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Feature
By Mike Wuerthele
Wednesday, November 21, 2018, 06:43 am PT (09:43 am ET)
People typically think of physical goods when it comes to Black Friday, but it can also be a good time to grab Mac software on the cheap if you know where to look.Wednesday, November 21, 2018, 06:43 am PT (09:43 am ET)
Below are deals that are running on or during Black Friday (Nov. 23) and Cyber Monday (Nov. 26) from some of the better-known Mac developers. Where applicable, we'll identify when deals are available beyond Friday.
Aura Health
Meditation is a great way to ease stress and reduce anxiety, and app-based guidance tools are plentiful, but Aura is one of the few to use machine learning to cater to your specific needs. The app offers a free 3-minute guided meditation session every day, but there are also 3, 7, and 10-minute sessions, mood pattern tracking, and daily reminders available as part of a subscription.
The Lifetime Subscription for the app's premium features is usually $99.99 and is currently discounted to $79.99, but use promo code CMSAVE40 to bring it down to just $48.
Private Internet Access VPN
Frequent user of public Wi-Fi hotspots? Protect your data while surfing in public with the Private Internet Access VPN, a critically acclaimed service that masks your location and IP address to bypass geo-blocked sites, all while protected by a built-in firewall and Blowfish CBC encryption.
Usable on up to five devices simultaneously with unlimited bandwidth, a two-year subscription is already discounted from $166.80 to $55.55, but using promo code CMSAVE40 reduces it further to $33.33.
WALTR 2
If you need to transfer files to your iOS devices, WALTR 2 may be worth a look. The app allows you to transfer ringtones, videos, PDFs and ePUB files by dragging and dropping, with it including features like Smart Adaptive Conversion for faster audio and video conversions, and content recognition that brings across relevant metadata.
Normally $19, already down from $39.95, you can bring the cost down to $11.40 with promo code CMSAVE40.
Radix '.tech' Domains
Want to set up a website but just can't find the .com domain you want? Consider using '.tech' instead, especially if your business or project is technology-oriented.
While you can get a ten-year registration for $49.99, if you use promo code CMSAVE40, the price comes down to $30 for ten years.
Adobe
Adobe is offering a 25 percent discount on its All Apps subscription for Creative Cloud, now through Black Friday. The plan includes over 20 apps, such as Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, and Premiere Pro CC, as well as 100 gigabytes of cloud storage and access to services like Portfolio and Fonts.
- Annual plan, paid monthly: $39.99
- Annual plan, prepaid: $479.88
Quark
Speaking of page design software, QuarkXPress is now available through November 30 in a bundle that adds $1,597 worth of professionally produced typefaces from Fontsmith.
These dozen faces include a total of 56 individual fonts including FS Berwick, FS Charity and FS Cattle. The set also includes 200 icons and you get them by first buying QuarkXpress and then following instructions to get a coupon code for the fonts.
1Password
1Password also unveiled a special Thanksgiving deal, letting users send friends and family a free year of 1Password Families.
Flexibits
From 10pm Eastern on November 21 to the same time on November 27, software developer Flexibits is offering at least 50 percent off its Mac and iOS apps. This means that both the contacts app Cardhop and the exceptional calendar Fantastical are on sale.
Cardhop for Mac is now $9.99 instead of $19.99 but the real savings are on the different versions of Fantastical. This app is sold in three separate versions for Mac, iPhone and iPad — it doesn't even have a universal iOS edition — and two of them are far more than half off. Fantastical 2 for iPhone is now $1.99 instead of its regular $4.99. And Fantastical 2 for iPad is reduced to $2.99 from $9.99.
To take advantage of what Flexibits says is the company's biggest ever sale, just order from the official site during this Black Friday and Cyber Monday period.
ExpressVPN
VPNs — virtual private networks — let users mask their IPs and guard their traffic, as well as access geoblocked services like Netflix or BBC iPlayer. Through Cyber Monday (Nov. 26), ExpressVPN is adding 3 free months to its 12-month plan, at a cost of $99.95. Once the first term is up, the plan will revert to its normal 12-month length.
Parallels
Parallels' Desktop 14 lets owners run Windows on a Mac, including support for transferring files between apps and operating systems. A 'Coherence' mode makes Windows apps accessible without the rest of the OS appearing. Through Nov. 28, Parallels is offering 20 percent off Desktop licenses.
Setapp
MacPaw's Setapp, tested by AppleInsider, is an app subscription service letting users access over 100 titles for tasks like maintenance, creativity, and productivity. Through Cyber Monday a 1-year subscription is $69, 42 percent off the usual price.
![Microsoft word 2018 for mac Microsoft word 2018 for mac](https://www.seven-photo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/installing-windows-on-a-mac-using-bootcamp-assistant-harvard.png)
MacPaw
Gemini II from MacPaw
Separately, MacPaw is also offering a 30 percent discount on its desktop software. This includes Gemini II, an app for finding duplicate files on your Mac. Plus Wallpaper Wizard 2, a collection of high-resolution images for your desktop.
