With Amazon Prime Day deals dropping from June 21 to June 22, we're going to see plenty of Prime Day laptop deals that will be an absolute must-have. But if you're in the market for one of these laptops, it can be hard to decide between a Chromebook and a Windows 10 S mode laptop, or even determine which is best for your needs. There are real differences between the two types of systems and each has its advantages and disadvantages. And while they'll be competing against each other on Amazon Prime Day, especially in terms of price, it's important to figure out what works best for your specific needs rather than going for the cheapest. For many Windows users, a laptop in Windows 10 S mode probably seems more suitable than a Chromebook, which they may never have used before. But the label "Windows 10" can be misleading to some who might have done better using a Chromebook than a Windows 10 S mode laptop that doesn't have the kind of features and functionality that they do. Meanwhile, if you're new to Chromebooks, especially if you're coming from a Windows or MacBook laptop, you might find Chrome OS very disappointing, and most of its features depend on a good one. Internet connection, you may not find Chromebooks to be functional enough for your needs. So as you check out all the deals on Amazon Prime Day, we're here to help you break down the strengths, weaknesses, and differences between the two so you can buy the best cheap laptop for your situation.
Chromebooks are designed from the ground up to be lightweight and affordable.
Windows 10 Chromebooks and S mode laptops are typically lightweight portable devices that you can throw in a bag and take with you throughout the day. And while both get the job done when it comes to light computing tasks, Chromebooks are built from the ground up specifically for this purpose. While you can find super premium Chromebooks with very powerful hardware, Chrome OS was designed to run on low-end machines while optimizing resource usage. The RAM load may allow you to open a lot more Chrome tabs, but Chrome OS is already very efficient, so you end up enjoying the full experience even with the slimmest of specs. Also, because Chrome OS was originally designed around low-end hardware, it has seamlessly expanded to include the entire Android app ecosystem through Google Play. There are still growth issues as most Android apps are built around a mobile touchscreen user interface rather than a traditional laptop. However, the Android market is the largest in the world, so you certainly won't run out of apps to play with. The other thing Chromebooks rely on is a good internet connection. Chromebooks were meant to take advantage of cloud computing services like Google Docs, Sheets, and Stadia, rather than locally installed software. And while you can install a lot of software, they're basically mobile apps, so you might not find them as feature-rich as you need.
Windows 10 S mode delivers a familiar experience while being affordable
It's not entirely fair to say that Windows 10 S mode is a light version of Windows 10, but in practice that's basically what a user is going to find. In terms of user interface, Windows 10 laptops in S mode look a lot like the more powerful, full-featured Windows 10 laptops that cost much more. The Start menu, the desktop, the notification center, the taskbar, etc. they're essentially unchanged in Windows 10 S mode, which will be a major selling point for many users. Learning a completely new operating system, even though it's as intuitive as Chrome OS, can be a real hurdle. To find the real difference between Windows 10 S mode and Windows 10, you'll have to dig a little deeper into the user interface. Many Windows apps won't run in S mode, including some of the most popular ones like Steam, Adobe Photoshop, and Google Chrome. The only apps you can run in S mode are the ones you can download from the Windows Store, and while there aren't exactly digital tumbleweeds, the Windows Store isn't nearly as popular as the Google or Apple marketplaces. Windows 10 S mode is also a stripped-down version of Windows 10, so while this makes it familiar to many, it also means it wasn't really designed from the ground up to run on lower-end hardware like Chrome OS. Windows 10 S mode still works great on this hardware, it just doesn't work as well as Chrome OS.