Support our independent tech coverage. Chrome Unboxed is written by real people, for real people—not search algorithms. Join Chrome Unboxed Plus for just $2 a month to get an ad-free experience, access to our private Discord, and more. Learn more about membership here.
START FREE TRIAL (MONTHLY)START FREE TRIAL (ANNUAL)
Black Friday is now behind us but let’s be honest, the deals aren’t going anywhere. From now until the New Year and beyond, retailers will be offering deep discounts on everything under the sun. There has been no shortage of Chromebook deals and that’s a very good thing because that has not always been the case in years past.
There are quite a few premium devices on offer at the moment and I’ll be bringing you a Cyber Weekend roundup so you stay in the know on the latest deals. One such notable deal comes in the form of a massive discount from Lenovo that brings the powerful IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook down to the shockingly low price of $485. That’s a tough act to follow but today’s deal may very well take the crown as the best Black Friday Deal of the week.
The powerful Chromebook CX9 is the ASUS flagship that offers powerful 11th Gen Intel CPUs, plenty of RAM and storage, and a build quality that is second to none. The 14-inch touchscreen clamshell has a beautiful and bright 400-nit touch display, Harmon/Kardon tuned audio, a fingerprint sensor, and well, what else do you need? Oh, did I mention that the CX9 also has a built-in, touch-enabled numeric keypad right in the touchpad? Well, it does.
The ASUS Chromebook CX9 was my daily driver for nearly a year and I have to be honest, it is still one of my favorite Chromebooks. For those not wanting a convertible, this ultra-premium Chromebook has everything you could ever want or need but it also carries a fairly hefty price tag. ASUS offers a Core i7 model of the CX9 and you can even opt for a 4K screen but that’s going to run you well over a thousand dollars if you can even find one. The Core i5 model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage has been available, almost exclusively, from Costco for months and it retails for $999. It’s a lot to pay for any laptop but some would argue that it’s worth it. Regardless, you can get your hands on this sleek and powerful Chromebook for far less during Costco’s Black Friday sale. Here’s a look at the model in question.
ASUS Chromebook CX9 Key Specs
- Chrome OS
- 11th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU
- Iris Xe graphics
- 16GB RAM
- up-to 512GB NVMe SSD
- 14″ FullHD display at 400 nits
- Fingerprint sensor
- 2 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4
- HDMI
- USB-A 3.2
- MicroSD slot
- Integrated numeric touch keypad
- webcam w/privacy shade
- Wi-Fi 6/Bluetooth 5
- Passes multiple MIL-STD-810H tests
- AUE date June 2029
Normally a whopping grand, Costco is selling this awesome ChromeOS laptop for the all-time low price of $599. Before you ask, you do not have to be a Costco member to take advantage of this deal. You will have to pay a 5% surcharge but that still puts you around $650 for one of the most powerful, well-built Chromebooks on the market. The 11th Gen Intel Core i5 with its Iris Xe graphics can handle anything you throw at it and it happens to be one of the devices on the list of officially supported Chromebooks for Steam gaming. If you ask me, this is easily the best deal we’ve seen on a premium Chromebook in the past few months. Grab one or five at Costco today. As an added bonus, Costco offers an in-house concierge service for all computers and you get an additional year of warranty when you purchase your device.
