more-expensive) best Chromebooks. MediaTek’s Helio P60T chipset sips on the 7,000mAh battery like a fine wine, allowing you to get up to 10 hours of battery on a single charge. And there’s even USI stylus support, but you’ll have to pick one of those up yourself, as Lenovo doesn’t include one in the box.

Port selection is a little rough, as we noted in our review, due to the fact that you’ll only have a single USB-C port at your disposal. And while it’s great that this doubles as the charging port, trying to connect any wired peripherals, like an HDMI cable, will require a USB-C hub. Nevertheless, the Chromebook Duet continues to impress despite its pitfalls and the fact that it’s a little more than two years old at this point.

Best big screen

Those who are looking for a cheap Chromebook with a big screen will definitely want to consider the Samsung Chromebook 4+. Samsung packed a 15.6-inch display into the Chromebook 4+, offering more screen real estate compared to the “regular” Chromebook 4. As you might expect for a sub-$300 Chromebook, the configuration options are pretty limited. 

You’ll be able to get either 4GB or 6GB of RAM and up to 64GB of eMMC storage, but if you want a traditional SSD option with 128GB of storage, you’ll be getting rather close to the $400 price. And at that point, there are plenty of other options that offer better performance for the price.

With this Chromebook, you won’t be getting the best performance, and the 15.6-inch display doesn’t look all that great when it comes to viewing angles. But what you get in return is solid all-day battery life, and just enough power to do some light multitasking. There are plenty of compromises to be found here, but Samsung’s excellent build quality and the larger screen easily help to outweigh the cons.

Best battery life

In case you weren’t aware, we’ve reached the point where more and more Chromebook makers are starting to use MediaTek chipsets across its lineup. And that’s part of the intrigue with the ASUS Chromebook Flip CM3, as you’ll find the MediaTek MT8183 chipset clocked at 2GHz. But MediaTek has designed this chip with Chrome OS in mind, something that you won’t really find when looking at the rest of the Chromebook market.

Unfortunately, the Flip CM3 might disappoint some in the performance area, but there are a few other tricks that ASUS has included to help sway you in this direction. For one, its small and compact form factor is extremely enticing, as its display measures at just 12-inches. But the added benefit here is that ASUS uses an IPS panel with a 3:2 aspect ratio, making the CM3 a great sub-$300 Chromebook for productivity. And as you might expect, the Flip CM3 supports a USI stylus, but again, you’ll need to provide that on your own.

One of the key reasons why you might consider the Flip CM3 over the competition comes down to battery life, with ASUS rating this for up to 16 hours on a single charge. This blows everything else away on this list, even if you end up needing to charge before you reach the 16-hour mark. ASUS definitely hit the mark here, and while it may not be the most impressive performer, it might just end up being your next Chromebook.

Best as a laptop

One of the primary complaints about the original Acer Chromebook 314 was that it lacked a touchscreen. This Chromebook features a traditional laptop design, meaning that you won’t be able to rotate the screen and use it as a tablet. But that should be just fine for those who don’t really end up using their Chromebooks like a tablet anyways.

As is the case with many of the best Chromebooks under $300, there are a few compromises to be found, and again, Acer hits us with the performance. Intel’s Celeron N4020 is at the helm here, paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. So you won’t really find yourself doing much gaming or multi-tasking with the Chromebook 314. But what you will get is up to 10 hours of juice on a single charge, and really, just a solid laptop to use when you’re sitting on the couch and want to look up some new recipes or relax with a YouTube video.

Best for students

Much like its lineup of laptops, Lenovo continues churning out Chromebooks left and right. While there are some that rank among the best Chromebooks overall in terms of performance, Lenovo also makes one of the best Chromebooks for students. 

With the Lenovo 14e Chromebook, you're not going to get any glamorous features, nor will anything about the design really jump off the page. But there's a good reason for that, as it's pretty clear that the 14e is designed with portability and students in mind.

Compared to some of the other options on this list, Lenovo opted to use the AMD A4 processor, as opposed to Intel's Celeron chip. However, you’re limited to only getting 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. But you won’t find SSD support as Lenovo relies on flash storage only. Where the Lenovo 14e does excel is in its port selection, offering dual USB 3.1 ports, dual USB-C ports, a Kensington lock slot, a 3.5mm audio combo jack, and even a microSD card reader.

This Chromebook was put through the MIL-STD standards, and will easily survive the rigors of day-to-day use. The keys were even designed to withstand spills, while the "mechanically anchored keys" will "stay put regardless of the bumps and knocks of daily life."

Best for portability

The HP Chromebook 11a (11a-na0060nr) is an intriguing Chromebook. Not because of its performance, which pretty much matches up with the rest of the options here. But because you can get a small and compact Chromebook, with an HD touchscreen, for under $300. It almost feels like HP should have just turned this into a direct competitor for the Chromebook Duet, but opted to stick with the laptop form-factor instead.

Unfortunately, when it comes to configuring this specific Chromebook, your options are limited. And by limited, we mean that you only have one configuration to choose from with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC flash storage. Other features of the Chromebook 11a include incredible battery life, rated for almost 16 hours, a USB-C port supporting Power Delivery, along with a microSD card reader. 

You’ll also find a middling 720p webcam to go with stereo speakers, but we can only classify that as “serviceable” at best. But with an 11.6-inch touchscreen and a battery that never runs out, we would be remiss if we didn’t include the Chromebook 11a on this list, as it's also one of the best Chromebooks for kids.

There are so many sub-$300 options for Chromebooks

The "problem" when trying to find the best Chromebook under $300 is that there are just so many different options. Of course, this is a great problem to have, but you'll need to into this understand that you won't be getting the best performance possible. All of the options we've covered here will be more than sufficient to handle many of the tasks that you might find yourself needing a Chromebook for. 

Without a doubt, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet stands out from the crowd despite its age and lack of ports. For under $300, transforming a Chromebook tablet into a laptop offers the most convenience. And while the Chromebook Duet 3 has arrived as the spiritual successor, it's a bit more expensive than the original Chromebook Duet, which is why you won't find it on this list.