Technologies

8 Chromebook Myths To Ignore When Laptop Shopping

Chromebooks today are much better than they were upon initial release in 2011.

Chromebooks, or laptops that run on Google’s ChromeOS, have been around for more than a decade and have gone from basic internet appliances to excellent laptops for personal or professional use.

Their user-friendly nature also makes them a good option for people who are less tech-savvy.

A lot of negative ideas about Chromebooks have circulated over the last 10 years too, including the fallacy that you can’t use them offline and that the devices are underpowered. Some of these critiques may have been true when Chromebooks were first released, but they have since been corrected or improved upon.

Here are eight Chromebook misconceptions to ignore when looking for a new laptop.

1. Chromebooks are underpowered

This is a common misconception that dates back to the Chromebook’s launch, when it was mainly used for accessing the internet via the Chrome browser. As more people started using Chromebooks, including for school and business, Google increased the functionality of the operating system and Chromebook makers improved their performance to take advantage of new features. Now, like other laptops, you get what you pay for with a Chromebook.

ChromeOS, the Chromebook operating system, still has low hardware requirements, though. This means Chromebooks can provide basic functionality for less money. Despite the low hardware requirements, Chromebooks can perform as well as — and in some cases better than — similarly priced Windows laptops.

“New Windows laptops for $200 are few and far between and, frankly, are rarely worth buying,” CNET’s Joshua Goldman writes. “Finding a good $200 Chromebook, on the other hand, is pretty easy to do… Premium Chromebooks typically start between $400 and $500, but can easily run more than $1,000 depending on your needs.”

The Lenovo Duet 3, for example, is $379, and it can stream videos, run almost any Android app and be used for cloud gaming via Nvidia GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming. Other premium Chromebooks, like the CNET Editor’s Choice award-winning Acer Chromebook Spin 714, are more expensive, but they can have up to 10 hours of battery life. They can also stream videos and handle productivity apps like Slack with ease.

2. You can only use Chrome on Chromebooks

It’s understandable — yet incorrect — to think that Chromebooks, which run on ChromeOS, can only use a Chrome browser. You can run other browsers, like Brave and Firefox, on your Chromebook.

To use these browsers, you need to download the apps from the Google Play Store. While those apps are meant for Android phones, they will work on your Chromebook. Some apps have tablet support so they look cleaner and use the additional space on the screen of your Chromebook. Their windows can also be resized just like traditional desktop software.

3. Chromebooks aren’t safe to use

Chromebooks have multiple layers of protection to keep your data safe. For example, you’ll get automatic updates from Google so your device always has the latest patches. Chromebooks also run individual websites and apps in sandboxes to contain threats.

These security features make Chromebooks more secure than many other laptops. According to CVE Details, a security vulnerability datasource, ChromeOS has had about 50 security vulnerabilities since 2010. In comparison, Windows 10 has had almost 3,000 vulnerabilities since 2013.

4. Chromebooks don’t work offline

While the first models were designed to be used online only, Google changed that long ago so that many Chromebook apps will work with or without an internet connection. You can use your Chromebook to take notes, watch movies and listen to music when offline. You can even check and respond to emails or view, edit or create documents in Google Drive. In these cases, whatever emails you are sending or changes you are making to documents won’t go through until you reconnect to the internet.

5. You can’t game on Chromebooks

Years ago you could only play web-based games on your Chromebook but since 2016, you can play many of the games in the Google Play Store. That includes games like Roblox and Apex Legends Mobile. You can also play games from Steam, Nvidia’s GeForce Now, Amazon Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming on your Chromebook.

Google is even selling Chromebooks made for cloud gaming. The Acer Chromebook 516 GE, Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip and Lenovo Ideapad Gaming Chromebook are the first three gaming Chromebooks that let anyone play AAA computer games without a high-end gaming PC using cloud services.

