If I were buying a Chromebook today I'd get either a Samsung Chromebook Pro or an ASUS Chromebook Flip C302CA
(probably the latter). I often travel with the smaller Asus Chromebook but it's been in need of a hardware upgrade for a while.
I looked at those, but my wife thought I was crazy for looking at $400+ Chromebooks when much cheaper ones were available. She was right, as long as I was willing to pass on the convertible form factor. I just picked up the Acer Chromebook 14 from Costco for $260. It has a nice IPS display with decent resolution, and the rest of it looks good as well.
I don't actually use the convertible form factor on my Asus much--really only when I'm not traveling without a dedicated tablet for some reason. It makes for a somewhat heavy and awkward tablet. I like the specs and looks of those higher-end models but you're right that they're pushing into laptop range with their pricing.