There's also Hider 2 which is for hiding documents and sensitive information on your Mac.
The deal runs from 3pm Eastern on November 23 for 24 hours. The discount is automatically applied when you buy through this link.
Realmac
RapidWeaver 8 developer Realmac is offering 30 percent off all its software and training videos from now. It is specifically a Black Friday sale but it's also marking the firm's 16th anniversary and at time of writing doesn't have an end date.
Realmac's RapidWeaver 8
The app you'll want is that RapidWeaver 8: it's Realmac's web design software which normally retails for $99 but is for now reduced to $69.
There are also bundles on offer with RapidWeaver 8 and various types of training. Plus Squash, a $15 app for compressing images which is now on sale for $10.
To get the discount, go via this link and use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2018 at checkout.
Corel
Corel is offering up to 60 percent off its software applications plus free ground shipping if you bother with the boxed versions. It also says there are 'bonus items (worth up to $135)' but it's not clear what those are.
CorelPainter 2019
You also need to dig into each option to confirm that an application is for Mac. Some are but many are Windows 10-only.
Among the Mac ones, the company is probably now best known for its graphics application Painter. This used to be $429 but is now $299.
There are other applications such as the considerably cheaper Painter Essentials 6 (was $49.99, now $34.99) and CorelCAD 2018 which was $699 and now costs $594.
Corel's Black Friday sale is on from now to November 23, 2018.
Motif
Motif for Apple Photos
Apple may have ceased printing books for you from within the Photos app, but you still have an alternative. Motif makes a plug-in for Apple Photos which is a little less polished but lets you create, edit and print a range of photo books. From now until November 25, you can get free shipping and also 30 percent off all photo books. Use promo code FRIDAY.
VMware
Virtual machine developer VMware is running several sales.
Global Black Friday Discounts (Nov. 21 to Nov. 25)
- 35% off Fusion Pro & Workstation Pro (New Licenses)
- 30% off Fusion Pro & Workstation Pro (Upgrades)
- 30% off Fusion & Workstation Player (New Licenses)
- 20% off Fusion & Workstation Player (Upgrades)
- 10% off Fusion Pro and Workstation Pro with coupon code BF2018
Education Sale (Nov. 21 to Nov. 30)
- Up to 25% discount off selected SKUs
Additional Discounts (Nov. 21 to Nov. 30)
- 50% off Fusion Pro & Workstation Pro Bundle (New Licenses Only)
- 60% off Fusion vs Parallels (New Licenses Only)
- The Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA is our new top pick. Its predecessor, the C302CA, is now our runner-up pick, and HP’s Chromebook 14 x360 is a good option when it’s on sale.
- The Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA is our new top pick. Its predecessor, the C302CA, is now our runner-up pick, and HP’s Chromebook 14 x360 is a good option when it’s on sale.We’ve added some new test results to the Competition section and added a few new announcements to the What to look forward to section.
Your guide
- Kimber Streams
After testing most of the Chromebooks released in the past five years, we’ve found that the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA is one of the best Chromebooks ever made. It has solid performance, a reliable trackpad and backlit keyboard, excellent battery life, a spacious 14-inch screen with tiny borders and a compact body, and USB-C and USB-A ports to connect new and older peripherals. It’s expensive for a Chromebook but worth it.
Our pick
Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA
With solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, excellent battery life, and a 14-inch screen squeezed into a compact laptop, the C434 is one of the best Chromebooks ever made.
Buying Options
The C434 has a 360-degree hinge, though it’s too heavy to use comfortably in tablet mode. We recommend the DSM4T model with a 14-inch 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen, an Intel Core m3-8100Y processor, 4 GB of memory, and 64 GB of storage. Asus also offers a DS384T model with 8 GB of RAM, but that’s overkill for most people. The Flip C434 feels more like a $1,000 ultrabook than a cheap Chromebook, and it’s a much better value than a budget Windows laptop that would have a creaky chassis, poor battery life, a horrendous screen, and a spinning hard drive.
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Runner-up
Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA
The C302CA offers solid performance, long-enough battery life, and a thin, light body, but it has a smaller screen, lacks USB-A ports, and will stop receiving software updates two years earlier.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $450.
If the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA is unavailable, we recommend its predecessor, the Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA. It’s almost two years older than the C434TA, but it still has solid performance, a comfortable backlit keyboard, a responsive trackpad, a battery that lasts a full workday, and a light, compact body. Plus, it costs around $100 less than the Flip C434. But the C302CA has a smaller touchscreen, it has no USB-A ports, and its update support will run out nearly two years earlier in November 2022—it’s worth paying more for the C434, which will be supported through June 2024. We recommend the DHM4 model with a 12.5-inch 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen, an Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor, 4 GB of memory, and 64 GB of storage.
