BEST CHROMEBOOK FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

BEST CHROMEBOOK FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS - So Simple Even Your Kids Can Do It

Our most of the work is done online via browser for example, surfing the web and getting information, YouTubing, watching movies etc., emailing, editing, working online on google docs and lots of more. With these needs in mind, Google invented Linux-based operating system Chrome OS, and the laptop running this operating system is called Chromebook. It uses Google Chrome browser as it’s user interface.
As time passed, Chromebooks became very popular. In October 2012, according to Simon Phipps “The Chromebook line is probably the most successful Linux desktop/laptop computer we’ve seen to date”. Although Chromebooks are designed as such that they became popular among the students, but are equally useful for home or other work. By 2018, Chromebooks had acquired 60 percent of the purchased computers for schools in USA.

Are Chromebooks Good for Students?

Chrome OS delivers a suite of collaborative apps and services like G Suite and Google Classroom perfect for collaboration and group discussion to cultivate educational environment.
Other reason to justify:

• Chromebooks are easy to use quickly opened and close within seconds compared to other operating systems that takes minutes to fully load and ready for work.
• Their prices are very low.
• Chromebooks usually have very long battery time.
• They are designed to carry easily in your bags when you’re on the move.
• Students can prepare their assignments and other documents or power point presentations on google docs whether online or offline.
• You can install and run your favorite google play store apps and lots of other things you can do with Chromebooks.
• Some Chromebooks also support Linux apps.

What Can a Chromebook not do?

Chrome OS is a very smart and secure operating system in which all of the user data resides in the cloud instead of the laptop. It means if somethings go wrong with your Chromebook, you just have to login with new one and you’re ready to do your important work with all of your data secured and intact.
Besides all this Chromebook is not for everyone. Students can’t run executable files for example if their requirement is to work on photo shop or Auto CAD, then this is obviously not for you. They lack high-end graphics and not made for gaming unless games are web based and played online.

Which Chromebook is Best for Me?

Keeping in mind the needs to meet most of the users and students’ requirements, we’ve selected following best Chromebooks for high school students to choose and make their decision more efficiently.

ASUS Chromebook 14 C425TA

Customer Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars

A Bird's View on Technical Features

Screen Size: 14 inches
Max Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor: 3.4 GHz core_m
RAM: 8 GB DDR3L
Hard Drive: 64 GB Embedded MultiMediaCard
Graphics Coprocessor: Intel HD Graphics 615
Chipset Brand NVIDIA
Card Description: Integrated

Graphics Card Ram Size: 8 GB
Wireless Type: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth
Number of USB: 3.0 Ports: 3

A student will surely make his/her life easy with the ASUS Chromebook C425, 14-inch FHD display, 1.3 kg-lightweight laptop that has all power to make light work of your daily tasks on the go. If you are looking for a Chromebook with aesthetically featured, but with less computing power, then this is not for you.
Overall at this price point, it has not as many esthetic features-no 360-degree hinge, no slim profile, but with better computing power.

Design:

It has a generic esthetic with metallic design from the top while plastic at the bottom. It has a slim profile but on the thickness end, and comparable to any laptop in the market. In short it looks new and modern but don’t impress anyone with its appearance. It’s easy to carry with Slim-bezel NanoEdge, 13-inch compact design, 16.9 mm thin, 1.3 kg lightweight, making it to fit easily in any bag and take it to anywhere and never leave it behind when you travel.

Display Screen:

ASUS Chromebook c425 has 14-inch FHD display. It has a matte finish over the screen which is great in fighting against glare. It has 1920 x 1080 pixels display resolution with clear but not so crisp picture.

Collaboration:

High school students can easily collaborate and share their assignments and ideas due to its 180 ° lay-flat hinge that allows it to open and lay completely flat on a table. The wide-view technology also a great addition to view from different angles.

Processor:

ASUS Chromebook c425 with Core i5 Intel® processors with up to 8GB RAM and Up to 128 GB eMMC storage gives a powerful performance on-the-go.

