Best Laptop For Family Use in 2023 |Top 9 picks

If you’re searching for the best laptop for family use, chances are high that you’re exhausted already. Because laptop makers are labeling many things on their laptops these days, specifying which one is good for what kind of purpose – but no one’s telling you which laptop you should get for your family. Disappointing, right?

Well, no worries, that’s what we’re here for. In this article, we will discuss the nine best laptops for family use. Excited?

Let’s get right down to it.

A Quick Comparison of Our Favorites:

Top 9 best laptops for family use In 2023

1. Lenovo Chromebook C330

Frankly speaking, this Chromebook from Lenovo is one of the best value-for-money Chromebooks that’s been ever made. And that’s for not one, but quite a few reasons.

Firstly, you’ll find it blazing fast for everyday internet browsing – thanks to the snappy performance of the processor. The amount of RAM it comes with might not sound like much, but it’ll get you through just fine for Android apps – which don’t usually consume that much RAM anyway unless you’re gaming.

The responsive touchpad will allow you to get a lot of work done quickly with just gestures like swiping; no need to fiddle around with the mouse! If that’s not enough for you, there is always the touchscreen that you can use to enhance your workflow further!

Oh, and did we mention you can even use the Chromebook as a tablet computer? The display can be rotated 360 degrees. If you fancy using the computer while lying on a couch after a long day, that won’t be an issue with this Chromebook either.

The screen is bright enough for indoor lighting conditions but might seem a bit dim outside. That being said, a family laptop will probably spend most of its life home, so it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day.

Overall, if we were to pick the best laptop for family use on the cheap, Lenovo Chromebook C330 would certainly be one of our top choices. If you plan on using the laptop for web browsing, listening to music, and watching Netflix, you should definitely consider this Lenovo Chromebook.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: It’s a nicely designed solid Chromebook at a very reasonable price that takes a minute to set up. If you’re looking for something easy to use for your family, Lenovo Chromebook C330 would be a great pick considering the features it’s packed with. If your primary laptop ever stops working, this can also serve as a decent backup device for online classes or browsing the internet.

2. Acer Chromebook Spin 311

When we first saw this laptop, we were intrigued by the aluminum body with sleek design. The product looks good, sure, but will Acer, the laptop giant, live up to its standards for Chromebooks as well?

We got the answer when the performance of this laptop blew us away. The Celeron processor might not have thrived with Windows, but its performance is simply snappy with Chrome OS. You can install and run pretty much any Android app you like and do all the basic stuff like checking emails, browsing the internet, and streaming music/movies with this Chromebook. A full-fledged computer often overwhelms older people and kids, but that won’t be the case with it – which is a piece of cake to set up and use.

The WiFi connectivity is excellent, making it the best laptop for students attending classes from home or just casual internet browsing. Another nifty feature is that you can use either USB-C port to charge the laptop. The keyboard and trackpad also feel pretty good to use.

A disappointing part of the Chromebook is that although it used to support stylus before, the feature has been removed in the latest version. So, if you’re the artsy type, this might be a deal-breaker for you. Having said that, that’s literally the only downside of the Chromebook. If you don’t mind not drawing on the display, you won’t even notice what’s missing anyway.

Why Should You Purchase This Product? If you want to get a magnificent-looking but inexpensive Chromebook for your kids or your parents, this would be an awesome choice. Since it comes with a foolproof design and a rigid build quality, the Chromebook can withstand quite a bit of rough love. Last but least, the Intel Celeron CPU is the cherry on top that makes the performance of the Chromebook even swifter.

3. Apple MacBook Pro 2020

There’s no doubt that Apple’s MacBook series is perhaps the most recognizable product line on this planet. But what’s taken over the internet by storm recently is its M1 chip, which is a total game-changer. Unlike the other laptops discussed in this article, this is not just a family-purpose laptop. This is an absolute beast, something that you can use for everyday work – whether it’s heavy video editing, graphic designing, or something as CPU or GPU intensive.

But what makes it the best laptop for family use as well? Well, that has a lot to do with the fact that MacBooks are essentially built like tanks and offer extreme longevity. While a Windows laptop might get outdated or broken in a few years requiring you to replace it, MacBooks can easily be used for 8-10 years. Hence, the upfront cost may come across as pretty steep, but it’s actually more economical when you take how many Windows laptops you’d have to buy during that time into account.

