Three bills. That’s all you need to get a quality laptop. It won’t be a laptop with a huge screen or an ultra-fast processor. It won’t run complex video-editing programs or graphics-intensive games. But it can be a laptop that’s lightweight, well-built and more than capable of performing the basic array of computer tasks — emailing, web surfing, streaming videos, running spreadsheets and word processors, et al — if you know which ones to buy.

Spot Cool Stuff took a look every laptop computer that’s available for $300 or less. Here’s a review of our three favorites:

• The Acer C720, which, amazingly costs less than $200!

• The HP Chromebook 14, with head-turning looks and a 9-hour battery life.

• The Gateway LT41P04u, which runs a full version of Windows 8 and features a touchscreen.

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Microsoft and Apple, watch out. Google is taking direct aim at you with their Chromebooks—laptops than run the Google-controlled Chrome operating system.

Unlike computers that operate Microsoft Windows or the Mac OS or even Linux, Chromebooks are not designed to run a lot of software stored locally on a hard drive. Instead, Chromebooks link up to Google’s (and other’s) online services. The applications Chromebooks run, the data they produce and the files they use, it is all stored on internet servers collectively known as “the cloud.”

Chromebooks’ approach is a semi-radical move away from hard drive-based personal computers. Naturally, it comes with pros and cons:

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It is amazing the kind of lightweight, long battery life laptop $350 will buy these days. That’s the going rate for two superb highly portable netbooks: the Acer Aspire One and the Asus Eee PC. Both are excellent computers but each has some flaws too. Which should you choose? Read on . . .

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