Acer Chromebook Spin 311
One of the top Chromebooks for those on a budget, the Acer Chromebook Spin 311 delivers good enough performance to tackle the basics and then some. Whether it be for school, basic home use, or even a little bit of work, the Spin 311 performs admirably for its budget-friendly price tag. At $169, it’s an excellent value worth the investment.
Nowadays, it's easier than ever to find a cheap Chromebook that gets the job done. However, even at budget-friendly price tags, these nimble little machines raise the bar on just what to expect in terms of performance and value. The Acer Chromebook Spin 311 is one of those machines, packing a surprisingly powerful set of hardware under the hood and combining it with a versatile 2-in-1 design.
It's a great all-around performer, suitable as a basic home laptop, a machine for light work, or a Chromebook for students who need something reliable yet cheap. From a cost perspective, it's in the mid-range ballpark at its standard $250 price tag, but this deal at Best Buy offers one of the best Chromebooks around for just $169 until 1 AM ET.
Why the Acer Chromebook Spin 311 is worth your money
The Acer Chromebook Spin 311's price-to-performance value is hard to beat, providing a nimble machine that's just powerful enough to tackle work and play, featuring a 2-in-1 design with a touchscreen for on-the-go use and easy app interaction. Its MediaTek Kompanio 500 Series processor, an 8-core CPU that can kick out speeds of up to 2Ghz, makes multitasking a breeze with this machine. From browsing the web to streaming and even light mobile gaming, this processor, paired with the 4GB LPDDR4X RAM, is adequate for cranking out homework or researching your next purchase so long as you don't keep too many windows open at once.
The 11.6-inch touchscreen isn't full HD or phenomenally bright, but it works well for swiping through social media feeds and tapping through the occasional card or match game. Battery life is the big winner here, offering up to 15 hours of use before a recharge is needed for true all-day use at school or work. However, one downside to this machine is the lower 64GB storage capacity.
Depending on how many apps and browser extensions are attached to your Chrome profile and Google Play account, that storage can get a little cramped after months of downloading documents and photos, but with Google Drive integration, it's easy to backup and free up storage as needed. This can be remedied with an external SSD for Chromebooks that can add up to 500GB for as little as $50, but it's not like you can carry it around with that plugged in all the time.
Thanks to the $80 in savings this deal at Best Buy offers, a USB-C flash drive or portable SSD can be an easy add-on with your new Acer Chromebook Spin 311, though for casual computing, you'll be fine so long as you're not downloading tons of offline videos. If you're in the market for a budget Chromebook that performs well above its price point, this is the option you'll want to go with.
