If you’re shopping early Black Friday sales for a solid Chromebook deal, we have a great one for you: Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 3 is on sale for over half off. If you’re looking for true all-day battery life, this is the Chromebook for you.
Best Buy is selling the Lenovo Slim 3 for $149.00, which is 53 percent off the MSRP of $319. In our review of the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3, my colleague Ashley Biancuzzo wrote that it is a “solid, low-cost option for young professionals or college students.” At the price, it could certainly work for anyone who needs a solid laptop for browsing the web and handling basic tasks.
To be fair, this is a budget Chromebook that may have been overpriced to begin with. Any weakness lies in its 4GB of RAM, which will limit the amount of tabs that the Chromebook can have open at one time. That’s a problem for some people, but not those who understand the limitations. On the other hand, it has a key strength: 14 hours of battery life, combined with a bright, attractive 1080p screen that should be good for work and movies alike. We tease out the pros and cons of the Slim 3 in our review.
Still, we’re pulling this out of our dedicated Black Friday Chromebook deals page because the sale is both eye-popping and in line with what we’d expect the top Black Friday sales to offer. Buying the IdeaPad Slim 3 means owning a solid Chromebook with no real flaws, just a design decision that you can live with. It’s definitely an early steal that you won’t be disappointed with.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor
As PCWorld's senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.