Battery Life:

The most important feature for most of the users especially for the high school student is that how much battery timing the Chromebook has! So, student will be glad to know that it has extraordinary all-day, up to 12 hours of battery life on a single charge lets you work anytime without worrying about its recharging.

Keyboard:

Students can enjoy typing and feel more comfortable due to full-size backlit keyboard, with 1.4mm long-travel keys. I found the same issue which I found in ASUS C434 Chromebook that the letters on the keys are unreadable due to their little font, and especially in daylight when keyboard backlighting is on. This backlit keyboard is good at night or darkness but not in daylight. Its 6-inch Touchpad, palm-rejection technology gives maximum comfort, accuracy and smooth control.

Connectivity:

It has one audio combo jack, 2 Type-C USB ports for high speed charging or connect with external devices. One standard Type-A USB port to use simple things like legacy keyboard/mouse, USB keys, and most cables around an office. Although ASUS has increased memory up to 64gb compared to ASUS C214 which was previously only 32gb, it has provided microSD card reader to add extra storage. It has also featured with strong, fast and stable Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac).

Sound Quality:

Despite its thin and light design, ASUS Chromebook c425 has crisp, clear and powerful surrounding sound that gives you an immersive experience of both sound and video streaming – You’ll feel sound coming to you from all around. Speakers are on the bottom sides of the laptop. The sound at its maximum volume, can easily fill a small room, but quiet in the mid-sized room as is usually the case with laptops.

Cons:

The backlit keyboard has a beautiful luminosity in the night or dark room. However, the letters on the keys are unreadable in daylight when backlighting is on.
This Chromebook lacks esthetic features like 360 hinge flip, slim profile, and touch screen.
The auto expiration date for this particular Chromebook is 2024 because you don’t get updates forever like a phone.

Conclusion:

These minor issues are not deal breaker, and don’t justify not buying it at this price. You can manage and toggle on or off this backlighting by holding alt + screen brightness button up or down.
Every product has some trade-offs for the price. Although this Chromebook lacks as many esthetic features, but with better computing power necessary for large applications like data computation, video editing, and will be the best Chromebook for high school students.

Lenovo Chromebook C330 (11.6") Laptop

A fully featured best Chromebook for the high school students for the money.


Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

A Bird's View on Technical Features

Screen Size: 11.6 inches
Processor: 1.6 GHz Celeron N
RAM: 4 GB LPDDR3
Hard Drive: 64 GB 32GB eMMC
Graphics Coprocessor: MediaTek
Wireless Type: 802.11ac
Average Battery Life (in hours): 10 hours

A student can hardly find such a budget laptop with almost all features. Faster, simpler, and more secure with sleek, stylish, and durable Blizzard White convertible 2-in-1 design. As for its specs, it offers 360-degree hinge yoga modes which provide easy viewing in four ways tent, tablet, laptop, or in stand mode.

As Yoga’s most outstanding feature of touch screen, Lenovo C330 11.6-inch Chromebook comes with HD (1366 x 768) IPS, anti-glare, 10-point touchscreen. You can Use the touch screen and gestures to control your computer because the keyboard and the pointing devices are automatically disabled in stand mode, tent mode, and tablet mode. It is a very light weight product Starting at 2.64 lbs. (1.2 kg) and students can carry it in their bags easily. It has the configuration of MediaTek™ MTK8173C 1.70GHz Processor, 4GB LPDDR3 1866MHz memory, Up to 64GB eMMC storage 2 x 2W speakers, On the left side of the laptop, it has one USB-C™ Power connector, HDMI™ connector, USB 3.1 connector, and a microSD card slot, and on the right side of the computer, it has audio connector, power button, Volume buttons, and a Mini security-lock slot.  The HDMI/ USB-C connector on your Chromebook is a digital audio and video interface. It enables you to connect your computer to a compatible external digital audio device or video monitor, such as a high-definition 4K televisions or projector or a monitor which enables students to give their presentations. Other features include: 720p HD camera, microphone, and speakers enabling students to collaborate and make group discussions. Chrome OS also delivers a suite of collaborative apps and services perfect for group work. Your Chromebook supports Bluetooth feature, allowing you to connect two Bluetooth devices at the same time. You can connect your Chromebook to a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, speakers, AirPods, or other Bluetooth devices within a short distance, usually 10 meters (33 feet), from the Chromebook. The Chromebook empowers students to use it all-day, up to 10 hours battery life. Battery life varies significantly with usage, settings, and other factors. Note: some specifications are model-specific and might not apply to the computer model that you purchased.

