A $200 computer is a hard factor to evaluate. On one hand, the Acer C7 Chromebook has that shockingly low price tag, on the other, there is susceptible build excellent and a netbook-grade processor. The exchange-offs the buyer must be inclined to make aren't trivial. And that’s before we well known that the Acer C7 runs Chrome OS in place of Windows.

The maximum thrilling query then, is who precisely is the C7 for? Before we will get to who it’s for (hint: there may be more than one correct solution,) we ought to get to the bottom of what the C7 is after which greater importantly, what it is able to do.

Hardware

In phrases of hardware, the C7 is a barebones affair though to be honest we didn’t count on in any other case for the rate. At precisely three pounds, the C7 is light however it doesn’t sense compact. Since the whole gadget is constructed of relatively light (study: reasonably-priced) plastic, the battery at the rear of the gadget incorporates the sizeable majority of the Chromebook’s weight. This leaves the pc’s heft feeling unbalanced toward the returned and unwieldy while being toted across the residence and pulled from a bag.

The gray-blue hue of the lid is the sharpest looking part of the pc. It has a speckled shine to it. There’s an off-white, silk-screened Acer logo within the middle and the Chrome emblem badged along a pinnacle corner. The hinge that attaches it to the rest of the chassis is a gloss black. When pressed, it audibly pops inside and out of place. It’s lots less than reassuring.

The backside of the PC is black plastic with the audio system near the the front. Speaking of, they’re mainly terrible. The sound comes from the excessive levels. There’s a predictable absence of bass, and at loud volumes the sound becomes grating to the ear. Luckily, there’s a superbly serviceable headphone jack at the proper facet of the deck. Also on the proper hand aspect is a pair of USB 2.zero ports, a Kensington Lock and the charging port. What’s really worth citing about the charger is that it has an impressively small electricity brick. It’s barely large than the palm of my hand. On the left-hand side of the deck is a third USB 2.0 port and some surprises. There is an Ethernet port, a significant HDMI plug and a VGA port. The SD/MMC reader on front lip rounds out the port choice.

Opening the laptop exhibits Acer’s Chromebook’s 11.6-inch, sleek display. This is the simplest bodily difference among the C7 and the many netbooks of yesteryear. The decision clocks in at a predictable 1366x768 and a webcam sits precisely where you would count on it to. The display screen waxes between first rate sharpness and abysmal shade replica attributable to the considerable amount of mild bleed on the panel. The 1366x768 decision throughout eleven.6-inches does manipulate to convey out a bargain of detail, however often times the pics appearance washed out and with out coloration.

The deck is outfitted with a good sized, chiclet-fashion keyboard. The keys are soft to touch, a matte and slightly textured end facilitates the hands discover their way. The only essential differences among this keyboard and the only you are used to is the absence of the Windows key. Here, it's far replaced with keys, a function key and a devoted search key. We will dig greater into their capability later. The keys feel k. The journey is instead shallow, and some keys wiggle of their slots, main to 3 more typos than expected. It’s a perfectly serviceable keyboard for day-to-day use, but it's miles not anything greater than that.

The trackpad is very good. Sitting flush in the palm relaxation, the trackpad is parallel and equal in length to the gap bar. It’s plastic instead of glass, however its texture is first-class and smooth to work with. Google’s unique gestures for Chrome OS all paintings nicely, that's extra than can be stated for lots Windows laptops. Pointing around the laptop is as easy because it should be. Aside from from time to time desiring the trackpad to be a chunk wider, there isn’t something to complain about.

The internals are solid for the rate. A dual-core Intel Celeron clocks in at 1.1GHz, supported by 2GB of RAM and a 320GB HDD. The Celeron hums thru Chrome OS, booting in among twenty and twenty-5 seconds. The Chromebook gamely chugged through Bastion with out criticism or a great deal in the manner of heat and noise. In reality, firing up ten one of a kind tabs in Chrome didn’t appear to hassle the device. Only one test perplexed the Chromebook. Loading photographs from an SD card became nigh-impossible. The C7 could chug whilst establishing the SD card, after which crash once I would scroll via the gridded list of photos. I repeated this motion, with the identical crashy effects a couple of instances. Admittedly, the cardboard was loaded to the gills with tremendous DSLR photographs, but a Windows gadget might have taken its time, not made excuses and failed the venture.

The C7’s battery existence become excellent for simply beneath 4 hours below ordinary usage. That’s much less than 4 hours of surfing and word processing. This pc runs on netbook internals, so in my e book much less than four hours is insufficient.