The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook is the best cheap laptop for students of all ages - and it’s on sale right now

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Back-to-school shopping can be the most exciting and stressful part of getting ready for a new school year, and shopping for the right laptop is just another load of anxiety for a lot of people, myself included. Laptops normally require a lot more investment than the rest of your school supplies, and you want to make sure you invest in the right device to take you through the upcoming school year and beyond. That’s why I would recommend Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook, which is on sale right now - down from $319 to $169, knocking $150 off the original price at Best Buy.

Chromebooks have become a staple in the classroom because they’re cost-effective, they’re easy to use and they are designed to be productivity machines. As you’ll be running ChromeOS you’ll have access to an app-style operating system with instant access to Google Apps like Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Sheets as well as your email if you’re a Gmail user. Basically, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook is a great ‘pick up and go’ kind of laptop.

The attractive color scheme will set your Chromebook apart from the rest of your class plus the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook has an excellent battery life along with an incredibly lightweight build so it won’t slow you down as you rush to your next class.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook: was $319.99 now $169 at Best Buy
Display - 14 inches
Processor - MediaTek Kompanio 500
RAM - 4GB
Storage - 64GB
OS - ChromeOS

If you're after a dependable laptop at a rock-bottom price, then consider this Chromebook from Lenovo. It has a stylish thin and light design, and while the specs aren't particularly impressive, the ChromeOS operating system is designed to run smoothly on low-powered laptops like this. With a $150 saving, this Chromebook is better value than ever, making it an ideal laptop for students.

You’ll also have a pretty good media device alongside a school laptop, as the Chromebook comes with a Full HD display that is ideal for movies and TV shows. You do get a little less in the storage department.

Now, this isn't the best student laptop for every user. With just 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage (which, to be clear, is normal for a budget Chromebook such as this), you likely won't be running any highly resource-intensive software for content creation or scientific modeling. This is a laptop for students who just need to write assignments, answer emails, and participate in video calls - perfect for anyone on a literature or law course, for example. That being said, since you’ll be working with the Google Cloud and have instant access to Google Drive, you probably won’t hurt too much for storage.

Overall this is a great pick for students who want a new school device but don’t want to blow their budgets. It’s simple, it’s lightweight, and it does everything it says on the tin. I highly recommend this deal since it’s almost half off right now at Best Buy.

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Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).