To summarize, Macbook Pro 2020 would be an awesome choice for family use because of its robustness and, of course, the dazzling performance. The battery time is also dreamlike. So, you don’t really have to worry about a thing while using this laptop, be that how CPU/GPU-intensive your software is or how much charge you have left.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: If you don’t mind paying a premium upfront to save more in the long run and have no issues with Mac OS, MacBook Pro 2020 would be a very good investment for you. Not only is the brand trusted for its products’ amazing build quality and longevity, but you’ll also be able to use the laptop for some really heavy-duty work.

4. Apple MacBook Air 2020 – Our Pick

Since we’ve read about how great M1 chips and the MacBook series, in general, are already, let’s cut straight to the chase and find out why you should consider a MacBook Air instead of a MacBook Pro.

The first factor is definitely the price. A MacBook Pro will set you back about two hundred bucks extra than MacBook Air.

The benefits you’ll be getting with MacBook Pro are the cooling fans that make extended heavy workloads possible, a brighter and perhaps better screen, and of course, some more ports like three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. As unfortunate as it is, MacBook Air lacks all of these.

But think about it again, do you really need all those ports in a laptop that’ll be used mainly by your family? MacBook Air comes with two Thunderbolt 4 ports which are enough for most users. If you still need to connect some more peripherals, get yourself a USB hub. As for whether you’ll need the extra performance offered by MacBook Pro or not, it totally depends on if you’ll be using the laptop for other work as well.

But frankly speaking, MacBook Air M1 is not underpowered at all for family use. Since it’ll also last you years, the price tag easily makes it the best laptop for family use if you have the big picture in mind.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: If you want the longevity and performance offered by Apple’s MacBook series but don’t want to spend too much on the MacBook Pro M1, MacBook Air M1 would be just right for you. It has a solid, ultra-portable design with a decent set of specifications that make it ideal for literally everything. Personal use, family use, business use – you name it.

5. HP 14-inch Chromebook HD

HP is a trusted household name when it comes to laptops and desktop computers. They’ve done a great job with this Chromebook as well, which we’re gonna take a look at now.

If you check out the specifications, the first two things you’ll notice are the dual-core Intel Celeron processor and the 14-inch touchscreen. The additional CPU core will let you do a lot of multitasking. Take the big screen into account, and bam, it turns into one of the best Chromebooks for multitaskers ever made! The 4 GB RAM will also assist in that, no matter how many browser tabs you have open.

Snappy performance aside, the Chromebook also boasts a sleek, black design and satisfactory build quality. On top of that, it also packs a couple of nifty features like HP Truevision HD webcam, built-in Bluetooth, card reader, and last but not least, built-in cloud support. Especially the cloud support will come in handy when you need to store large files but lack the space on your Chromebook.

All in all, HP 14-inch Chromebook is a pretty solid computer with fast performance and support for multitasking. If you shell out a few more bucks, it’s possible to get a more advanced Chromebook with better performance.

That being said, you can’t really go wrong with this one if you’re on a tight budget and don’t intend to do any CPU-intensive tasks on the Chromebook anyway. HP 14-inch Chromebook’s specifications are more than enough for family purposes like streaming movies and music.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: HP 14-inch Chromebook has a big screen with a dual-core processor that’ll allow you to do plenty of multitasking on this Chromebook. It also comes with the basic features of a typical Chromebook, including built-in virus protection and Google products and cloud support. If you’re looking for a Chromebook that’ll mainly be used by your family, but you want to do some multitasking on it every once in a while as well, this would be the best bet for you.

6. HP Stream 14-inch Laptop

Before we begin reviewing this laptop, let’s get one thing clear. You can pick up an HP Stream 14-inch laptop for the price of a Chromebook, but although the specifications are very much Chromebook-ish, it comes with Windows 10 as the operating system. So the 4 GB RAM size and 32/64 GB storage might sound too low for a Windows laptop – but at the end of the day, we get what we pay for.

Now that we’re done with the clarifications let’s get started with the review.

