Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Back-to-school shopping? This is the Chromebook deal you want

Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 laptop.
Asus

With Amazon Prime Day in the near past, the next major sales event is going to be the back-to-school season. We’re going to start seeing a lot of student laptop deals, along with plenty of other must-have gadgets for matriculating youths; including phones, tablets, and earbuds. Of course, there’s nothing more important than a fast and reliable PC for school, and our pals at Best Buy are offering a major markdown on a fantastic Asus Chromebook.

The model we’re referring to is the Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402 Laptop with Google AI. Normally, you’d be spending $500 for this Chrome OS-powered device, but Best Buy is selling it for only $350. There’s a good chance these savings will only last the rest of this week though, so if this sounds like a great sale to you, act fast!

Why you should buy the Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402

We typically see lower-cost Chromebooks getting paired with low-performance processors. And while this isn’t to say that an Intel Celeron can’t get the job done, the fact that the CX3402 is equipped with an Intel Core i5 definitely puts a smile on our faces. With integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics and 8GB of RAM, this laptop can handle just about anything a student could throw at it; whether that be word processing, web browsing, watching HD movies, or some light photo editing. 

The 14-inch HD display gets up to 250 nits for peak brightness, so this may not be the best laptop to use outside on a sunny day. With controlled ambient lighting though, the CX3402 manages to deliver a colorful and detailed picture. The built-in HD webcam is a nice compliment to the screen too, and a great way to confer with peers and professors if you’re taking online courses with a video element. On a full charge, you can expect up to eight hours of battery life.

As for storage, you’ll be working with 128GB. That’s not a big byte trove for local storage, so if you need more, we recommend checking out some of the external hard drive deals we’ve been digging up. As a final bonus, we’re also pleased that Asus decided to give users a free year of Google AI services. 

These types of laptop deals are the ones that everyone’s going to be seeking over the next few weeks. That being said, if you have the funds now, we suggest buying before the crowds emerge and the deal ends. Save $150 when you purchase the Asus Chromebook Plus CX3402 from Best Buy today!

Michael Bizzaco
Michael Bizzaco has been selling, installing, and talking about TVs, soundbars, streaming devices, and all things smart home…
Get $50 off a Samsung 1TB SSD with this Best Buy deal
The Samsung 990 Evo 1TB SSD on a white backgroud.

One of the best SSD deals around is available at Best Buy today: You can buy the Samsung 990 Evo 1TB SSD for just $70 meaning, you’re saving $50 off the regular price of $120. That’s a huge saving on something that will be a massive upgrade to your PC, boosting performance speeds compared to a regular hard drive. It also means more room -- SSD speeds are a better option than any of the external hard drive deals happening. If that instantly sounds appealing, read on while we take you through all you need to know about this deal.

Why you should buy the Samsung 990 Evo 1TB SSD
If you’ve read through our SSD buying guide, you’ll know the Samsung 990 Evo 1TB SSD has a ton of potential. It promises read/write speeds of up to 5,000/4,2000 MBps while also being highly energy efficient. That means up to 70% improved performance per watt over the 970 EVO Plus that came before it. It uses Samsung’s fine tuned Smart Thermal Control and heat spreading label to provide effective thermal control so there are no performance drops, circumventing one issue with these kinds of SSDs.

Read more
Best laptop deals: Save on the Dell XPS 14, MacBook Pro 16 and more
The Dell XPS 14 on a white table with the screen open.

There are a lot of great laptop options out there, especially with some of the best laptop brands out there starting to branch out beyond what they are usually known for. That means that you can snag anything from an excellent 2-in-1 to a gaming laptop while still finding excellent deals. Of course, you don't need the best laptops to get something that's pretty great quality and can even compete with desktop computers, so if you want something budget-oriented, you're in luck.
That's why we've gone out and collected these deals from the best brands; you'll find HP laptop deals, Dell laptop deals, Acer laptop deals, Lenovo laptop deals, and more. They run the gamut from Chromebook deals and 2-in-1 laptop deals to powerful gaming laptop deals and everything in between.

HP Chromebook 14a -- $220 $320 31% off

Read more
Best Chromebook deals: Cheap computers starting at $88
HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook front view showing display and keyboard deck.

Windows and MacOS laptops tend to have a lot of the limelight, especially since they often show up on lists of the best laptops. That said, Chromebooks are another great option because they run on ChromeOS, which is a lot more lightweight, meaning you don't need high-end specs to get something reasonably good. That's not to say that you can't get something really powerful if you want to pay extra, and some of the best Chromebooks can compete with the best Windows and MacOS laptops pretty easily.

To that end, we've collected our favorite Chromebook deals below, and you'll see there is a lot of crossover with some of our other roundups, such as the HP laptop deals, Acer laptop deals, Dell laptop deals, and Lenovo laptop deals, so you may want to check those out too.
HP Chromebook 11A G6 Education Edition (renewed) -- $76 $215 65% off

Read more