You’re unlikely to find a touch screen comparable with the iPad’s resolution on a Chromebook that costs $300 or even $500.

And the iPad’s 10.2-inch Retina display is far more than twice as good, with a much higher 2,160-by-1,620-pixel resolution and only slightly less surface area than the Chromebook 3’s screen. If all you need is a machine to browse the internet, which is what Chromebooks are intended to do, the screen is the most important part of the device. The Chromebook 3’s lackluster screen quality is the best argument for why you should roughly double your budget and get an iPad or a more capable laptop instead. There’s also a 720p webcam mounted above the display, which offers decent video quality, albeit with slightly washed-out colors. This two-tone color scheme would look tacky on an expensive laptop, but here I think it works quite well.

The colorful Google Chrome logo is set into the upper right corner of the display lid, and a striped pattern fills the space below it and contrasts nicely with the solid Onyx Black color that makes up the rest of the lid. A Spiffy-Enough Look for the Moneyįrom the outside, this Walmart-exclusive Chromebook 3 is actually quite stylish.

But for less than twice the Chromebook 3’s price, you could buy an Apple iPad, which is more than twice as good in nearly every respect. Cash-cramped students who can get by with Chrome OS, and shoppers seeking a secondary, nightstand-side laptop, might put it on the shortlist. On the other hand, the cramped 11.6-inch display, with a less-than-full-HD resolution, should prompt you to take stock of your priorities. But should you? If you really are stuck with that spending ceiling for a laptop, you could do worse than this Chromebook. The 11-inch-class Lenovo Chromebook 3 ($169.99) is proof that you can buy a well-built laptop with a long-lasting battery for less than $200.

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Lenovo flex 3 chromebook 11