A recent development is the ability to run Android apps from the Google Play Store on Chromebooks. This perk lets you use the laptop, even when you're not connected to the Internet. These are the same apps you run on your phone, including games, productivity apps, and streaming video services. Productivity apps like Word and Excel extend the Chromebooks' usefulness offline.Chrome OS has also recently expanded into the tablet form factor to compete with the Apple iPad and Android tablets. Chrome OS-powered tablets like the HP Chromebook x2 and the Google Pixel Slate come without built-in keyboards, which makes them extremely portable. They're an intriguing option for frequent travelers who don't need a conventional laptop.
In the market for a Chrome OS laptop? We've rounded up the best Chromebooks available. If you're simply on a strict budget, our list of the best cheap laptops is worth a look.Connectivity is key for a modern laptop. Almost every model on the market today offers Bluetooth for connecting wireless peripherals, and Internet connectivity via 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Mobile broadband options, for when there's no Wi-Fi hotspot handy, include 3G, 4G HSPA+, and 4G LTE, but these are increasingly rare, as users opt for personal mobile hotspots that work with several devices or tether their smartphone to use its broadband connection.
Ultraportables and desktop replacements alike depend upon USB connectivity to work with a broad range of accessories and peripherals. USB 3.0, which offers much greater bandwidth and faster data transfer than USB 2.0, can be found in all but the oldest and lowest-priced designs; it's usually identifiable by a port colored in blue or labeled with the letters "SS" (for Super Speed). Some USB ports can charge handheld devices even when the laptop is powered down. Look for a lightning bolt icon next to the USB logo for these charging ports.
Although for a while manufacturers like Apple, HP, and Lenovo implemented Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 interfaces as a faster alternative to USB 3.0 for hooking up monitors, storage devices, and docking stations, for the most part they did not gain widespread adoption. That's not the case with USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3, however. In addition to allowing for huge amounts of throughput as well as power delivery, the USB Type-C interface is much smaller than the older (Type-A) USB port. (You also don't have to worry about flipping the orientation of the plug.) This makes it ideal for the svelte laptops (half an inch or less) that are popular today. The downside is that you'll also have to give up larger, useful ports like Ethernet and HDMI, unless you're willing to carry around dongles for each, which can be inconvenient.
Thunderbolt 3 rides in on USB-C's coattails, using the same plug and socket, with extra circuitry to boost throughput to 40Gbps for humungous data transfers. That's eight times as fast as USB 3.0, and four times as fast as USB 3.1/USB-C. USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are showing up in a lot of new laptops, from $229 budget models to $5,000 mobile workstations; Apple MacBooks and MacBook Pros that use it exclusively are among the highest-profile adoptees to date. Because of the general necessity of having thinner, more extensible ports in computer hardware of all types, these two interfaces are pretty much everywhere now, even if they won't overtake USB 3.0 in popularity for a while yet.
The venerable VGA interface is rapidly disappearing, due in part to space constraints in ultraportables that preclude the bulky connector, and newer monitors and projectors that work better with DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C or Thunderbolt 3. HDMI is especially popular lately, thanks to the demand for connecting laptops to TVs. Alternately, you can use an Apple TV or Google Chromecast device to beam video and audio to your TV wirelessly.
Also becoming scarce is the optical drive. With so many software and game purchases occurring online, and cloud services taking over for many local applications, the optical drive has been dropped from most model lines, with new systems touting slimmer, lighter form factors. For those who still need to install software from a disc or want to enjoy movies on DVD or Blu-ray, you can still find them (particularly on gaming laptops), but it takes some hunting. For those without, external USB DVD and Blu-ray drives are as easy to use as built-in drives.
While premium ultraportables rely solely upon SSDs for the performance boost offered by solid-state storage, most mainstream systems use a combination of an SSD and a traditional spinning hard drive. This lets you run programs quickly and still have lots of (slower) storage for your photos, videos, and other files. SSD-only laptops frequently top out at 256GB or 512GB, though you may occasionally see some premium systems with 1TB and larger drives. If you need more hard drive space, a USB 3.0 or USB-C external hard drive should do the trick.
What's Under the Hood?
The most dominant processor chips come from Intel, which launched its 8th Generation Core (code-named "Coffee Lake") mobile processors in April. Made with ultraportables and hybrid designs in mind, these new CPUs (identifiable by model numbers in the 8000s as opposed to the 7000s and 6000s used in previous-generation "Kaby Lake" and "Skylake" parts) not only stretch battery life, they also boast improved graphics processing. (See our picks for the longest-running laptops in terms of battery life.) These 8th Generation processors also feature more cores than predecessors, so you will find a true quad-core CPU in your Core i5 laptop, with more power than an older dual-core. Coffee Lake chips are now readily available in gaming, mainstream, and business laptops. A different strain of eighth-gen chips that are based on a variant of the older Kaby Lake architecture called "Kaby Lake R" are still common, however.
AMD's own line of processors also offer enhanced performance at low prices, but can't match the efficiency gains of Intel's latest chips. You'll see the latest Mobile Ryzen chips in some budget and midrange machines, along with a select few models featuring AMD's Mobile Ryzen plus Vega graphics.
Whether you go with the Coffee Lake or Kaby Lake R chips from Intel, or AMD's APUs, you should find an integrated graphics subsystem adequate for graphics tasks, unless you're a part-time gamer or a CAD user. High-end discrete graphics processing units are terrific for 3D games, transcoding 1080p video, or watching 4K movies, but like fast processors, they also feast on laptop batteries.
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