We bought a Chromebook back in March since we only had 1 available laptop for our 2 kids and werent sure what the school district was going to do(they eventually bought laptops for every kid).
Lenovo S345 for $330 from Best Buy
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...-memory-platinum-gray/6361115.p?skuId=6361115
Chromebooks come in a lot of different levels of quality/feature. This one was a great balance for the price and needs. My kids are going into 4th and 8th grades so we need it to read the internet, watch videos, type documents, and access gmail for links.
Some thoughts on this model-
- the touchscreen is reactive and solid. Ive used some that are trash, this is good.
- the keyboard is great and is backlit. It has positive key engagement compared to many laptops ive used.
- battery life is outstanding. My youngest still manages to kill it all the time, but thats on her.
- it has enough RAM to handle a couple dozen chrome tabs open at once without lagging, which is as much as we will 'stress' the system.
- it is relatively light. Certainly not a brick by any means.
- the speaker isnt great. Just plug ear buds in though to bypass that.
- the camera is a bit slow on the refresh/clarity(i dont know technical terms here). If you move too quickly, everything is blurry.
- setting up wireless printing was comical, but its flawless. Its actually the same simpele process as linking a printer to your android phone(i didnt realize that at the time which caused confusion).
Even though each has their own school laptop, the Chromebook gets used. Its being used right now for some schoolwork, actually. My youngest likes it a lot. She will use it in the fall when they have a hybrid of 2 in school days with 2 learn from home days each week. The camera is plenty good enough for their MSoft Teams calls.