6. Chromebooks aren’t good for photo or video editing

For basic editing, the Google Play Store has a number of photo and video editing apps, including Adobe’s Android apps and LumaFusion, which are Chromebook-compatible. Google also unveiled a new video editor and movie maker in Google Photos in July.

If you’re a business professional and need more advanced photo- or video-editing capabilities, like Adobe InDesign or Photoshop, you’ll still want a Windows, Mac or Linux laptop. However, if you are putting together a family photo album or a video for a family reunion, Chromebooks have everything you need.

7. Chromebooks can’t run Microsoft Office

Yes, you can run Microsoft Office on your Chromebook. However, instead of using the software suite made for Windows or MacOS, you’ll use Microsoft’s Office progressive web apps, or PWAs.

PWAs are like the mobile versions of websites, but they give you more features, like offline use and push notifications. There are PWAs for Microsoft Office 365 that work great on Chromebooks. Besides having to download the PWAs, using them is the same as using the web versions of Office 365. Microsoft Office power users might find that Office PWAs aren’t as robust as the desktop software, but the PWAs will likely meet most people’s needs.

8. You can’t use Windows on a Chromebook

This one is half true. While you can’t install Windows onto your Chromebook, you can access the operating system via remote access. You can use remote computer access tools, like Parallels for Chrome or Chrome’s Remote Desktop, to connect your Chromebook to a Windows computer.

Parallels lets you run full-featured Windows applications and is mainly meant for business users. Chrome’s Remote Desktop takes minutes to set up and can be used to access Windows — or Mac — software on your Chromebook. Is this cheating? Maybe, but I won’t tell if you won’t.

For more on Chromebooks, check out these eight Chromebooks for any budget, how to get Steam on your Chromebook and how to run Windows Office on your Chromebook.

Technologies

In photos: Key takeaways from day one of the UN General Assembly

World leaders descended on New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, where the agenda covers topics from wars to the risks posed by AI.

World leaders descended on New York this week for the annual United Nations General Assembly, where the agenda spans the U.S.-Iran war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the fragile ceasefire in Gaza and the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

Nearly 130 heads of state and government started taking the podium on Tuesday, including U.S. President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani are also attending.

Motorcades, road closures and security details for visiting leaders have choked midtown Manhattan. Inside UN headquarters, delegates face a week of back-to-back speeches and sideline meetings that come at a crucial time for a world order already under strain.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping will skip the assembly but head to Washington for a high-level summit with Trump on Wednesday. Leaders from India and Russia are also staying away.

Trump on Tuesday told world leaders at the assembly that he faces a “big decision”: make a deal with Iran or “annihilate” the Islamic Republic. He later told reporters that U.S. officials held a “very good” three-hour meeting with Iranian envoys on the sidelines, reviving fragile hopes for a diplomatic off-ramp to the seven-month war.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung set out a three-part plan for “peaceful coexistence” with North Korea. It calls on Pyongyang to “first halt the advancement” of its nuclear program before reducing it.

Brazil’s Lula spoke first, as his country traditionally does. “Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians,” Lula said. “Brazil is nobody’s backyard.” He said the UN “is failing in one of its highest missions: to save humanity from the scourge of war.”

Trump also signed a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland that expands U.S. military access in the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland.

Trump then met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for about 40 minutes. He pressed for a Russia-Ukraine energy truce and backed a ban on U.S. diesel exports as fuel prices hit records before the midterms.

French President Emmanuel Macron gave his own UN address. “There can be no peace without justice,” he said. After meeting Trump, he pledged to push for a moratorium on strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Gaza “the most inhumane, most shameful concentration camp of our time,” prompting Israel’s delegation to walk out. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, will address the assembly by video after being denied a U.S. visa.

Technologies

Oil Prices Drop as U.S. and Iran Hold Hours-Long UN Talks

Oil prices fell as U.S.-Iran talks at the U.N. raised expectations that supply disruptions could ease. Brent and WTI futures declined, while optimism grew around a possible diplomatic settlement.

Oil declined on Wednesday as optimism grew that supply disruptions could ease after U.S.-Iran talks, lifting hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict.

