A week after its announcement, the first sixChromebook Plus laptopsare now available to buy, just in time for their predecessors to be discounted forPrime Day Part 2— well, Best Buy’s Early Black Friday event, but same day, different sale. Half are non-touch clamshells, half are touchscreen 2-in-1s, and all of them are guaranteed to meet Google’s stringent hardware requirements and boast exclusive new software perks like access to Magic Eraser in Google Photos and a new streamlined control center.
If you were planning to take advantage of this week’sPrime Day Chromebook deals, you should absolutely look at these first. While they just debuted and are being sold at list price, most of these are replacing current models with higher specs for the same price, so you’ll get a better product with exclusive features like File Sync and exclusive discounts on Adobe Photoshop.
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus
This is the Chromebook Plus model I’m most anxious to get my hands on, as the Flex 5i currently tops the best Chromebooks, and this new one offers all the dependability with a renewed focus on all the fundamental specs that make a laptop a workhorse rather than just a Facebook-and-shopping machine. This is also the first Flex 5i Chromebook to make it to Best Buy, as the last one mainly stuck to Costco.
Acer Chromebook Plus 515
Acer’s first Chromebook Plus model is a comfortably large 15.6-inch clamshell that may lack a touchscreen but has all the power and productivity to keep up with you and your workload from now until June 2032. With a 12th Gen i3, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, you have all the core specs you need, as well as large, up-firing speakers and a 1080p camera for your Zoom calls. (But please, be kind and wear headphones.
HP Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch
This Chromebook Plus model uses an Intel Core i3-N305, a mobile-type proccessor, which will make it one of the more interesting to try out from a power perspective, but with that large (non-touch) screen, dual USB-C ports alongside USB-A, and 8GB of RAM, the HP Chromebook Plus 15.6" could be a decent work laptop so long as you’re okay with flash storage.
HP Chromebook Plus x360 14-inch
The HP x360 14c has been updated (again) to the new Chromebook Plus series. While many of its specs are the same — a 12th gen i3, 8GB of memory, and a 14-inch 1080p touchscreen — we at least are getting double the internal storage, Google Photos Magic Eraser, a sweeter webcam, and Fie Sync to help that $700 price tag go down a little more smoothly.
Asus Chromebook Plus CM34 Flip
If you’ve heard of the Asus Chromebook Flip CM34, it’s back again as a Chromebook Plus, with the overhauled Material You control center and the certainty that this laptop will perform well whether you’re cranking out reports at 2 AM or giving that report to the whole team via Google Meet mere hours later. And the 2-in-1 form factor makes it great for tapping through apps or games in Stand mode on the weekend.
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34
The only one of the new Chromebook Plus models not on Best Buy is the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34, but instead at Target right now (and Amazon soon). Target’s got the 128GB configuration to Amazon’s 256GB, but both have a non-touch 14-inch screen, 8GB of RAM, and a snazzy white chassis that spices things up next to all these other gray (and blue) laptops. I’ve been using it, and while I miss having a touchscreen, the laptop itself is wonderfully long-lasting.
I’ve been testing out new Chromebooks Plus — or would it be Chromebook Pluses? — and while last week was a bit too busy to get a full grasp on them amidst the Pixel 8 launch, I can easily admit that these laptops definitely meet their hardware promises of being ready to be more productive. I’m having a few minor issues with the screen on the Acer Chromebook 514 — it’s still Coming Soon — but its Ryzen chipset and ample RAM have let it easily handle dozens of tabs in stride, and the battery lives up to the 10-hour claim and then some.
I’ve been having even more fun with the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34, despite it being my first non-touchscreen Chromebook in the better part of four years. Asus design prowess and the bright white color scheme are giving me old C436 vibes — though this is much more affordable and features far more ports — and the texture of its large trackpad is a delight. The screen quality here is a bit higher, which has made it a delight to read on while slogging through a metric crapton of cases and accessories.
On both, the highlight of the new features to me has been Material You and the overhauled control center. Having notifications as their own separate tab makes them easier to access and triage without having to minimize the quick settings every time. The refined quick settings felt odd at first, but I now miss them desperately when I move back to my non-Plus Chromebase.
If you’ve been in the market for a new,top-notch Chromebookand want quality above all, these are going to be the Chromebooks to watch this holiday season, and we’ll be reviewing as many as we can get our hands on.
