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As the landscape of Chrome OS continues to evolve and change, the introduction of higher-end devices with higher-end price tags could make us all forget about the humble beginnings of Chrome OS and the budget Chromebook.
For many users, however, there are plenty of use cases that still warrant lower-priced, budget devices. I would argue that for Chromebooks in general, these devices are still a huge reason that the platform as a whole continues to move forward. If we consider schools and education markets specifically, the growth in those sectors alone are a huge reason that Chromebooks are starting to find a place in the mainstream computing landscape.
As more and more kids grow up on Chrome OS and the tools this ecosystem provides, more of them are choosing to buy Chromebooks when they leave grade school. For this reason alone, budget Chromebooks will likely always exist to fill classrooms at scale where more expensive devices are simply too cost prohibitive.
At home, cheaper Chromebooks can be a great option for an affordable computing solution for kids, especially with the new Family Link tools available to parents to safeguard their children’s screen time on Chromebooks.
Sure, these budget devices don’t get all the bells and whistles of their more expensive cousins, but they still have their place. In general, we see the same specs and internals across the board with them, so we don’t review every new budget Chromebook that comes out. It would simply be too redundant.
However, we have a couple of these devices in the office and wanted to talk about the current state of budget Chromebooks with a couple current examples from ASUS and Acer. Take a look!
