If you are looking for a cheap small laptop with good Linux compatibility and decent specs, I certainly support your search for a chromebook to use as a platform.
However, I am typing this from a refurb Lenovo X380 which was 1200+ when new a few years back, but which I picked up for around 200 bucks a year-ish ago. I have manjaro on it, and it's flawless. Comfy keyboard, pretty good specs, great looking 1080p display.
I liked it so much I talked my mom into getting one when she was on a similar quest recently. She lives too far away for me to push her out of her comfort zone, so she's running Windows on it, but even with Win10 it's a pretty good performer for typical tasks.
I love the darn thing - apologies if I've misread your goal though.
They now have the 16GB model avail for about what I paid for the 8GB model. (And the seller I bought the 8GB model from is charging more for it than for this 16GB model, oddly)
So I tried watching Redo of Healer solely based on someone saying it was too disturbing to watch. As someone who doesn't normally enjoy any anime someone would describe that way, I still felt compelled to take the challenge.
The only thing I have previously watched that I'd call truly disturbing was Gantz - and that was awful, but still had a sort of "can't look away" vibe. (But once was enough.)
I made it a couple episodes into Redo of Healer and I'm not sure I can go on. The very first episode more or less shows you what happens to side characters (and sometimes main characters) in this world, and it's just chilling in the malevolence on display from the group in power. The protagonist is on a revenge arc, but despite what was done to him, he's immediately just as bad or worse than his tormentors were, so he's impossible to root for, and the story is centered around him.
I'm not at all certain I'll be finishing it, and nothing I've watched would be as awful for a side character. I'd rather be a common villager in Attack on Titan than any character at all, especially a side character, in Redo of Healer.
Worked with no drama, for me at least. Hooked it to my TV because that was most convenient. USB-C to HDMI adapter, I just had to tell it where they were in relation to each other and set scaling on the TV. Fonts look a little screwy on that dialogue box, but only in the screenshot - and when composing this post I realized even there they look OK if I don't view that part of the screenshot on the 4K display.
Edit: No, untrue. I think I had the wrong glasses on. The fonts on the 1080p display are fine in reality, but the screenshot is distorting everything on that panel a bit. Again, screenshot only though. All good otherwise. I can't see any other problem after using it a bit like this though.