Both laptops are budget offerings that come with mid-range specs

Jun 18, 2014 13:33 GMT  ·  By

Chromebooks have been touted as one of the most affordable laptop categories on the market, delivering a decent performance, without forcing buyers to empty their bank account.

However, they are not the only option to be considered when looking for a wallet-friendly notebook. For example, there's the Lenovo IdeaPad A10, a versatile laptop whose screen can be turned around to provide an extra mode of use.

Its particularity lies in the fact that it runs Android out of the box, not your conventional desktop OS to be sure. But then again, neither do Chromebooks, but this hasn't stopped them from being widely adopted in the educational environments where they have seen a lot of success.

People have grown fond of Chromebook, so the Lenovo IdeaPad A10 might seem the odd ball out. Even so, here’s a few reasons why the IdeaPad A10 might be better than your average Chromebook.

Design

We’re going to start with design because obviously the A10 is more versatile in this respect. The Lenovo has multiple modes of use and it is possible to turn the display around so that it faces away from the keyboard for when you need to watch movies.

We should also mention that the A10 is lighter and thinner than your average Chromebook (for example, the Acer C720 is 1.4 kg / 3 lbs heavy), weighing just 1 kg / 2.2 lbs.

However, the Lenovo offers a 10.1-inch screen, so if you want a more spacious display, you’ll need to be considering Chromebooks again (which have displays of 11.6 inches and up).

Operating System

The Chromebook is basically a browser that does everything you need to do. So it’s perfect for the  average user who needs the laptop to navigate online.

However, there are certain tasks that can’t be achieved on a Chromebook. For example, Skype is not currently supported on Chromebooks.

On the other hand, the Lenovo IdeaPad A10 runs fully fledged Android 4.2 (sadly, it’s not Android 4.4 KitKat), so you have free access to the Google Play Store where you can download as many apps as you want.

Processor

While there are some Chromebook models that deliver better performance, the cheap Acer C720 only brings to the table a dual-core Intel Celeron processor.

By comparison, the A10 takes advantage of a Rockchip RK3188 Cortex-A9 processor fitted with Mali 400 GPU, so it is capable of handling multi-tasking quite well.

Touchscreen

While the C720P Chromebook comes equipped with a touchscreen, most Chrome laptops don’t. But the Lenovo device is quite reminiscent of a tablet, in this respect, offering a nice touch experience.

Actually, some of the feats, like unlocking the screen, work only by virtue of touch. So users familiar with handling Android tablets will surely enjoy working with the A10 too.

We can't help but mention that it would have been quite nice for Lenovo to add the 360-degree fold option to this budget laptop, making it akin to the Lenovo Yoga line and adding a tablet-only mode.