Black Friday deals are already dropping as retailers roll out the red carpet with early discounts to entice shoppers into an early purchase. Chromebooks, unique laptops that run Google’s cloud-based Chrome operating system, have exploded in popularity in recent years, and they’re already shaping up to be one of the hottest items this holiday sale season. If you’re looking to get your mitts on one of these sleek Chrome OS-powered laptops but have been waiting for the Black Friday Chromebook deals to land, then now’s the time to strike while the iron is hot and to secure yourself a bargain.
We’re already seeing a bevy of great Black Friday laptop deals this year and the holiday shopping season is when you’ll find them at the lowest prices. Read on to see all the best Black Friday Chromebook deals you can find right now if you don’t want to wait for November 27, along with a quick buying guide to give you the leg-up over other bargain-hungry shoppers.
Best Black Friday Chromebook deals
If you need a new laptop for work or school then you probably need it now — meaning you can’t wait until the official Black Friday sales to score a new machine at a discount. Thankfully, you don’t have to. These hot little laptops are on sale year-round, and with retailers rolling out their bargains early, you’ve already got plenty of worthy Black Friday Chromebook deals available to you right here.
How to choose a Chromebook during Black Friday
The pickings were slim when Chromebooks first came onto the scene about a decade ago, but today, pretty much every major PC maker offers its own Chrome OS laptops and they cover the entire spectrum of sizes, hardware configurations, designs, and prices. If you want a super-cheap 11-inch Chromebook with mobile hardware, they’re out there. If you want a high-end 2-in-1 Chromebook with a 4K display and the latest hardware, you’ve got options. In 2020, narrowing down this field to find the best Chromebook for your needs and budget is now much the same as shopping for any Windows laptop — although there are some distinctions to keep in mind.
As Chromebooks run on Google’s cloud-based Chrome operating system, they’re not quite as resource-heavy as Windows laptops. That doesn’t mean that Chromebooks can perform the same tasks as Windows laptops for less — for instance, Chrome OS is not really designed for demanding jobs like gaming or video rendering, where you’ll be better served by a Windows PC with a dedicated GPU. The cloud-based convenience of Chrome OS lends itself especially well to things like web browsing, document writing, taking online classes, and similar projects for work and study. That means they’re a great choice for those heading off to college or attending school virtually, and you can have a look at the best Chromebooks for students.
Super-cheap Chromebooks in the sub-$300 bracket tend to sport pared-down mobile CPUs (such as Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium, Intel N-series, AMD A-series, and MediaTek processors), a minimal amount of RAM (usually 4GB), and 32GB to 64GB of eMMC flash storage. These are simple laptops built for basic tasks, and they’re perfectly suitable as a first laptop for a kid, a backup computer, or a machine that’s solely dedicated to school or work (i.e. it won’t be your a PC for a heavy user). You get what you pay for, but if your needs are modest and your expectations are realistic, you won’t be disappointed. The best brands to look for here include Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, and Samsung. You can even find some cheap 2-in-1s among these budget Chromebook offerings.
If you need something that’s more like a traditional laptop in terms of hardware in performance, then you can usually expect to pay something closer to traditional laptop prices. However, there are a lot of good Chromebooks that come loaded with the latest Intel Core CPUs, boosted RAM, and proper solid-state storage drives, along with nicer displays (up to and including 4K panels on some of the newer models). The top brands to look for in this bracket are Lenovo, Samsung, and Google, with laptops like the Google Pixelbook Go, Lenovo IdeaPad Duet, and Samsung Galaxy Chromebook being two of our own favorites.
When to Shop Black Friday Chromebook Deals
For a big purchase like a laptop, you might be wondering about when is the best time to buy. The good news is that Black Friday Chromebook deals are already available, so you can buy early and ensure that you’ll receive your item in time for the holidays, even with the delays to shipping that are currently affecting online retailers.
Another factor to ease your mind is the price guarantees available on many Black Friday Chromebook deals. Retailers offer these guarantees saying that if you buy now and the price of the item falls over Black Friday, the retailer will refund you the difference. So there’s no reason not to snap up a great deal early, and you can be confident your item will arrive soon.
Where to find the best Chromebook sales
- Amazon Black Friday: Amazon is running new Holiday Dash deals every day until November 19, although this online retail giant is generally not as good of a place to find Chromebook deals (and laptop deals in general) as other stores like Best Buy and Walmart. Nonetheless, it’s a good idea to keep that page bookmarked and check back daily — you might just find a hidden gem.
- Best Buy Black Friday: Best Buy offers discounted laptops year-round and you can be sure it’ll have plenty of Black Friday Chromebook deals on tap. In fact, there are some worthy savings to be had on top models from HP, Google, and Samsung right now.
- Walmart Black Friday: Walmart’s laptop deals often fly under the radar and it’s a huge mistake to overlook this retailer (which many shoppers regard mostly as a brick-and-mortar store). It’s a surprisingly great place to find Black Friday Chromebook deals on models from Lenovo, Acer, Samsung, and Asus, which go on sale a lot here.
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