Best Chromebook deals: Top picks ahead of October Prime Day

Amazon is readying its second October Prime Day sale for Oct. 11 and Oct 12, known as the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale. We’ve begun curating the best Chromebook deals leading up to this Prime Early Access sale both from Amazon and other online retailers.

You’ll need to sign up for Amazon Prime (for free) to take advantage of Amazon’s Early Access Sale Chromebook deals. Other retailers have announced similar sales: Target is currently running its Deal Days right now between Oct. 6-8, and Newegg plans its FantasTech Sale II between Oct. 10 to 13. We’d expect discounts throughout this entire period.

Best Prime Early Access Sale Chromebook deals

You’ll probably find a good Chromebook deal somewhere, though it’s often difficult to tell which Chromebook is a good value. Manufacturers seem to be unloading older Chromebooks at steep discounts, taking advantage of consumer ignorance about processor generations and support lifecycles. We’ve factored in the Chromebook support window to our recommendations below, which tends to extend for between two to five years on discounted Chromebooks.

What makes this October Prime Day sale/pre-sale special? The extraordinary number of 1080p Chromebooks on sale (versus sales on Chromebooks with 768p displays), which are easier on your eyes and your kids’ eyes, too. The Acer 317 at the top seems like a very good value for a Prime Day Early Access deal, as does the second Acer directly beneath it.

• Acer 317, Celeron N4500/4GB RAM/64GB SSD, 17.3-inch 1080p display, $169.00 (54% off at Walmart)
• Acer 15.6-inch ACB315-3HT-C5D3, Celeron 4020/4GB RAM/64GB SSD, 15.6-inch touch 1080p display, $169.99 (32% off at Target)
• Acer Chromebook 512, Celeron N4020/4GB RAM/32GB SSD, 12-inch 912p display, $129.99 (35% off at Amazon)
• Samsung Chromebook 4+, Celeron N4000/4GB RAM/64GB SSD, 15.6-inch 1080p display, $199.99 (38% off at Amazon)
• Lenovo 14e Chromebook, AMD A-Series/4GB RAM/32GB SSD, 14-inch 1080p display, $177.00 (41% off at Amazon)
• Lenovo Chromebook S330, MediaTek MT8173C/4GB RAM/64GB SSD, 14-inch 1080p display, $192.00 (29% off at Amazon)
• Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5, Snapdragon SC7180/4GB RAM/64GB SSD, 13.3-inch 1080p display, $358.99 (17% off at Amazon)
• Lenovo Flex 5i 13, Core i3-1115G4/8GB RAM/64GB SSD, 13.3-inch 1080p display, $374.00 (32% off at Amazon)
• Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, Intel Core i5-10210U/8GB RAM/256GB SSD, 13.3-inch 4K display, $829.90 (17% off at Amazon)

Walmart is offering a Samsung Chromebook 4 with a 768p 11.6-inch screen for a terrific price of $109.99, or 63% off. But the specs (Celeron N4020/4GB RAM/32GB SSD) call out an N4020 Celeron processor in the title and a far older N3450 in the specifications. Make sure it has what you’re hoping for before you buy.

What to think about when buying a Chromebook

Generally, Chromebooks tend to fall into three categories: ultracheap models at about $100, which can offer solid discounts but can hide gotchas like a subpar screen; midrange $200-$350 Chromebooks, the typical price point; and premium Chromebooks at $500 and above. These expensive ones are essentially PC laptops with Google’s Chrome OS on top, and may be too expensive. Our story on laptops versus Chromebooks may help you decide, as might our 2022 recommendations for the best Chromebook.

Normally, we’d suggest you buy a Chromebook with 1080p resolution or above, but 768p displays can work fine, especially on smaller screens. Consider a USB-C dongle to connect to an external display. An Intel Core chip is pretty much a guarantee of solid performance, but can be more expensive, too. Celerons are much more common, and Snapdragon or Arm (MediaTek) chips are too.

Updated at 10:25 AM on Oct. 7 with additional deals.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor