Best Overall Value
Shopping for the best 2-in-1 laptops under £500 usually means picking which compromise you can live with: a dim screen, a weak hinge, or storage that fills up by month two. The good news, as of September 2026, is that the sub-£500 convertible market has quietly grown up. You can now get genuine Thunderbolt ports, decent 1080p touchscreens and battery life that lasts a full working day, all without stretching past the budget. The trick is knowing which models earned their place and which are just coasting on a flashy folding design. We've compared the hinge designs, ports and keyboards on paper, alongside owners' ratings of each model. Here's what's actually worth your money and where each pick makes sense.
Under the lid sits an Intel Core i3-1315U, a 13th-gen chip. On a Chromebook that is real headroom, well past the tired Celerons that budget Chrome OS machines shipped with for years. Chrome OS stays fast on far less, so paired with a modern i3 and 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM you get room to run a stack of tabs, Android apps and the odd Linux app without the system grinding. Storage is 128GB, and it is UFS rather than the slower eMMC in the Acer Spin 513 and the Lenovo Flex 3, so apps launch quicker.
As a 2-in-1 the fundamentals are sorted. The 360-degree hinge flips it into tablet, tent or display mode, and the 14-inch panel is a 1920x1200 IPS touchscreen. That 16:10 shape gives you more vertical space than a 16:9 screen, which matters for documents and long web pages. It is also a 1080p webcam, which is better than the 720p cameras on both HP EliteBooks and the Acer Spin 513, so video calls look sharper. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 keep the wireless side ahead of the Wi-Fi 5 in the older G5.
Where does the money not stretch? 128GB fills up if you lean on Linux apps or cache a lot of Android data, and the RAM is soldered, so 8GB is your ceiling forever. There is no HDMI out, so a projector or older monitor needs a USB-C adapter. And the touchscreen supports a stylus but Acer does not put one in the box. If you want full Windows software instead of Chrome OS, the renewed HP EliteBook x360 1040 G8 is the machine to look at. For everyone who lives in a browser and Android apps, this is the smarter buy. Owners rate it 4.2 stars from 29 ratings, and our review scores it 7.5 out of 10. See our full Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 review for the full breakdown.
Pros
- Dual Thunderbolt 4 supports docks, external displays and fast SSDs, rare at this tier
- 1080p webcam, sharper than the 720p cameras on the rest of the shortlist
- UFS storage is meaningfully quicker than the eMMC in the two ARM Chromebooks
- Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 for current-gen wireless
Cons
- RAM is soldered at 8GB with no upgrade path
- No HDMI port, so older displays need an adapter
- Stylus not included despite the touchscreen supporting pen input
- Glossy panel shows fingerprints in tablet mode
Buy on AmazonRead full review
Best for Windows Software
Buy this one for the chassis and the screen, not the benchmarks. It is the older of the two EliteBooks, built on an 8th-gen Core i7-8650U, and our review is candid that the chip shows its age. What has aged well is everything you touch. The aluminium body, the backlit keyboard our review rates for long typing sessions, and a 14-inch 1920x1080 IPS touchscreen at 400 nits that our review calls brilliant for outdoor use. Same panel brightness as the G8, and the same B&O speaker setup.
It runs Windows 11 Pro with 16GB of soldered DDR4 and a 512GB NVMe SSD, so like the G8 it handles proper Windows software the Chromebooks cannot. As a 2-in-1 the convertible hinge adds the tablet and tent modes you would expect. Ports are decent for the age: two USB-C with Thunderbolt support, two USB-A, HDMI and a headphone jack per the listing.
The honest weak spot is battery. Our review lists a mediocre 5 to 7 hours typical, which is where the 8th-gen chip and the years bite. The listing claims 17 hours, but our specifications and review do not support that, so plan around the lower figure. There is no USB-C charging either; it uses a barrel plug, so you cannot top it up from a phone charger the way you can with the Lenovo Flex 3. The webcam is 720p, and it is a refurb rather than new.
