Now $150 off, the Dell Inspiron Chromebook 14 brings above mid-range performance for a less than mid-range price of $399. A 1080p touch display with pen support and 8th-gen Core i3 processor round out the key features of this 2-in-1.
Author: Kevin Tofel
Kevin Tofel
After spending 15 years in IT at Fortune 100 companies, Kevin turned a hobby into a career and began covering mobile technology in 2003. He writes daily on the industry and has co-hosted the weekly MobileTechRoundup podcast since 2006. His writing has appeared in print (The New York Times, PC Magazine and PC World) and he has been featured on NBC News in Philadelphia.
The first of Lenovo’s three newest Chromebooks is available, but not directly. Amazon is offering the Lenovo Chromebook C340-15 with Pentium Gold and large 1080p display with one-day shipping.
The venerable Samsung Chromebook 3 has a pair of low-cost but capable successors in the sub-$300 Chromebook 4 and 4+. These look great for students, daily browsing or secondary devices.
Chrome OS 79 is expected to add custom settings to the Reader Mode on Chromebooks, including choice of font, font size and more. Here’s a great example of what it should like, based on a currently available Chrome extension.
Got a $400 budget for your next Chromebook purchase? If I did, I’d pull the trigger on the HP Chromebook X360 14, currently on sale at Best Buy for $399; a great price for an 1080p device with Intel’s Core i3 U-series chip.
Earlier this year there were references to a “Click to call” feature for Chromebooks and it appears that Click to call will arrive in Chrome OS 78. Once it arrives, clicking a hyperlinked phone number will place the call on a supported Android phone.
Last year I said every Chromebook user should carry a USB stick in case they need to recover Chrome OS. That advice may be going out the window because your Android phone could be used in the future for recovery.
Google’s Password Checker, which will alert you if it sees your account credentials in database of 4 billion known breached accounts, lands on the web. Here’s how to use it on your Chromebook until Google integrates it into Chrome OS.
The Chromium team is working on a new feature for Chrome OS 79 that will scale down CPU resources for Linux apps running in the background. That should improve browser and Android app performance on Chromebooks when needed.
Linux users on Chromebooks will be happy to see an updated Terminal app, currently expected to land in Chrome OS 78. This system app will support multiple Terminal session tabs in a single app and bring additional customization options.
If your only major knock against the Google Pixel Slate was the high price, you just ran out of excuses to buy one. You can get $250 off all three Pixel Slate models and get an included Pixel Slate Keyboard worth $199.