These are the best Chromebooks you can buy right now

Chromebooks are on the verge of a big upgrade. Later this September, several of the web-centric laptops will gain access to the Google Play Store, meaning they'll be able to run the thousands of Android apps that come with it.

This is a good thing. I recently previewed the new setup, and while there are definitely some growing pains for Google to address, fusing with Android has the potential to make Chromebooks much more appealing to everyday people (beyond schools, where Google's seen most of its growth thus far.) 

It also makes actually buying a Chromebook a little more complicated.

Traditionally, the market here has consisted of a big block of mediocrity at the low-end, a couple excellent but obviously overpriced machines at the top, and just a handful of worthy values in the middle. Now, since Android apps are still made for mobile, the ideal Chromebook is one that comes with a touchscreen. Unfortunately, most of those "worthy values" don't have that.

What this means is, right now, there's no one Chromebook you can look at and say, "okay, buy this." Instead, as is often the case with inexpensive laptops, the best ones do some things well, but still force you to accept a few clear compromises.

If you don't want to wait for someone to get it all right, though, there's still a smattering of Chrome OS devices worth considering today. Expect this list to be updated in the future, but for now, here are the best Chromebooks you can buy.