Best Cheaper Registrars 2018 For Mac
![Best Chepaer Registrars 2018 For Mac Best Chepaer Registrars 2018 For Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/2/133297038/797936860.png)
Also great
HP Chromebook 14 x360
An excellent value when it’s on sale for $450 or less, the x360 14 has solid performance, great battery life, and a 14-inch screen, but it’s much larger and heavier than the C434.
Buying Options
When it’s on sale for $450 or less, which happens fairly often, the HP Chromebook x360 14 is an excellent value. But if it’s more expensive than that, we recommend the Flip C434 instead. The x360 has solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, and all-day battery life—all about as good as the C434. But even though the x360 has a 14-inch, 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen, its thicker bezels make it a much larger, much heavier laptop than the 14-inch Flip C434. The HP has a 360-degree hinge, but its larger size and extra half pound make it unwieldy and unreasonable to use in tablet mode. Our recommended configuration has an Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage.
Budget pick
Acer Chromebook 11 C771T
The Acer Chromebook 11 C771T is the cheapest Chromebook anyone should buy right now.
Buying Options
May be out of stock
If you’re looking for the cheapest decent Chromebook, we recommend the Acer Chromebook 11 C771T. It offers good-enough performance, a full workday or school day of battery life, and durable build quality. The C771T has a decent (if small and low-resolution) touchscreen, but it lacks a 360-degree hinge to take advantage of Android apps in tablet mode. The keyboard and trackpad aren’t exceptional, either, but they work. We recommend the C1WS configuration with an 11-inch, 1366×768 IPS touchscreen, an Intel Celeron 3855U processor, 4 GB of memory, and 32 GB of storage. The C771T is currently difficult to find in stores, but Acer says it hasn’t been discontinued; we’ll be testing more budget models in our next update.
Everything we recommend
Our pick
Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA
With solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, excellent battery life, and a 14-inch screen squeezed into a compact laptop, the C434 is one of the best Chromebooks ever made.
Buying Options
Runner-up
Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA
The C302CA offers solid performance, long-enough battery life, and a thin, light body, but it has a smaller screen, lacks USB-A ports, and will stop receiving software updates two years earlier.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $450.
Also great
HP Chromebook 14 x360
An excellent value when it’s on sale for $450 or less, the x360 14 has solid performance, great battery life, and a 14-inch screen, but it’s much larger and heavier than the C434.
Buying Options
Budget pick
Acer Chromebook 11 C771T
The Acer Chromebook 11 C771T is the cheapest Chromebook anyone should buy right now.
Buying Options
May be out of stock
What is a Chromebook?
A Chromebook is a laptop that runs Chrome OS, an operating system that uses a Web browser (Chrome) as its primary interface and focuses on Web apps and online storage. A Chromebook is ideal for someone who spends all their computing time in a browser checking email and social networks, working in Google’s app suite or in other Web apps, and juggling lots of tabs. A Chromebook also makes a good bare-bones secondary computer if you already have a laptop or a desktop and prefer a traditional laptop with a keyboard to a touchscreen-first iPad.
If you can’t live without desktop apps like Microsoft Office, a desktop email client, or photo- or video-editing software, a Chromebook is not for you. Many email and office suites have browser-based alternatives like Office 365, and Android app support means you can use Microsoft’s Office apps, take a Skype call, or run Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop Express, and other Creative Cloud apps to edit the occasional photo. But if you’re unwilling or unable to switch to browser or Android app versions, stick to a Mac or Windows computer.
Chromebooks need an Internet connection for most tasks, though they do support some offline options for Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, and Keep, as well as offline playback of movies, music, and some games. And a variety of offline apps are available through the Chrome Web Store.
If you can’t live without desktop apps like Microsoft Office, a desktop email client, or photo- or video-editing software, a Chromebook is not for you.
Most Chromebooks have between 16 GB and 64 GB of local storage, but Google encourages Chromebook owners to live in the cloud, providing 100 GB of free Google Drive storage for two years. (Once your two years are up, you’ll need to pay to keep that Drive space. Right now, 100 GB costs $2 per month.) Most Chromebooks also include USB ports and an SD or microSD card slot that you can use to expand storage.
How we picked
A Chromebook doesn’t need to be exceptionally powerful or look fancy, but if slow performance, poor battery life, a horrendous screen, or a bad keyboard or trackpad gets in the way of your using the Internet like a normal person, the Chromebook has failed at its only job.
- Performance: Good-enough performance means 4 GB of RAM; a sixth-, seventh-, or eighth-generation Intel processor; and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. In the past five years of testing Chromebooks, we’ve found that Chromebooks that have less than 4 GB of memory or run on N-series Celerons and Pentiums or ARM-based processors from Samsung, Nvidia, or Rockchip, or on AMD’s seventh-generation A4 and A6 processors, are painful to use due to slow-loading tabs and frustrating typing delays.