Next to the newer G8 EliteBook, this trades away Thunderbolt 4, half the RAM and a chunk of battery life, but it costs less and gives you the same lovely build and bright screen. If you want a Windows convertible mainly for typing, browsing and light work near a socket, it makes sense. If you are away from power a lot, the fanless Chromebooks or the G8 serve you better. Owners rate it 4.3 stars from 82 ratings, the joint-strongest owner score in Windows machines here, and our review scores it 7.8 out of 10. Full notes are in our HP EliteBook x360 1040 G5 review.
Pros
- Aluminium chassis and backlit keyboard our review rates for long typing
- 400-nit touchscreen holds up outdoors
- vPro and full Windows 11 Pro for business and full desktop software
- Bang & Olufsen four-speaker setup per the listing
Cons
- Battery is mediocre at 5 to 7 hours; the listing's 17-hour claim is not supported by our records
- Barrel-plug charging only, no USB-C power in
- 8th-gen chip lags newer parts in benchmarks
- 720p webcam and refurbished, not new
Buy on Amazon£420.00Read full review
Best Screen
The screen is the reason to want this one. It is a 13.5-inch 2256x1504 IPS touchscreen in a 3:2 shape, sharper and taller than any other panel on this page. That 3:2 ratio gives you noticeably more vertical space for reading and documents than a 16:9 screen, and the resolution comfortably beats the Acer Spin 514's 1920x1200 and the Lenovo Flex 3's soft 1366x768.
It runs a MediaTek Kompanio 1380, an ARM chip, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage. That is plenty for browsing, Android apps and documents, and being ARM it is fanless and silent. The listing rates it at 10 hours battery, and the whole thing weighs 1.28kg, the lightest here. The 360-degree hinge gives you the four modes, and it has Wi-Fi 6.
Two catches. The storage is eMMC, slower than the UFS in the Spin 514, and being an ARM Chromebook, Linux app support through Crostini is limited to ARM builds, so a lot of x86 software is off the table. The webcam is 720p. We do not hold a published review score for this model, so this ranking rests on its specifications and its 4-star owner rating from 37 ratings. If the screen matters most to you and you live in Chrome OS, it is a lovely thing. If you want the faster storage, the newer Intel chip and Thunderbolt 4, the Spin 514 at number one is the better all-rounder.
Pros
- Sharpest, tallest display on the page at 2256x1504 in 3:2
- Fanless and silent, and the lightest machine here at 1.28kg
- 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, generous for an ARM Chromebook
Cons
- eMMC storage is slower than the Spin 514's UFS
- ARM-only Linux app support limits x86 software
- 720p webcam, behind the Spin 514's 1080p camera
Buy on Amazon£481.06
Best Budget
Do not buy this expecting to multitask hard. Buy it because it is silent, tiny and lasts. The 11.6-inch Flex 3 runs a MediaTek MT8183 with 4GB of RAM, and our review is straight that 4GB is a noticeable ceiling once you stack Android apps or many tabs. What you get in return is a completely fanless machine our review lists at 8 to 10 hours in mixed use, well ahead of budget Windows rivals.
It is a real convertible with a sturdy 360-degree hinge, and both USB-C ports charge, so a standard phone charger tops it up, something the barrel-plug HP G5 cannot do. The 64GB of storage is more generous than a lot of rivals at this spend. The screen is the trade: a 1366x768 panel at 250 nits, soft by modern standards and a struggle in bright light. There is no keyboard backlight, and the plastic chassis wants a sleeve.
For a student, a child, or a light travel machine, this does the job for the least money on the page. If you want a sharper screen or more RAM for the same rough Chrome OS experience, the Acer Spin 513 is the step up. Owners rate it 4.5 stars from 86 ratings, the highest owner score on this page, and our review scores it 7.5 out of 10. See our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook review.
Pros
- Highest owner rating on the page at 4.5 stars from 86 ratings
- Fanless and silent, with 8 to 10 hours battery per our review
- Both USB-C ports charge, so any phone charger works
Cons
- 4GB RAM is a real ceiling for multitasking
- 1366x768 panel at 250 nits is soft and dim outdoors
- No keyboard backlight, and plastic chassis scratches
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