Cons:

• This Chromebook is aesthetically engineered, but with less computing power, and slower compared to mid-level plus or pricy Chromebooks. However, manageable for this price and can please most of the users.
• The microSD card fits half way into the slot, thus a risk damaging it or you’ve to carry it separately.
• This Chromebook supports Samsung, LG, Sony, and all other brands, but have some issues of linking with VIZIO tv.

Conclusion:

As being a budget tv with almost all features that most of the users want, but you would have to compromise with optimum performance. Sometimes you’ll feel less battery timings, input lag, due to its slow performance, depending on your work load, different tabs and windows open simultaneously. For most of the users, its manageable and great deal for the price.

ASUS Chromebook Flip C434TA

Best of the best Chromebook for high school students.



Customer Rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars

A Bird's View on Technical Features

Screen Size: 14 inches
Max Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor: 3.4 GHz Core M Family
RAM: 8 GB DDR3L
Memory Speed: 1 GHz
Hard Drive: 64 GB Flash Memory Solid State
Graphics Coprocessor: Intel HD Graphics 615
Chipset Brand: Intel
Card Description: Integrated
Graphics Card Ram Size: 8 GB
Wireless Type: 802.11b/n/ac, Bluetooth
Number of USB 3.0 Ports: 3

We’ve review ASUS brand Chromebook, C425TA, but that is a budget laptop. If you are looking for all-new flagship more durable, more stylish, more powerful, and fully featured Chromebook then this will be one of your best choices. ASUS Chromebook C434TA, all-new flagship featuring a durable 360-degree hinge 14-inch display 4-way NanoEdge narrow bezel all metal finish and USB Type-C/Type-A Experience. This Chromebook is designed with educational environment in mind and students will surely make their lives easy as it is durable, lightweight and gives powerful performance with effortless multitasking and things done without any fuss throughout the school day. In short, it looks as good as it performs.

Design:

By design, it has a very sleek, stylish, all-aluminum body, and timeless look that will never go out of fashion. It has durable 360-degree ErgoLift hinge to flip the display so gently and smoothly, and it holds the display securely at any of the four-way angles tent, tablet, laptop, or stand mode. Four-sided NanoEdge display with 5mm thin ultra-slim bezels, elegant diamond-cut anodized edges, and only 1.45 kg or 3.3 lbs. light weight allows students to carry it with their bags easily.

Screen/display:

ASUS Chromebook C434 laptop comes with 14-inch FHD touch flip screen and with the gestures to do more with your fingers and interact easily and comfortably. It has a very responsive touch screen to touch, and enjoy in tablet mode. Students can use flip screen that I often use at times to show graphs, charts, videos etc. Four-sided NanoEdge display with the crisp, clear, high-resolution screen and 170-degree wide-view technology is breathtaking, and makes any visuals more immersive, with less distraction for your eyes.

Powerful Performance:

ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 delivers great performance with up to Core ™ i7 Intel® CPU, up to 8 GB RAM, up to 128 GB storage, and up to 10 hrs. battery life on a single charge, so you can do effortless multitasking or play throughout the day while you’re on the move.

