Lenovo launched its most up-to-date Slim 3 Chromebook in May. Customer evaluations like it. But Best Buy has slashed the worth by 44 p.c all the way down to a paltry $179. Why?

Unfamiliarity, we suspect. Most individuals have heard of Qualcomm and its Arm chips, however MediaTek is an up-and-coming CPU provider that additionally licenses Arm CPUs from Arm Ltd. MediaTek launched the Kompanio 520 CPU late final 12 months into the Chromebook house and Lenovo signed on to construct it into its Slim 3 Chromebooks this previous May.

The Kompanio 520 is an eight-core Arm CPU with an improved dual-core graphics engine, so it’s a cutting-edge CPU in a market the place retailers nonetheless promote Chromebook trap deals that use out-of-date and discontinued {hardware}. However, even legitimate back-to-school deals on Chromebooks nonetheless use CPUs which might be a number of years outdated.

The Lenovo Slim 3 consists of the Kompanio chip and 4GB of RAM, which we attempt to draw back from as a result of it might restrict the quantity of tabs and purposes. But the processor is actually peppy sufficient, the display screen is a stable 14-inch 1080p show, there’s a very good keyboard, and clients rave concerning the battery life… all for below $200. This is a steal, particularly at $179.

Get the Lenovo Slim 3 Chromebook at Best Buy for $179