I recently bought the Lenovo Flex 5 for my daughter as as Christmas present, overkill for her, it will primarily be an education tool (she's only 8). She's currently getting tutoring and I have purchased education software to help with this. A Chromebook will be perfect for her. But one thing I believe is important is to reward hard work with play, and her favourite game is Roblox.
Being Intel powered I am unsure if it can play it? It's browser-based so maybe? I've never owned a Chromebook and wouldn't have any idea. I just know Google Play won't be available in this version.
Would I need an ARM powered Chromebook?
The things I liked about the Flex 5 is:
- Build quality
- Touch screen / ability to flip around into a tablet (for me I wouldn't care, but for my daughter this is needed)
- 13.3" screen, I don't want smaller screens (that's a no to Lenovo Duet)
Does such exist around the $500 budget? The best I could find is the Acer R13 but it's looking rather long in the tooth? Do I even need an ARM cpu, will this Intel Chromebook still be able to load things like Roblox without too much difficulty?
Thanks in advance.
Google Play is available on x86_64 based Chromebook as well and Lenovo Flex 5 should have no problem installing Roblox. Just google "Chromebook Roblox" and you'll see many videos demonstrating it.
However many games on Play Store are optimised for ARM processors so having Roblox working does not guarantee that all the Play Store games will work.
If you are still looking for an ARM Chromebook that's available now, then Acer Chromebook R 13 would fit your requirement — but it's more expensive (over $500 as it's not currently on sale) and is pretty much inferior in everywhere comparing to the Flex 5, other than ability to run Android apps better.