Acer Chromebook Plus 514 Review: A Great Budget Laptop Leave a comment

Final yr, Google trotted out a brand new “Chromebook Plus” label, guaranteeing Chromebooks meet particular hardware requirements in order that they’ve a sure threshold of high quality and—importantly—a beginning worth of $400. It has been pretty profitable. Chromebooks from firms like Acer and Lenovo carry out nicely for the cash—purposeful, reasonably priced {hardware} that does the job.

Acer’s Chromebook Plus 514 (mannequin CB514-4H/T) is one more laptop computer that achieves this objective. This particular mannequin title doesn’t roll off the tongue, however it signifies that that is the Intel-powered mannequin, to not be confused with the AMD-powered Chromebook Plus 514 (CB514-3H/T) the corporate launched final fall. It is a bit complicated, and it would not assist that there is additionally the equally named Acer Chromebook Plus 515, which is shut in worth however has a bigger display screen and a barely totally different processor.

Regardless of slight variations in port choice and display screen ratio between the Intel and AMD variants of the Chromebook Plus 514, count on them to carry out largely the identical. The grunt work for this machine is dealt with by a succesful Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i3-N305 processor, which is on par with different Chromebook Plus fashions and a pleasant bump over Chromebooks of years previous. Mixed with the 8 GB of RAM and a 512-GB strong state drive on the CB514-4HT-359X configuration Acer despatched me for this evaluate, you’ve gotten a reasonably speedy machine for varsity and work. This mannequin is just $350 at Costco, and weirdly, the 128-GB mannequin is more expensive at Amazon for $380.

Chrome OS is designed to be light-weight, and the Core i3-N305 processor subsequently tears by way of most duties with ease. My day by day ritual of writing in Google Docs whereas watching YouTube movies with a number of different tabs open by no means felt sluggish or unresponsive. Battery life has held up, getting me by way of eight-hour workdays, normally with an hour or two of battery life to spare.

Regardless of pulling from the cloud, Google Pictures edits really feel very responsive. I had a number of enjoyable utilizing the built-in editor to tweak my (many) cat photographs, and video edits felt almost instantaneous. Simply take note this depends closely on the velocity of your web connection to tug photographs and movies down out of your cloud storage, so your expertise could fluctuate.

I’ve by no means discovered myself drawn to utilizing contact on laptops, however the 14-inch contact panel on the Chromebook Plus 514 grew on me. Chrome OS lends itself to the touch, and the graceful matte show feels nice to make use of beneath your fingertips (plus it doesn’t go away fingerprints). In my week of testing, I always discovered myself reaching out to get a greater choice when enhancing photographs within the Google Pictures app or after I wished to extra exactly scroll by way of YouTube.

My one disappointment is that this isn’t a convertible laptop computer. The flexibility to swing the display screen round to turn it into a quasi-tablet would make utilizing contact extra snug (and enjoyable), so the clamshell design is a bit limiting. On the brilliant facet, the hinge permits the again of the show to increase downward a bit when opened, propping it up in your desk or lap for a extra snug angle.