Connectivity:

ASUS Chromebook flip C434 supports two type-C ports to charge your Chromebook as well as to connect external displays, one type-A port for maximum convenience and compatibility for legacy keyboards/mouse, cables around office and USB keys etc., one micro SD card slot to add more storage and one audio jack. It offers wi-fi 5 802.11ac for more faster data-transmission speeds and more strong and stable signals.

Comfortable Keyboard

It has a comfortable backlit students-friendly keyboard with 1.4mm key travel which helps students a lot to explore and cultivate educational environment. The backlighting of keyboard is nice in the night but it’s better to turn it off in the daylight to read the letters on the keys clearly. Also, palm-rejection technology, touchpad with multitouch gesture support, and when the Chromebook is rotated in laptop mode, the dual action of 360-degree ergo hinge lifts and tilts the keyboard in perfect typing position lets the students work comfortably and keep them away from boredom.

Sound Quality:

It delivers crisp, clear high-fidelity sound with duel high-quality stereo speakers and large resonant chambers. Here is worth mentioning that ErgoLift hinge also enhances the audio performance by creating extra space underneath the Chromebook. You’ll feel surround-sound effect and immersive experience of both audio and video streaming.

Cons:

• The main flaw in this stylish Chromebook is, the texture on the keys is different from the texture on the body - white letters on aluminum silver keyboard making it a paint look a little difficult layout. Also due to little font combined with the metallic reflective texture on the keys making it a bit hard to read letters and symbols on the keys even the backlighting is off in the daylight.
• the microSD card slot is just a touch to shallow, and there is a chance to lose your microSD card.

Conclusion:

These minor cons don’t justify not to buy this mid plus level Chromebook that incorporate style, built-in quality and performance, and you’ll never go wrong here.

HP Chromebook 11 G7 EE

A Bird's View on Technical Features

Screen Size: 11.6 inches
Max Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768
Chipset Brand: intel
Card Description: Integrated
Wireless Type: Bluetooth
Number of USB 2.0 Ports: 2
Number of USB 3.0 Ports: 2
Average Battery Life (in hours): 13 hours

It has often been noticed that student sometime don’t care computers available to use in their class room they would if it were their own computer. That’s why a product which is to be used for multiple users is made durable, and that’s exactly what HP has done. This product is specifically designed for class rooms as one of the main features is its anchored keys that make students enjoy typing and pry them off the boredom. This Chromebook has minor spill resistant by design to prevent   tampering with a keyboard and ruined by a bit of water. HP has designed this Chromebook with shock-absorbing molded rubber trim and a Concrete-drop resistance in mind, so it should be more than capable of withstanding against everyday wear and tear. All the models of HP Chromebook 11 G7 EE are empowered with the intuitive Chrome OS™, the latest Intel® 1.1GHz Celeron processors, up to 8 GB memory and 64 GB EMMC storage, and a long battery life of up to 12 hours, 30 minutes. These Chromebooks are very affordable and their price starting from $199 and goes up to $251. All this affordability and powerful performance gives students a boost and enhances their learning outcomes. It empowers students to create, collaborate, learn, and enables small-group discussions with HP Classroom Manager and Android™ apps. Also offers HD IPS touchscreen and wide-views from the 180° hinge that lies completely flat on desk or table.

Cons:

This Chromebook slightly slows down while multitasking, different tabs and windows open simultaneously, but ok for this price point.

Conclusion:

If you want a durable and long-lasting computer, and normal school work, then this will be the best Chromebook for high school students at this price and you will not go wrong with it.

Our Opinion:

Most of the students are fighting against their daily expenses and they want a laptop in low price. Usually at low price point, there are trade offs which they have to keep in mind while selecting the best Chromebook for high school students. Usually most of the Chromebooks have specs enough to please most of the students and other users. No Chromebook is without flaw at low price, and you’ve to select one by ignoring minor flaws if not the deal breaker.
We are continuously looking into your concerns and will get back to you very soon with some updated stuff. So, please revisit after a while.