Hp Stream 14-inch laptop is an inexpensive model that’ll allow you to access the internet and…nothing else. That’s right, due to the storage size, you won’t be able to use more than a few offline software on it – unless you connect an external hard disk for more storage space. While that’s definitely a viable option, we recommend using this laptop as an internet terminal, something you can use for web browsing, online classes, and streaming music or movies.

In our opinion, that should be enough for a family-purpose laptop. However, if you want to do some work on it anyway, you’ll have to opt for the cloud solutions like Microsoft OneDrive for storage and Google Workspace apps as a substitute for Microsoft Office.

Many users have complained about its performance issues, but the truth is, this is an amazing laptop as long as you’re not making it step out of its comfort zone. What that means is, if you want to do any graphic design work, use Canva, not Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. If you keep the limitations of the laptop in mind, you’ll be a-okay.

Overall, HP Streamworks is fantastic as a light-use laptop to browse social media, kitchen recipes, or even do school assignments. Given the price, this laptop is simply a bang for the buck. If you prefer windows and want to purchase the best laptop for your family on a budget, go with this one – you won’t regret it.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: If you’re a big fan of the Windows operating system and okay with the specifications of a Chromebook, HP Stream 14-inch should fulfill all your requirements. Not only the laptop comes with a set of gets-the-job-done specifications to satisfy the casual user, but it’s also packed with some lucrative offers like 1 TB of OneDrive storage for one year.

7. ASUS VivoBook 15 F515 Laptop

Asus Vivobook 15 has been highly praised by users for its snappy and responsive performance. Since it comes with the latest generation of Intel Core I3, which is paired with two cores and 6 megabytes of cache, there’s no doubt that this machine will allow you to do a lot of CPU-intensive tasks, including multitasking.

The GPU it comes with is good enough for casual everyday web surfing but not so strong that it can replace your graphic design or YouTube video editing rig. But that’s not something it’s supposed to do anyway, right? The best laptop for family use is not necessarily the best laptop for work.

That being said, the integrated Intel UHD graphics does support light video editing and graphic design, so in case you want to do it anyway, this laptop equips you with the option to.

To talk about other aspects of the laptop – the RAM and storage combination is quite good. The 8 GB RAM will let you not worry about how many tabs you have open on the Chrome browser, and since the storage type is SSD, the laptop will be up and running blazing fast in seconds!

Another nice touch is that the laptop comes with virtually no bloatware, so you don’t need to spend any time getting rid of them. Just unpack the laptop, connect the charger, start it up, and it’s ready to use! It also comes with four USB ports, including one USB-C, which was a pleasant surprise.

In a nutshell, Asus Vivobook is a stylish-looking and premium-feeling laptop that packs a lot of performance inside. The responsive keyboard and trackpad, thin bevels on the screen with decent brightness – they all simply add to the charm.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: If your criteria include being capable of handling some CPU-intensive tasks like multitasking along with light graphic design and video editing, look no further, Asus Vivobook 15 checks all the boxes. While the specifications and features make it a strong contender when picking the best budget laptop, it can also act as the backup device if your primary laptop is having a bad day.

8. Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R3UB

When we were rounding up the best laptops in the market to help you find the best laptop for family use – Acer Aspire 5 caught our glance for two reasons.

One, what it comes with as is. Two, what it can become with some upgrades.

Let’s talk about the CPU and GPU first. It comes with a Ryzen 3 quad-core processor that can be overclocked, so you can squeeze plenty of performance out of it. The GPU is also good for light gaming, graphic works, video editing, or even digital music production with FL Studio.

But that’s not all. The build quality is top-notch, the display is pretty good, and it also comes with an Ethernet port so you can even connect it to your router for high-speed internet.

And the cherry on top is that you can make the laptop even better by getting a 1 TB hard disk and 8 GB ram, which wouldn’t cost more than fifty dollars.

To wrap things up, this is a terrific laptop for personal use and, of course, one of the best laptops for family use too because of its killer specifications. So, if you want to get something stronger for your family with the latest version of Windows, this would be a very good choice.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: If you’re searching for a laptop that’ll not only serve as the family laptop in your home but also be something you can use yourself for work – Acer Aspire 5 has got you covered. The laptop offers an AMD processor, sharp screen, and impressive audio quality, making it suitable for virtually any household purpose ranging from streaming movies or music to online classes. The GPU makes it one of the best laptops for gaming too, as long as you’re playing on the low setting.

