If you're looking for a cheap Chromebook with long battery life and decent performance, the Acer Chromebook 11 is a good choice. It's just a few dollars more expensive than the average laptop, but it offers a better overall experience thanks to its fast processor and excellent keyboard. It also does well in our tests for durability, portability and display quality.
This 11.6-inch model has a matte display with good colors and brightness for a cheap Chromebook, but it isn't as sharp as the best notebooks we've tested. Its touch-screen is a nice bonus, but you'll need to buy a stylus for use with it. Its thin (0.7 inch), light 2.4-pound body fits easily in bags, purses and backpacks. And the battery lasts 9 hours and 12 minutes for moderate use, enough to make it through a long day away from home or work.
Our tests reveal that the Acer has a fast, responsive processor that can handle multitasking and playing videos without slowing down or crashing. Its "Ok Google" voice search feature is very responsive and Chrome apps run smoothly. Its storage capacity appears low at 16GB, but you get 100GB of free Google Drive storage for two years to keep your files, photos and documents safe.
Graphics performance wasn't the Acer's strong point, but that's typical for these kinds of budget laptops with processor-integrated graphics chips. It scored a low 1,366 on our Geekbench 4 benchmark test, below the 4,449 average for this class of laptop. However, the Dell Chromebook 5190 and Lenovo 500e Chromebook both did better than that score, thanks to their more powerful Intel processors.