Futures on the international benchmark Brent crude for November delivery fell 0.71% to $98.55 a barrel as of 3:04 a.m. ET. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for November slipped 1.26% to $89.36 per barrel.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S. officials had a “very good meeting” with Iran’s delegation, which lasted about three hours. Earlier, during his address to the U.N., Trump said he faced a “big decision” over whether to make a deal with Tehran or “annihilate” the country.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Iran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if the U.S. agrees to reduce military pressure and lift its blockade of Iranian ports.

“Pakistan’s mediation efforts with Tehran could also reduce the risk of a broader escalation,” said Paolo Broccardo, chief executive officer at private digital bank BankPro.

He said oil prices were also unlikely to surge sharply in the near term.

“Over the past five consecutive sessions, the price has fallen by almost 12%, retreating once again from the ‘intervention zone’ above $100, where we have repeatedly seen intensified peace-building efforts from both sides,” Broccardo said.

Technologies

CNBC Daily Open: Nothing artificial about ‘Super Intelligence’

President Donald Trump seeks to rebrand AI ahead of his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, while rejecting a “globalist scheme” to regulate the technology.

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Hello, this is Leonie Kidd coming to you from London. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.

President Donald Trump’s passion for renaming places is now extending to renaming technological developments.

His latest effort is to rebrand AI as ‘Super Intelligence.’

However, it will take more than a facelift for the most transformative technology in a generation to meet the expectations for a global safety approach, especially ahead of the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will be welcomed to Washington D.C., later on Wednesday.

Read on for more.

What you need to know today

“The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake… It is not fake. It’s actually amazing.”

The words of U.S. President Donald Trump as he used his keynote speech at the United Nations General Assembly to call for the renaming of AI as “Super Intelligence.”

His support for allowing AI (or Super Intelligence) to develop at a winning pace comes as his global peers look to reach an agreement on safety rules around the powerful technology.

Later on Wednesday, Trump will greet China’s Xi Jinping in an arrival ceremony ahead of Thursday’s state visit, where AI has become one of the key talking points between the two superpowers.

Speed versus safety

The CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman and Anthropic boss Dario Amodei are expected to address the United Nations Security Council later on Wednesday. They are set to be joined by Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue to debate AI safety and regulation.

The appearance follows calls to slow the breakneck pace of the model frontier — warnings Trump has called a “hoax” and “scam.”

Frontier FOMO

Investors are taking an optimistic view, with a rally in technology stocks on Tuesday leading the Nasdaq to another fresh high. The tech-heavy index hit a new all-time intraday peak and achieved a record close.

Futures are flat in early trading on Wednesday amid a broadly positive handover from Asia.

Oil oscillations

Crude prices are lower on Wednesday following news that U.S. officials had a “very good meeting” with the Iranian delegation on the sidelines of the UN meeting.

President Trump said the discussion with officials lasted about three hours. Earlier in his address to the U.N., he said he has a “big decision” over whether to reach a deal with Tehran or “annihilate” the country.

According to regional media reports, Iran has been communicating its conditions for ending the seven-month war with the U.S. through a Qatari mediator.

— Leonie Kidd

*Please note, the Daily Open EMEA will be coming to you from my colleagues in Singapore for the next few days*

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And Finally…

Anthropic and OpenAI roll out cheaper models in first release since call for slowdown

Anthropic and OpenAI on Tuesday each announced new, less costly artificial intelligence models as both frontier labs continue to face stiff competition from cheaper, open-weight competitors.

OpenAI introduced additional tiers to its GPT-6 family, with GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, slashing the API prices by 50% compared with GPT-5.6 promotional pricing.

Sol, which is a tier below Astra, is meant for more complex workloads like coding, while the company’s Luna offering is geared toward “high-volume tasks” such as extracting information or summarizing documents, the company wrote.

Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 5.5 on Tuesday, its latest release in the new Claude 5.5 model family.

— CJ Haddad

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