Should You Buy a Chromebook on Black Friday 2021? | Digital Trends

The best Black Friday deals are a good opportunity to buy just about anything, but it’s cheaper products that tend to get the deepest discounts. And given the explosion of interest in Chromebooks over the past year or two, you might be wondering if Black Friday is a good time to buy a new Chromebook in particular.

We’ll cover that and more, as we discuss some of the best strategies for shopping the Black Friday laptop deals and Black Friday Chromebook deals this holiday season for a computer that lasts you for years to come.

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Black Friday is the best time to buy a Chromebook — but shop early deals

Chromebooks are often on sale. Especially the cheapest ones. In most cases, however, the bargain bin Chromebooks don’t provide a good computing experience. Especially not if you or your child has to use it for many hours each day for school or work. Nearly none of the options that are under $100 are likely worth your time. If it doesn’t have at least a 1080p screen, for example, it’s a hard pass — no matter how cheap it is.

But on Black Friday, the deals you might seem some midrange Chromebooks that are being discounted down into the budget tier prices. If you see discounts of $100 or more, you’re likely getting a good deal.

There are reasons not to wait, though. The ongoing chip shortage and extreme demand during the holidays have led to significant delays, which means your holiday gift might not show up in time. Ahead of Black Friday, for example, the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 13-inch is $100 off, costing just $330 right now. That comes with an Intel Core i3 processor, 1080p screen, and weighs under three pounds. That’s quite the deal.

Another good option is the Samsung Chromebook 4+, which has nice thin bezels, a 15-inch 1080p screen, and MacBook-like silver chassis. You can pick that one up for over $100 off at Walmart for just $209.

Why buy a Chromebook?

Closeup on the HP Chromebook x2 11's keyboard. — Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Chromebooks have seen a surge in sales over the past year or two. The obvious reason why? Remote education, of course. With many kids continuing to learn from school, affordable laptops have become a central tool, whether it’s for completing assignments or being in video calls to replace the classroom environment.

Chromebooks are a natural fit for this for two reasons. First, they’re as cheap as computers come. If you need a keyboard, a screen, and a connection to the internet, a cheap Chromebook can cover your bases for a price that’s hard to beat.

Manageability is the second big reason Chromebooks have become a natural for education. An entire fleet of Chromebooks can be easily managed by an IT administrator, and some of the restrictions of the operating system can be benefits. For example, can’t download applications right off the internet.

Beyond the education market, though, Chromebooks have really increased in quality in the past couple of years. There’s a wider range of options than ever, spanning from $100 up to $1,000. And even though it might seem like these more expensive Chromebooks are niche, they are certainly a growing market.

Some of the best Chromebooks, like the Pixelbook Go, Acer Chromebook Spin 713, and Asus Chromebook Flip C436 all provide the Chrome OS experience in a much more premium package. There’s even a legitimate iPad competitor in the HP Chromebook x2 11.

As an alternative to clunky Windows and the closed-off MacOS, Chromebooks present an alternative that is every bit as high quality — so long as you do almost all your work in a web browser.