- Price: Nowadays, Chromebooks that meet our performance requirements cost at least $500; that price continues to creep upward because manufacturers are focusing on nicer, better-made Chromebooks for most people, aiming the cheaper models at schools. Just a few years ago it was possible to get a $350 Chromebook with a decent processor, and we wish manufacturers would make less expensive options with good processors available to regular people instead of just educational institutions.
- Keyboard and trackpad: A keyboard and trackpad should be good enough not to get in the way of your work. A backlit keyboard is a nice luxury, and most Chromebooks over $400 have them.
- Battery life: A Chromebook should last for a full eight-hour day of classes or work so you don’t have to hunt for an outlet or be stuck with a dead laptop.
- Size and weight: The lighter and more compact a laptop is, the easier it is to lug on a plane, to a coffee shop, or to class. And for Chromebooks with 360-degree convertible hinges, being lighter—usually less than 3 pounds—makes them easier to hold in tablet mode.
- Screen: A 1920×1080 resolution is ideal for a 13- to 15-inch screen—any higher isn’t worth the trade-off in battery life, and any lower looks noticeably worse. A 1366×768 resolution is more acceptable on an 11-inch screen. The screen should use IPS technology, not TN, because IPS offers much better viewing angles and is more color-accurate.
- Touchscreen and 360-degree hinge: We like to see a touchscreen and a 360-degree hinge for our top picks, especially since most new Chromebooks run Android apps, and an included stylus is a nice bonus. Since those features add cost, we don’t require them for our budget pick.
- Ports: We appreciate when a Chromebook includes both USB-C ports and traditional USB-A ports to connect older peripherals.
- Android app support: Pretty much all new Chromebooks now support Android apps, which means you can make a video call on Skype, edit photos in Lightroom, chat in Facebook Messenger, or play Hearthstone. Not all apps scale well on a laptop screen though—some, like Facebook Messenger, are limited to a small phone-sized and -shaped window. Others aren’t stable and can act up or crash. Android apps on Chromebooks are very much a work in progress and require developers to update their apps to run and scale properly on a laptop. Google hasn't had much success over the past half-decade getting developers to optimize their apps for Android tablets, so while they’re a handy addition, we don’t recommend buying a Chromebook solely for the purpose of running Android apps.
How we tested
We lived with each Chromebook for at least one full day of work to get a feel for the keyboard, trackpad, screen, and speakers, as well as for each laptop’s real-world performance. We also streamed music, worked in large Google Drive spreadsheets and text documents, and paid attention to frustrating and error-inducing input lag while typing in Google Docs. We watched streaming video on Netflix or Hulu, and played at least one match of Hearthstone to get a feel for loading times and juddery animations.
We gathered results from the JetStream 2 and SunSpider benchmarks, combined with our real-world testing, to highlight the performance gap separating ARM-powered Chromebooks, those with Intel’s ultra low-voltage mobile processors, and models with laptop-class Intel chips.
To test the battery life of each Chromebook, we used a customized version of the Chromium battery test designed to emulate normal browsing behavior. The first 60 percent of the test involves loading a new website every minute, scrolling down and back up the page. The next 20 percent of the test loads a Gmail tab with audio streaming in a background tab. For the next 10 percent, the Chromium test loads various Google Docs items; the final 10 percent of the test plays a full-screen YouTube video at 720p. We run the test until each Chromebook dies.
Our pick: Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA
Our pick
Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA
With solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, excellent battery life, and a 14-inch screen squeezed into a compact laptop, the C434 is one of the best Chromebooks ever made.
Buying Options
The Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA is one of the best Chromebooks ever made, with solid performance, a reliable trackpad and backlit keyboard, excellent battery life, a spacious 14-inch screen with tiny bezels and a compact body, and both USB-C and USB-A ports to connect new and older peripherals. The C434 has a 360-degree hinge, though it’s too heavy to use comfortably in tablet mode. It’s expensive for a Chromebook, but it's worth the money if you plan to use your Chromebook a lot.
We recommend the DSM4T model with a 14-inch 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen, an Intel Core m3-8100Y processor, 4 GB of memory, and 64 GB of storage. Asus also offers a DS384T model with 8 GB of RAM for around $600; that’s overkill for most people but a good option when our recommended model costs more than $570 (or if you already know you’re a tab monster whose workflow requires more memory).
The Flip C434’s keyboard and trackpad are both reliable and responsive. The silver keys, combined with the white backlight, make the keyboard legends difficult to read in a well-lit room, but they’re useful in the dark. This is a minor issue—just disable the backlight if there’s enough light to see the keys.
