Club Benefits
Buying a Chromebook for your kid isn’t as simple as grabbing the cheapest one on sale — I’ve learned that the hard way. As someone who tests laptops for a living, I’ve seen the full range: rugged models built for classroom chaos, sleek 2-in-1s that double as tablets, and budget machines that just barely get by.
So when it comes to picking the right Chromebook for a child, I focus on what actually matters: durability, ease of use, good battery life, and just enough performance to handle schoolwork (and yes, a bit of YouTube, too).
Chromebooks are a fantastic pick for kids, as they're affordable, secure and easy-to-use machines with plenty of features designed for study and play. Whether you’re buying for school, home learning or just want a reliable first laptop that won’t break the bank, keep these Chromebooks on your radar. Interested in buying one for yourself? Do yourself a favor and hop on over to our list of the best Chromebooks!
Top picks
I’ve tested a lot of Chromebooks, but the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus stands out as the best option for most kids. It works as both a laptop and a tablet, which makes it super flexible for everything from homework to play.
If you're on a tight budget, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 is a great little 2-in-1 Chrome tablet that offers most of the same benefits as our top pick for less money. From scrolling through websites to watching YouTube, this has your kid covered.
Darragh here, Computing Editor at Tom's Guide, and if I've learned anything from all the kids in my entire family, it's that all they want is a way to explore the web, regardless of the state a laptop is in (which pains me to say). But that means you can get your money's worth by grabbing an affordable Chromebook that will do the job. That's why these Chromebooks we've tested are well worth checking out!
The best Chromebooks for kids you can buy today
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The best overall
I often recommend the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus as a great option for kids because it sports the three key things needed — versatility, durability and the ability to get stuff done.
In a two-in-one form factor, it can be both a solid laptop for getting work done with a zippy Intel Core i3 CPU. Plus, the inclusion of 12 months of Google AI alongside multiple account support in Chrome OS means you can make the most of Gemini and even NotebookLM — it's been a serious game changer for my nephew asking questions of his stories.
Flip it into tent mode, and it becomes a great creative canvas with a responsive, bright and colorful touchscreen, or a great distraction for a bunch of episodes of Bluey.
The only real frustration is the lack of a stylus included in the box. That's an additional investment for doodling to your heart's content.
Read our full Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus review.
The best Chromebook for students
A reliable 15-inch Chromebook with plenty of power for studying, scrolling through websites and everything in between, for $350? The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 is a surefire bet for kids and teens, especially if you're after amazing value.
What makes this laptop stand out is its surprisingly tactile keyboard — a rarity at this price point — and a vibrant 15.6-inch 1080p display. It even comes packed with genuinely useful Gemini AI features. Google's seamless interface makes these tools highly accessible, helping students brainstorm ideas and make their way through their daily studying or assignments.
There are a few trade-offs to reach this budget-friendly price, including a cheaper plastic build and a somewhat spongy trackpad. That said, the combination of a great typing experience, decent battery life and smart AI makes this an excellent hub for learning and play.
Read our full Acer Chromebook Plus 515 review.
The best value
Chromebooks are known for their affordable pricing, but the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 takes the cake. I mean, even for its $359 cost, this 2-in-1 machine offers all the features a kid could want out of a laptop. And seeing that it's a tablet makes it even more versatile as a device that children can make the most of.
With its bright, crisp 11-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS touch display, it's not only great for productivity, but also for watching the latest shows on. So, study by day, stick on YouTube, or the latest shows, by night.
Even better, it offers over 10 hours of battery life, which is plenty of juice to last a full day without needing to charge it, especially when your kid needs it most (that will keep tantrums to a minimum). Plus, its portable, compact design (just 2.1 pounds!) with a detachable keyboard is ideal when taking it out on trips.
It may be a tad small, especially when typing on its keyboard, but that's also what makes it a great option for small ones. This is a bargain for the family, and we've seen it reach below $250 before. If you just need something cheap, this is the Chromebook for you.
Read our full Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 review.
How to choose the best Chromebook for you kid
Kids don't need all the bells and whistles of a premium Chromebook. They need something functional enough to check them into class and help facilitate participation. Chromebooks running lesser-known processors such as the MediaTek Helio P60T and the Intel Celeron N4000 are undoubtedly able, but they're not workhorses akin to the Intel Core M3 and Core i5 processors.
For something more powerful and capable of flying through several Chrome tabs at a time, plus Android apps where applicable, 8GB of memory is a minimum requirement. At the very least, you won't have to worry about discrepancies in battery life between the models mentioned here because education-focused Chromebooks run on the least taxing specifications.
For a child who is mostly stuck at the desk doing schoolwork, a traditional laptop-type Chromebook will suffice, though you'll want to choose an exterior that's easy to wipe down when messes occur. If your child prefers a mouse to navigate, select one with a standard USB input. It simplifies the process of connecting a mouse, and you don't have to worry about buying a compatible USB-C dock. For squirmier tykes, a 2-in-1 Chromebook tablet has the same functionality as a desk-bound Chromebook, but with the flexibility of doing schoolwork in a beanbag chair or another extremely comfortable situation.
When it comes to screen size, an 11-inch display is ample enough for younger kids. Older kids and middle-schoolers will benefit more from a larger display, or anything 13 inches and over. If you don't like the display of the Chromebook--perhaps it's a bit washed out, or you realize it's uncomfortable for your child--you can always invest in the USB hub mentioned above to tack on HDMI and connect to an external monitor.
Lastly, since Chromebook models aren’t typically refreshed annually, be keen on whether or not the Chromebook model you choose will receive software and security updates down the line (Google offers a helpful support page if you want to look up a specific model). This ensures compatibility with software and that your child’s laptop isn’t exposed to any major security vulnerabilities. You may have to perform some manual parenting maintenance to ensure the device stays up to date.
Battery test results compared
Battery life is one of the key things you should look at when deciding which Chromebook to buy a child, which is why we run every laptop we review through a series of battery tests to see how long it lasts on a full charge.
These tests do not reflect real-world use patterns since we have to set every laptop to the same settings in order to do fair comparisons. Thus, while the times listed here are accurate and useful as a comparison point, your own experience with a laptop's battery life will likely vary.
This is because when we run our battery test we set the laptop's display to 150 nits of brightness and have it endlessly browse the web via Wi-Fi until it dies. However, when you use your laptop you're likely adjusting brightness on the fly, doing all sorts of different tasks while perhaps listening to music or watching a video at the same time, and generally putting the machine through more of a workout than it gets in our test.
So while I stand by our testing and the battery life results we compare in the chart below, I want to be clear that your own experience will vary!
Laptop | Battery life (tested) |
Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus | 12:47 |
Acer Chromebook Plus 515 | 8:16 |
Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 | 10:30 |
How we test the best Chromebooks for kids
To find the best Chromebook for kids we run every machine we review through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use.
First, we measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop's display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter.
For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include JetStream 2 (a Web-based benchmarking suite that runs over five dozen tests designed to measure how well systems handle the kind of applications they’re most likely to encounter on the Internet) and a custom battery test that tasks the machine with browsing the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.
For more information on our testing process, check out our guide to how we test.
