As some of you know, I own a few Chromebooks. My HP I loaned to my son and I might never see it again. My Asus and Acer (R11) were given to our church. And even though I still have a few spares, I decided to ‘invest’ in a new Lenovo Chromebook 3. This is truly a ‘budget’ Chromebook with a plastic case, a reasonable amount of memory, and a reasonably good (non-touch) 14″ 1080p screen, and a reasonably quick processor. What really attracted me to this particular model was the price. Best Buy had this on sale for $169. And I ordered it in the afternoon and it appeared on my doorstep at noon the next day. Good job Best Buy!
I’ll show all the specs below, but suffice to say that this reasonably equipped Chromebook rocks! It has the perfect array of ports (1 USB-A, 1 USB-C, an audio jack, and a micro-SD slot). Two essential accessories you should plan to buy to make this a perfect Chromebook include:
Here’s the Best Buy catalog info.
Lenovo Chromebook 3 14″ Laptop – Mediatek MT8183 – 4GB Memory – 64GB eMMC – Arctic Grey
Model:82KN0000US SKU:6447138
And specs:
| CPU | MediaTek MT8183 octo-core processor (4 x A73 @ 2 GHz / 4 x A53 @ 2 GHz) |
| GPU | ARM Mali G72 GPU |
| Display | 14-inch FullHD (1920 x 1080) anti-glare TN panel with up to 220 nits brightness, non-touch, 16:9 aspect ratio OR |
| Memory | 4 GB LPDDR4 1866MHz |
| Storage | 64 GB eMMC 5.1, plus 1 microSD card slot for storage expansion |
| Connectivity | 802.11 ac Wi-Fi (2 x 2), Bluetooth 4.2 |
| Input | Non-backlit keyboard, Buttonless Mylar surface multi-touch touchpad, 720p webcam |
| Ports | 1 USB Type-C 2.0 (with PD 2.0 and DP 1.1a), 1 USB Type-A 2.0, headphone / microphone combination jack, lock slot, 2 x 2W speakers |
| Battery | 42 WHr, expected run time up to 16 hours, 45W USB-C charger |
| Weight | 2.87 pounds |
| Software | Chrome OS automatic update expiration: TBD but likely June 2028 |
I did check Best Buy’s site again a moment ago and the price has gone back up to $289. Amazon has it for a cool $1 less. I think I snagged this deal at exactly the right time, and other than a slightly insensitive touch pad and tinny speakers, I’m completely satisfied with the build quality and performance of this Chromebook.
All that said, I understand the processor Lenovo’s using in this bargain Chromebook is a few years old and there are some new processors coming out soon that will smoke this older tech. Still, for the money I spent on this Chromebook and with the expectation that I’ll be giving this one away and upgrading in a few years anyway, this Chromebook is ‘just perfect’!
PS – I forgot to mention one other cool feature. This Chromebook has a sliding shutter to block the camera when it’s not in use. It doesn’t actually turn the camera off or block audio, which it should. But it masks the camera lens which is great and is something not seen on other budget Chromebooks I have owned.
