What is the difference between a Chromebook and a laptop?

Choosing between a traditional laptop or a Chromebook? There are a few key differences you should know about, and which one is better basically depends on your individual needs. Read on to make an informed decision about what machine works best for you.

What is a Chromebook?

Let’s start with what a Chromebook actually is; a laptop equipped with the Google Chrome operating system. Chrome OS is built around Google’s Chrome browser, which means it operates from the web. This is a fundamental difference from competing operating systems like Windows or MacOS, which run fully on the computer, not from the web.

What do you do if you don’t have an internet connection? Well for a long time, the answer was ¯_(ツ)_/¯. But over the past few years, Google has improved its offline capabilities, including adding its android app store Google Play which offers many apps with offline options like Spotify and Google Podcasts.