The Asus Chromebook Flip C434 lasted 13 hours and 13 minutes in our battery test, one of the best results we’ve seen in a Chromebook. It’ll certainly last a whole day, and I’ve used it for hours of coffee shop coworking without worrying about the battery at all. The only Chromebook we’ve tested this year with longer battery life is the HP Chromebook x360 14, which surpassed the C434 by about half an hour.
For a laptop with a 14-inch screen, the C434 is impressively compact and easy to carry around, measuring 12.6 by 8 by 0.6 inches and weighing 3.2 pounds. The HP Chromebook x360 14, which has the same screen size, is notably larger at 12.8 by 8.9 by 0.6 inches and half a pound heavier.
I loved working and watching shows on the C434’s spacious, 14-inch screen—it’s large enough to comfortably navigate spreadsheets or even to work with two windows side by side. The Flip C302 and the Samsung Chromebook Pro’s 12-inch screens were too cramped to accommodate that type of work.
The Flip C434’s touchscreen is handy for the occasional Android app, and it has a 360-degree hinge that allows you to flip the screen around to use the laptop as a tablet. But it’s uncomfortably heavy to use in tablet mode, and the screen’s tiny bezels make it difficult to hold without unintentionally touching the display. The small bezels are completely worth the trade-off for a more compact laptop and a more immersive screen, though.
The C434 also has a second USB-C port and a microSD card slot. Photo: Sarah Kobos
The Flip C434 has a USB-A port for older peripherals, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port that can also be used to charge the laptop, and a headphone jack. Photo: Sarah Kobos
The C434 also has a second USB-C port and a microSD card slot. Photo: Sarah Kobos
The Flip C434 has a USB-A port for older peripherals, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port that can also be used to charge the laptop, and a headphone jack. Photo: Sarah Kobos
The C434 has all the ports most people need on a Chromebook. It can charge via either of its two USB-C ports. It has one USB-A port for connecting older peripherals as well as a headphone jack, and it also has a microSD slot for expanded storage. The Asus Chromebook Flip C424TA has guaranteed update support through June 2024, and it comes with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty and 100 GB of Google Drive storage for two years.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Autocad 2018 for mac with crack. At $570, the C434 is expensive, and even its sale price of $530 is still expensive for a Chromebook. As mentioned in How we picked, a few years ago you could get a great Chromebook for just $350. Unfortunately, nowadays all great Chromebooks are too expensive; manufacturers are either selling their cheaper models directly to schools or saddling them with frustratingly slow processors.
Despite its high price for a Chromebook, the Flip C434 feels more like a $1,000 ultrabook, and it’s a much better value than a budget Windows laptop that would have a creaky chassis, poor battery life, a horrendous screen, and a spinning hard drive. We’d like to see more affordable options with decent processors—and we’ll be testing a couple for our next update—but until that happens, it’s worth spending extra for the C434.
At 3.2 pounds, the C434 is light enough to carry around, though it’s too heavy to use comfortably in tablet mode. Both its predecessor, the Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA, and the Samsung Chromebook Pro are lighter and easier to hold as tablets at 2.65 and 2.4 pounds respectively.
Runner-up: Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA
Runner-up
Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA
The C302CA offers solid performance, long-enough battery life, and a thin, light body, but it has a smaller screen, lacks USB-A ports, and will stop receiving software updates two years earlier.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $450.
Best Cheap Registrars 2018 For Mac
The Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA is almost two years older than the C434TA, but it still has solid performance, a comfortable backlit keyboard and a responsive trackpad, a battery that lasts a full workday, and a light, compact body. Plus, it’s around $100 less expensive than its successor, the Flip C434. But the C302CA has a smaller, more cramped touchscreen, no USB-A ports, and its update support will run out nearly two years earlier, in November 2022. Most people will find it’s worth paying more for the C434. https://yellowsheet731.weebly.com/best-4k-monitor-for-mac-2018.html.
Best Cheap Registrars 2018 For Mac Review
We recommend the DHM4 model with a 12.5-inch 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen, an Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor, 4 GB of memory, and 64 GB of storage.
The keyboard is comfortable, responsive, and not too cramped to type on, plus it has a bright, adjustable backlight. The C302’s trackpad feels smooth and is accurate and responsive the vast majority of the time—we experienced some delayed and dropped inputs when we first tested it, but haven’t encountered the issue frequently since.
In our battery-life test, the Flip C302CA lasted 10 hours and 36 minutes. All our other picks have longer battery life: the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA lasted 13 hours, 13 minutes; the HP Chromebook 14 x360 lasted 13 hours, 49 minutes; and the Acer Chromebook 11 C771T lasted 12 hours, 12 minutes. More battery life is always better, but all of our picks will get you through a full day at work or school or a cross-country flight.
The Asus Chromebook Flip weighs 2.65 pounds and measures 12 by 8.3 by 0.6 inches. It’s small and light compared with the competition—it’s about half a pound lighter than the Flip C434 and much easier to hold in tablet mode as a result.
