The Best Chromebooks for Kids in 2024

Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks

Buying Guide: The Best Chromebooks for Kids in 2024

Even if your child’s school doesn’t deploy Chromebooks, the recent demand for remote learning and virtual get-togethers may well be tempting you to buy one (or one per child). In addition to web surfing with the Chrome browser and keeping in touch with Gmail, Chromebooks are capable productivity platforms with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides (or the online or Android versions of Microsoft Office) and ready for relaxation with YouTube, Netflix, or online or Android games.

Here’s what to look for before you buy your child’s (okay, we won’t tell if it’s your) next Chromebook.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

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What Is a Chromebook?

You and your kids might have never used a Chromebook before, but you’re almost certainly familiar with how one works. That’s because the Chrome operating system (ChromeOS) is based on the same Chrome web browser that your kids already use when you let them borrow your existing laptop, smartphone, or tablet. If all your child needs is a portal to the internet, you don’t need to install anything—just launch a browser window.

You can install apps on Chromebooks if you want to, however. The process is much like installing apps on your smartphone, involving little more than a visit to the Google Play Store or the Chrome Web Store. Even apps designed for Android phones will work on late-model Chromebooks. You will also find a considerable library of kid-friendly apps designed for Chromebooks, and not just games: tools for note-taking, podcasting, book publishing, drawing, screencasting, and other 21st-century schoolwork.

The simplicity of ChromeOS means that it allows fewer openings for bugs and security risks. You’ll find no drivers to update, and no sluggish antivirus software suites to buy and maintain. Kids won’t keep up with these tedious computing chores, and you probably don’t want to, either. Assuming it’s got an internet connection, a Chromebook will keep itself secure and updated. 

The disadvantages of this simplicity? They include less flexibility and the occasional frustrating compatibility issue. Now and then, Chromebooks can trip you up with minor hurdles, like incompatibilities with in-flight streaming entertainment systems that use digital rights management (DRM) software, whereas these systems work just fine with iOS or Android devices. Larger issues include missing capabilities that have been a staple of modern computing for years. ChromeOS, for example, provides nothing in the way of out-of-the-box video editing, unlike the simple but powerful tools built into Windows and macOS.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Most kids won’t care about these particular issues, of course. In short, the advantages and drawbacks of ChromeOS mean that a Chromebook is as well-suited to child-friendly computing as it is ill-suited to the needs of power users.

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What Chromebook Features Do Your Kids Need?

As a result, your main consideration when buying a Chromebook for a child is not how powerful the machine is, but what kind of physical features it has. Somewhat ironically, the younger your child is, the more features he or she might need. That’s because younger students are typically the target audience for augmented reality (AR) or drawing apps that require multiple cameras, touch screens, and digital pens. Older students who are primarily taking notes and writing term papers may not need these features as often. 

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Some of the most innovative Chromebook designs we’ve seen recently are actually tablets, not laptops. They’ve been slow to catch on among mainstream buyers, but they have high potential as a classroom learning tool. They’re much smaller and lighter than laptops, so they’re easier for younger kids to hold. They also typically have front-facing cameras, which are required for some AR apps and excellent for capturing a picture of the blackboard before the teacher erases it.

A few inexpensive Chromebook detachable tablets exist, but more common in the 2-in-1 Chromebook vein are convertible Chromebooks with 360-degree hinges. They are decent alternatives to the classic clamshell-laptop design, since they include a physical keyboard but can still be used as a tablet if needed.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

A Chromebook tablet or 2-in-1 convertible will have a touch-enabled screen by necessity since the keyboard won’t always be at hand. But most conventional laptop Chromebooks have non-touch displays, at least in their default configurations. Now that Google has deeply improved the touch capabilities of ChromeOS versus its early versions, touch screens are at least worth considering.

Another consideration for your kid’s Chromebook display is its resolution. As with any laptop screen, you’ll want to avoid displays with resolutions below full HD (typically 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, or 1080p) if you can. You’ll find inexpensive full-HD Chromebooks out there, but they’re sometimes hard to find among the sea of others with lower-resolution displays. (Lower resolution usually manifests itself as a screen with a 1,366 by 768 resolution.) Your kids’ eyes will thank you for going with full HD, especially if the Chromebook has a screen 13 inches or larger. A 1,366-by-768-pixel resolution is only acceptable nowadays in an extremely budget Chromebook with a screen in the 10-to-12-inch range.