9. Samsung Chromebook 4

“Good old internet machine.”

If we were to describe this Chromebook from Samsung in four words, that would’ve been our response. But does that mean the only thing Samsung Chromebook 4 is good for is browsing the internet?

Certainly not.

Chromebook 4 is the successor of Chromebook 3, which was very popular for its features and specifications. Chromebook 4 has seen quite a few upgrades compared to its predecessor, especially in the CPU and RAM segment. It packs an Intel Celeron dual-core processor, which, when combined with the RAM, opens up room for multitasking as well as some moderately CPU-intensive tasks – pretty impressive for a Chromebook with such a small form factor.

But that’s not where the magic stops. Samsung has designed the Chromebook really well to fully utilize the Celeron N4000 CPU. It might not have a head-turning clock speed, but if you’ve used a Chromebook before, you’ll surely notice the drastic difference in performance thanks to the 4 MB cache of the processor. It will speed up small tasks like switching between tabs or loading pages quickly and help a lot in multitasking. To put it simply, it has the body of a Chromebook and a heart of a full-fledged Windows laptop.

The model comes in four versions, allowing you to pick the right one for your purpose. If you just want something that’ll connect you to the internet, the base model with 4 GB RAM and 32 GB storage size will be enough that has a ridiculously low price tag. However, if you plan on doing quite some work on it, the 6 GB RAM 64 GB storage one is the one you should go for.

The only complaint we have about this is its screen, which doesn’t have good viewing angles and could be better.

Why Should You Purchase This Product?: If you want to get a head-turner Chromebook in terms of performance, Samsung Chromebook 4 is the right one for you. If you want to buy the best laptop for family use from a reputed brand, this is what you should go for. If you want the best CPU and RAM combination in a Chromebook, pardon us for repeating it, but this would be the perfect choice for you. Those are the top three highlights of this laptop, which should be enough reason for anyone to buy it.

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The Supreme Buyer’s Guide to Picking the Best Laptop for Family Use

Shopping for a laptop that’ll be used by your family is a bit different from picking a laptop for yourself. If you were buying for yourself, technical specifications would be the top priority as they’d need to match the kind of work you would be doing.

However, since family laptops aren’t generally used for any heavy task anyway, what you should rather think about is who will be using the laptop and which operating system would be the most appropriate in your case.

Sounds confusing? Allow us to break them down for you.

Windows vs. Chrome OS vs. Mac OS: Which one should you go for and why?

If you want ease of use and don’t mind paying a premium for a very stable and intuitive operating system, Mac OS is the way to go. It supports a wide array of work software like Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite, allowing the MacBook to double as your primary device as well when you need it.

However, if you’ll only be using the computer for accessing the internet, you should go for Chrome OS instead, as Chromebooks tend to be great value for money products that’ll get the job done.

And if you want to use offline software but don’t have the budget for an Apple device, go for Windows. Since it’s the operating system used by more than 70% of people globally, you really can’t go wrong with it.

Determine whether you’ll be using the laptop yourself for work or not

This is such a crucial factor because if you plan on using the laptop for work sometimes as well, it should have the specifications to support the kind of work you do. For example, if you’re a video editor who needs a good GPU for work, getting a decent Windows laptop or MacBook for your family will ensure you can use it as a backup device when your work laptop/desktop computer is facing troubles.

 Your parents, significant other, or kids: Whom are you buying it for?

Lastly, you should always keep the age of the general user in mind while choosing the laptop, as the use cases vary a lot depending on that.

To give an example, your parents might not be so fluent with technology and only use the laptop to check emails – in which case a ChromeBook would be enough. On the other hand, your stay-at-home husband or wife might spend a lot of time in the kitchen and would really appreciate a laptop that can be converted to a tablet as well, for ease of browsing recipes.

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FAQs On Best Laptop For Family Use

Conclusion

Choosing the best laptop for family use might seem confusing given how many options there are in the market. To help you with that, we’ve discussed the top nine laptops for family use, among which you should find at least one that would meet all your criteria. In case you’re still confused, our pick is MacBook Air 2020.

 We hope you’ve found this article to be of help. Have a nice day ahead!