SAVE $200: As of May 30, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (Intel Core 5 120U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) is back down to $449, down from $649, at Best Buy. That’s a 31% discount, matching its best price ever.
While regular laptops are certainly “better” on paper for PC gaming, Chromebooks are making big strides. Mashable’s Alex Perry, a seasoned gamer who prefers consoles, gave the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (the “GE” stands for “gaming edition”) a spin and was pleasantly surprised. He dubbed it “an incredible value” at only $649, adding that it’s “much better for playing video games than a Chromebook ought to be.”
As if $649 isn’t already impressively cheap for a gaming laptop, Best Buy has it on sale for only $449 as of May 30. That’s a 31% or $200 discount and matches its best price ever, which it reached just once before earlier this month.
Let’s talk specs. The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE packs an Intel Core 5 120U processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB of storage. Gamers may turn their noses up to those on instinct, but hear us out. You won’t be using it like a traditional laptop and local gaming device that you install games on. Instead, it’s designed for streaming games through cloud services like Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now. And for that, it’s pretty impressive.
Though Perry said he probably wouldn’t be swapping it for his gaming consoles or Steam Deck, he called it “an excellent game-streaming laptop,” commending its long battery life, ample ports, comfortable RGB keyboard, powerful 120Hz refresh rate, and one of the best Chromebook screens he’s seen. “If you want to cheat your way into sort of having a high-end gaming laptop, this is a way to do it,” he wrote.
Mashable Deals
Is it a little clunky? Sure. We didn’t say it’s perfect, but it is one of our favorite budget laptops in 2025. Considering Chromebooks are usually known for their minimalism and are typically the go-to gadget for students and casual scrollers, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is somewhat of an anomaly. At a mere $449, we’ll even go as far as to say it’s a better value than a typical gaming laptop, as long as you don’t mind game streaming.