The 12.5-inch touchscreen is a bit smaller than we’d like. Larger screens like the Flip C434’s and HP Chromebook 14 x360’s offer more space to work, while the extra vertical space on the Samsung Chromebook Pro is more useful for Web browsing. Like the Flip C434, the C302 also has a 360-degree hinge that allows you to flip the screen around to use the laptop as a tablet or in any intermediate position.
The Flip C302CA can charge from either of its two USB-C ports, plus it has a microSD slot and a headphone jack. But it doesn’t have any USB-A ports for your existing accessories. We recommend grabbing a couple of USB-C to USB-A adapters or a hub for more devices if you need more ports, or using its Bluetooth connection for devices that support it.
The Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA has guaranteed update support through November of 2022, nearly two years less than the Flip C434TA and HP Chromebook x360 14, which will be supported through June of 2024. The C302CA comes with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty and 100 GB of Google Drive storage for two years.
A great value when it’s on sale: HP Chromebook x360 14
Also great
HP Chromebook 14 x360
An excellent value when it’s on sale for $450 or less, the x360 14 has solid performance, great battery life, and a 14-inch screen, but it’s much larger and heavier than the C434.
Best Mac Laptop 2018
Buying Options
When it’s on sale for $450 or less (and it frequently is!), the HP Chromebook x360 14 is an excellent value. But if it’s more expensive than that, we recommend the Flip C434 instead. The x360 has solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, and all-day battery life—all about as good as the C434. But even though the x360 has a 14-inch, 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen, its thicker bezels make it a much larger, much heavier laptop than the 14-inch Flip C434. The HP has Android app support and a 360-degree hinge, but its larger size and extra half pound make it unwieldy and unreasonable to use in tablet mode.
The HP Chromebook x360 (bottom) is larger and heavier than the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 (top), even though they have the same size of screen.Photo: Sarah Kobos
The HP Chromebook x360 14 (left) and the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 (right) both have the same size 14-inch screen, but the HP is a way bigger laptop.Photo: Sarah Kobos
The HP Chromebook x360 14 (bottom) is larger and less convenient to carry around than the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 (top).Photo: Sarah Kobos
The HP Chromebook x360 (bottom) is larger and heavier than the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 (top), even though they have the same size of screen.Photo: Sarah Kobos
The HP Chromebook x360 14 (left) and the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 (right) both have the same size 14-inch screen, but the HP is a way bigger laptop.Photo: Sarah Kobos
Our recommended configuration has an Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage. Those specs are even more powerful than the Asus Chromebook Flip C434’s, though we couldn’t feel a difference when we used each for several days of work.
The HP’s keyboard and trackpad are both reliable, and we found its springy keys particularly enjoyable to type on. We preferred the HP’s slate blue keyboard over the Flip C434’s cheap-looking silver keys, but they’re both responsive and comfortable.
The HP Chromebook x360 14 has the best battery life we’ve seen in a Chromebook, lasting 13 hours and 49 minutes in our test. But its size and weight make it less convenient to carry around than other picks. The x360 measures 12.8 by 8.9 by 0.6 inches (around an inch larger than the Asus Flip C434) and weighs 3.7 pounds, half a pound more than the C434.
Like the Asus C434, the x360 has a spacious 14-inch 1920×1080 IPS touchscreen, but its thicker bezels make the whole laptop noticeably larger. This extra bulk and weight make the x360 less portable and convenient to use in tablet mode than the C434, despite its touchscreen and 360-degree hinge.
The x360 also has a convenient USB-A port and a second USB-C port. Photo: Sarah Kobos
The HP Chromebook x360 has the exact same ports as the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 but in different locations.Photo: Sarah Kobos
The x360 also has a convenient USB-A port and a second USB-C port. Photo: Sarah Kobos
The HP Chromebook x360 has the exact same ports as the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 but in different locations.Photo: Sarah Kobos
The x360 has the exact same ports as the Flip C434: two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. We found the power button on the left side a bit mushy and difficult to press. The HP Chromebook x360 14 has guaranteed update support through June 2024, and it comes with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty and 100 GB of Google Drive storage for two years.
The cheapest decent Chromebook: Acer Chromebook 11 C771T
Budget pick
Acer Chromebook 11 C771T
The Acer Chromebook 11 C771T is the cheapest Chromebook anyone should buy right now.
Buying Options
May be out of stock
The best cheap Chromebook right now is the Acer Chromebook 11 C771T because it’s powerful enough for everyday work and most Android apps, plus it has a decent (though small) touchscreen, all-day battery life, and solid build quality. It’s durable and has a spill-proof keyboard and a wide selection of older ports, so it's a good choice for students (for whom it's designed). The C771T’s keyboard and trackpad aren’t exceptional, but they work. And though we wish it had a 360-degree hinge for using Android apps in tablet mode, that's not a crucial feature. The C771T is currently difficult to find in stores, but Acer says it hasn’t been discontinued; we’ll be testing more budget models for our next update.