And, while your schoolkids may not need it, gaming on a Chromebook is a possibility they’ll want—though one most schools disable, for obvious reasons. Whether it’s an educational game, like Minecraft, or a popular Android game, you can do some basic gaming on most Chromebooks. A new breed of gaming Chromebooks has arrived that is built specifically for use with game-streaming services, like Nvidia GeForce Now and Valve’s Steam. We’ve reviewed a few, and we recommend checking out our guide to the best Chromebooks for gaming since the hardware requirements are a bit more stringent than what your child will need for schoolwork.

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Should You Buy a Rugged Chromebook for Kids?

It’s always a smart idea to choose a Chromebook that’s designed to withstand bumps, bruises, and the occasional liquid spill. And it’s a requirement if your child will be lugging his or her Chromebook to school every day. You might not be able to find a Chromebook in your budget that passes true MIL-SPEC testing, but you can find other rugged options. Look for water-resistant keyboards, keys with anti-wear tops, and non-slip chassis textures or coatings. 

In addition to being sturdy, a kid-friendly Chromebook should also be made of materials that are easy to clean. Look for darker colors, and choose a metal finish over a plastic one if you can. A few past Chromebooks have even included innovative materials like display lids that double as scrawl-on whiteboards, giving kids additional creative leeway to customize their Chromebooks without leaving permanent damage.

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Since your kid will mostly use a Chromebook to connect to the internet wirelessly, it doesn’t require a lot of ports for peripherals or Ethernet connections. The most important connectivity consideration is Wi-Fi. Look for the 802.11ac or 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) standards, and avoid the older 802.11n standard. Bluetooth is also welcome to have for connecting a wireless mouse or streaming audio to external speakers.

Some inexpensive Chromebooks have proprietary charging cables, which could be difficult to replace if they’re lost. A USB Type-C charging cable is better, especially if you have other USB Type-C devices since you can usually swap charging cables among them in case your kid loses one. 

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What CPU Should a Chromebook for Kids Have?

Simple software needs only simple hardware to run. It’s a key reason why most Chromebooks are less expensive than Macs and Windows PCs—you don’t need tons of CPU cores or a powerful graphics processor to write essays and browse the web. Nor do you need capacious hard drives to house tons of video files when you’re using Google Docs and streaming multimedia content from the internet. 

You can find “prestige” Chromebooks with Intel Core i7 processors and 256GB solid-state drives (SSDs) if you want them, including models from Samsung and Google itself. But these machines, which hover in the $1,000 range, are overkill for most users, especially children. 

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

Instead, we recommend spending $400 or less on a kid’s Chromebook. That amount should get you at least 4GB of memory and at least 32GB of storage space. It will also get you a Chromebook with an Intel Pentium or Celeron processor, or an ARM processor. The only real exception to this advice would be gaming Chromebooks, which have higher requirements for hardware to meet the demands of cloud gaming.

If you’re used to buying Macs or Windows laptops, you might balk at those specs, but they really are all your kid needs, and you should resist the urge to upgrade. A $300-to-$400 Windows laptop with a Celeron processor and 4GB of memory might be unpleasantly sluggish in everyday use, but a Chromebook with those same specs should provide an adequate experience for kids who are generally doing just one thing at a time on the machine. Even demanding apps that use ARCore, Google’s platform for building AR experiences, work on devices with as little as 4GB of memory and a dual-core processor. 

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Ready to Buy the Right Chromebook for Your Child?

We’ve outlined our favorite kid-friendly Chromebooks we’ve tested in this guide; click through for deep-dive reviews of each. Thinking about buying one for yourself, too? Check out our guide to the best Chromebooks overall. If you’d like to consider Windows laptops, as well, check out our complete list of best laptops for kids (incorporating both ChromeOS and Windows models), as well as our top laptop picks for college students.

Want even more choices? Other shopping and advice resources to check out include our roundup of budget laptops, as well as our roundup of Android, Apple iOS, and Amazon Fire OS tablets for kids.