We recommend the C1WS configuration with an 11-inch 1366×768 IPS touchscreen, an Intel Celeron 3855U processor, 4 GB of memory, and 32 GB of storage. Most Chromebooks at this price level use underpowered processors, skimp on memory, or have terrible screens. By contrast, the C771T is equipped to handle everything you can do on a Chromebook right now.
The keyboard is responsive and not miserable to type on, but it isn’t backlit like our other picks’, and the keys feel stiff when pressed and mushy when they bottom out. The Acer’s keyboard is spill-resistant, though, which is great for kids or anyone prone to spilling things on their laptop. The trackpad is also accurate and responsive.
The C771T lasted 12 hours and 12 minutes in our battery life test, plenty for a full day of work or classes. The Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA and HP Chromebook x360 14 have longer battery life—by around an hour and an hour and a half, respectively—but they all last long enough.
The C771T measures 11.7 inches wide, 8.2 inches deep, and 0.8 inches thick, and it weighs 3 pounds, compared to the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA’s dimensions of 12.6 by 8 by 0.6 inches and 3.2 pounds. They’re similar in size and weight, but the C434 squeezes in a 14-inch 1080p screen compared to the Acer’s 11.6-inch, 1366×768-resolution display.
Acer built the Chromebook 11 C771T to withstand abuse from students. This version of the Chromebook 11 has rubberized edges to protect the laptop if you drop it. The chassis feels firm and sturdy, and it doesn’t flex at all when closed; the keyboard does bow under pressure and the lid can be flexed when the laptop is open, but we expect the computer will hold up well to years of being tossed in a bag.
The C771T’s screen is the best we’ve seen on a Chromebook this cheap. The 11-inch 1366×768-resolution display is smaller than we’d like, but at least it’s a vivid, crisp IPS panel. Most Chromebooks in this price range use TN panels, which have poor viewing angles, don’t get very bright, and wash out colors, making them difficult to tell apart.
The touch display’s glossy surface feels a bit tacky and can be difficult to drag fingers across, but reflects less glare than glass-covered touchscreens. The Acer Chromebook 11 C771T supports Android apps, but it lacks a 360-degree hinge—it can only fold open to a flat 180 degrees—so you can’t flip the screen around to use the laptop as a tablet.
The C771T also has a microSD port for additional storage.Photo: Michael Hession
The C771T has a better selection of ports than the Asus Chromebook Flip because it's designed for classroom use.Photo: Michael Hession
The C771T also has a microSD port for additional storage.Photo: Michael Hession
The C771T has a better selection of ports than the Asus Chromebook Flip because it's designed for classroom use.Photo: Michael Hession
The machine has a good selection of ports: an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C charging port, a microSD slot, a headphone-and-microphone combo jack, and a Noble lock slot. It also supports dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2.
The C771T comes with a one-year manufacturer’s warranty and 100 GB of Google Drive storage for two years. But it only has guaranteed update support through November 2022, so you may want to consider spending more for the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA or the HP Chromebook x360 14, which both will be supported through June 2024.
What to look forward to
The HP Chromebook 15 looks promising, with a good-enough processor and a starting price of $450. We plan to test it against our budget picks as soon as it’s available.
The Acer Chromebook 714 has specs similar to those of the HP Chromebook 15, and we plan to test the $500 base model against our picks.
We also plan to test the Acer Chromebook Spin 512 to see how its Intel Pentium N5000 processor holds up in everyday work.
At around $700 historically, the Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 has been too expensive for us to recommend. But the price has now dropped to around $530 for an Intel Core i3-8130U processor, 8 GB of memory, and a 15-inch 1920×1080 screen, so we plan to test it and to update this guide with our findings.
The competition
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The Samsung Chromebook Pro with Backlit Keyboard was our previous runner-up pick, thanks to its solid performance, light and compact body, and its tall, high-resolution touchscreen that’s convenient for Web browsing and full-screen Android apps. But it’s expensive at around $600 and its battery life is shorter than all of our picks, lasting 9 hours and 48 minutes in our test. Its update support also runs out in November 2022, so it’s only worth buying if our picks are unavailable and it’s on sale for $500 or less.
The Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 has a 360-degree hinge, a touchscreen, and a stylus, plus a good trackpad, a USB-A port, and a full work day of battery life. But compared with the similarly priced Samsung Chromebook Pro, the Plus is about half a pound heavier, which is noticeable in daily use. Its lid is difficult to open, and it lacks a backlit keyboard. We also preferred the Pro’s taller, higher-resolution screen.
Google’s Pixelbook is the best Chromebook ever made, but it costs nearly twice the price of the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA, and most people shouldn’t spend that much. The Pixelbook is an impressively thin and light 12.3-inch convertible with the best keyboard and trackpad we’ve tested in any Chromebook. But it starts at $1,000 for a configuration with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB SSD—though we’ve seen it on sale for between $600 and $750. Its battery life also falls a couple hours short of our way cheaper picks. The Pixelbook Pen isn’t worth $100 extra.
The Acer Chromebook 13 and its convertible counterpart, the Acer Chromebook Spin 13, start at around $700. If you’re paying that much, you should get the way smaller and lighter Pixelbook instead.
Dell’s Inspiron Chromebook 14 2-in-1 is noticeably larger than our picks and weighs about 4 pounds. Its battery won’t last a full day.
Google’s Pixel Slate is an expensive 12.3-inch Chrome OS tablet that starts at $800 for our recommended specs, plus an additional $200 for a keyboard. The tablet and keyboard case are less convenient than a laptop to set up and put away, and the soft, wobbly hinge made working at a cramped coffee shop table difficult. And the Slate and keyboard case together end up noticeably thicker than the Pixelbook. (Plus, the Slate doesn’t have a headphone jack.) We don’t recommend it over other Chromebooks, nor do we recommend it as a pro tablet.
The $600 HP Chromebook x2 has a detachable, 12.3-inch display and includes a keyboard and pen. It performed well in our tests, and its battery lasted a full workday. But the detachable tablet makes for an ungainly laptop, and the x2 weighs 3.12 pounds with the keyboard. The x2’s headphone jack is in an awkward location—on the upper right side in laptop mode—and the 3:2 tablet aspect ratio isn’t as wide as that of most laptops, which made it harder to use two apps side by side and even interfered with full-screen Google Docs. We don’t yet see a compelling reason to buy a Chrome OS tablet over a laptop.
We tested the Acer Chromebook 315 with both the AMD A4-9120C and A6-9220C processors, but we found both processors too slow for everyday work. Web pages, documents, and spreadsheets all took roughly twice as long to load on these Chromebooks compared with our top picks, and both models were still noticeably slower than our budget pick, the Acer C771T.
The silver Acer Chromebook 15 CB515 is larger and heavier than our other picks, and its Intel Pentium N4200 processor was noticeably slower in our tests. For $400, we don’t recommend it over our main or budget picks.
The Acer Chromebook 514 is a sleek, compact Chromebook with a decent keyboard, a responsive trackpad, and a 14-inch screen with tiny bezels. Unfortunately it’s limited by the same Pentium N4200 processor, and in our tests it felt too slow even in light use. It also costs around $500, and for that price the HP Chromebook 14 x360 is better all around.
The Samsung Chromebook Plus has an OP1 ARM processor, which is too slow for everyday work. With only a few tabs open—Gmail, Slack, Google Play Music, a Google Docs item, and a small spreadsheet—we experienced typing lag and a few seconds of delay when opening new tabs. It also lacks a keyboard backlight, and its battery doesn’t last as long as our other picks.
The Acer Chromebook 14, Asus Chromebook Flip C213SA, and Acer Chromebook Spin 11 all have Intel N3000-series processors that proved too slow for everyday work. We experienced delays with just a handful of tabs open.
The Asus Chromebook Flip C101 is an inexpensive, 10.1-inch convertible Chromebook with a Rockchip RK3399 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, and Android app support. But we found that the latest Rockchip processor is still too slow for everyday use, and the C101 is too small to comfortably type on.
The Acer Chromebook R 11, Acer Chromebook 11 N7, Asus Chromebook C202SA, Dell Inspiron Chromebook 11 (3181), HP Chromebook 11, HP Chromebook 14, and Samsung Chromebook 3 all have slower processors.
We didn’t consider any Chromebooks with less than 4 GB of RAM.
Footnotes
- Although the SunSpider benchmark is no longer supported, we’ve found it to be the most representative of real-life performance, so we plan to keep using it until that’s no longer the case.Jump back.
Sources
- Phillip Tracy, Asus Chromebook Flip C434 Review, Laptop Mag, April 17, 2019
- Nathan Ingraham, ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 review: More expensive, but why?, Engadget, April 26, 2019
- Robby Payne, Asus Chromebook Flip C434 Review, Chrome Unboxed, May 1, 2019
- Corbin Davenport, The ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 is a worthy successor to the beloved C302, Android Police, May 4, 2019
- Henry T. Casey, Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA Review, Laptop Mag, January 20, 2017
- Joel Santo Domingo, Asus Chromebook Flip (C302CA-DHM4), PCMag, February 2, 2017
- Nathan Ingraham, Asus Chromebook Flip C302 review: King of the Chromebooks, Engadget, July 27, 2017
- Dieter Bohn, Asus Chromebook Flip C302 Review: Standard Issue, The Verge, March 23, 2017
- Xiomara Blanco, Asus Chromebook Flip review: Small Chromebook, big value, CNET, February 21, 2017
- Power testing, Chromium