Read More : >Netbooks regularly were given a terrible rap for his or her severa faults however in hindsight, they'd a much extra impact at the computing enterprise than most realize.

The cutting-edge-day netbook turned into delivered by means of Asus in 2007 with the Eee PC. This new elegance of computing tool arrived on the brink of a worldwide monetary crisis and speedy carved out a gap for itself as an less costly alternative to traditional notebooks. At their height, netbooks accounted for 20 percentage of notebook global income however their achievement – at the least, as Windows machines – would be short-lived.

Manufacturers commenced churning out sub-$400 netbooks at a fast tempo, loading new structures with incrementally quicker hardware in an try to cope with criticism that they were painfully gradual. In mid-2009, Google acknowledged the elephant within the room – the fact that netbooks had been walking a Windows running gadget designed for plenty faster hardware – and vowed to free netbooks with a brand new, lightweight running gadget known as Chrome OS.

The first Chrome OS laptops, affectionately dubbed Chromebooks, wouldn’t go on sale till June 2011. By that point, netbooks already had one foot out the door as the appearance of the tablet in 2010 (and to a lesser diploma, Apple’s impossibly skinny MacBook Air) despatched the marketplace in a unique route. Like their netbook ancestors, charge – and by means of proxy, build pleasant – turned into a key differentiator of early Chromebooks. In early 2013, Google broke the ones the regulations with the Chromebook Pixel which changed into basically a high-quit notebook going for walks Chrome OS. Starting at $1,299, the Pixel became deemed by means of most to be drastically overpriced but extra than some thing, it set precedent for premium, aesthetically alluring Chromebooks.

Such is the case with the Acer Chromebook 14, a svelte machine that targets for an excellent mixture of style, capabilities and performance. Unlike the Pixel, this computer comes in at simply $three hundred, powered through a quad-center Intel Celeron N3160 processor and Intel HD Graphics four hundred alongside 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM and 32GB of flash storage.

The 14-inch, LED-backlit, matte-finish Active Matrix TFT LCD is of the IPS variety with a Full HD decision. It’s framed through a median-sized bezel, an integrated webcam and twin microphones on the pinnacle and Acer’s branding on the lowest. The system measures 0.7” (height) x 13.four” (width) x nine.3” (depth) and pointers the scales at three.forty two kilos. Both the lid and chassis are built of silver aluminum with the lid providing a brushed finish such as you’d locate on a top class pc. The Chrome branding is printed immediately at the lid next to an inset Chrome emblem that’s more or less four inches above the raised Acer badge.

Along the proper edge of the Chromebook, you’ll locate pastime and battery LED indicators, a mixture headphone / microphone jack and the charging jack. Moving to the left, we discover a Kensington lock slot, two USB three.zero ports and an HDMI port. The front and rear edges are featureless while on the lowest, you’ve got 4 anti-skid ft, two downward-firing speakers and of course, all the regulatory information and that sort of component. I popped off the lowest panel by means of unscrewing 10 small Philips-head screws however there doesn’t look like any expansion options because it pertains to RAM or garage.

The chiclet-style keyboard sits in a recessed section of the deck. Acer has replaced the traditional feature keys above the variety row with available shortcut keys for often used responsibilities. The board exhibits very little flex, is plenty spacious and features a familiar format although the key travel is a bit too shallow for my liking.

Just under the keyboard is a massive trackpad with incorporated click on buttons. I’m commonly no longer partial to big trackpads as my wrists almost always contact the pad at the same time as typing and purpose sporadic mouse pointer motion however that is one of these uncommon exceptions. Even with a massive part of my wrist resting on the pad, there’s zero unintentional mouse motion.

Acer’s Chromebook 14 packs a 3-cellular, 3950mAh lithium polymer battery that’s rated to provide up to 12 hours of runtime on a single rate. Recharges come courtesy of a tiny electricity brick that might be defined as “lovely” even. In our legit battery take a look at which includes walking a 720p rip of the film Inception on loop at full brightness, the Chromebook 14 lasted seven hours and 28 mins. This might without problems be sufficient to hold you entertained on a move-country flight with juice to spare. I can actually attest to the battery’s toughness as I controlled to get numerous days of informal use out of it before wanting to charge it for the primary time.

The Chromebook’s stellar battery lifestyles partially comes at the rate of the display. The matte-finish all but eliminates glare related to smooth monitors and sharpness is spot on at 1080p resolution. Color accuracy is likewise very applicable however brightness is arguably the Chromebook 14’s chief shortcoming. Even at its brightness setting, the display is a chunk dimmer than I might typically use indoors. As a end result, the use of the system exterior on a sunny day is futile.

I can virtually attest to the battery’s durability as I managed to get several days of casual use out of it earlier than desiring to rate it for the primary time.

Conversely, the Chromebook 14’s audio system can be the fine I’ve ever heard on a notebook. I become capable of play via my Rhapsody playlist at most quantity with 0 distortion. Audio became rich and vibrant with very different highs. The downward-firing stereo speakers are quality skilled on a hard floor like a desk wherein audio can soar off of. At one point, I even sat the Chromebook on a material-covered cat tree and nevertheless got first rate effects. Acer simply knocked it out of the park right here.

Intel’s Celeron line of processors in all likelihood conjures certainly one of responses from customers: an overclocking monster from the earlier days of computing or a lackluster chip determined in finances-minded PCs. The Celeron N3160 found in this Chromebook is a sixty four-bit quad-core chip with 2MB of L2 cache that’s clocked at 1.6GHz (Burst to 2.24GHz). It’s built on a 14-nanometer technique and has a TDP of simply six watts which makes it quite strength green – a lot so, that it's miles passively cooled. The machine by no means were given remotely warm at some point of operation, even when stressing it to the max. With maximum laptops, it’s easy to detect wherein the processor is positioned within the machine – just feel round for the warm spot. On the Chromebook 14, there genuinely is no heat spot which makes finding the CPU – as a minimum, based on warmth – impossible.

If you value a truely silent computer as I do, you’ll absolute confidence admire the fanless technique. A fanless machine also calls for much less preservation as there’s no active cooler sucking dust into the device (and no fan to update years down the street).

What’s actually surprising here is that it doesn’t experience as even though you’re operating with a Celeron processor and just 4GB of RAM. The gadget bloodless-boots to the “enter password” display in only 10 seconds and wakes up from sleep mode the on the spot the lid is opened.

Browsing the internet, the overwhelming majority of websites I encountered ran rather clean. I’d on occasion stumble onto a website with a lot occurring – like Zillow, for example – in which the constraints of the hardware in brief surfaced in the form of stuttering or hesitation while scrolling.

Acer’s Chromebook 14 is an all-round wonderful price at simply $299. Short of Google’s personal Chromebook Pixel which commands an astronomical $1,299, you’ll be difficult-pressed to locate one which offers this level of healthy and finish, specially on this rate variety. Although dim, the display is of terrific pleasant, the audio system and touchpad are tremendous and the system is dead silent way to the passive cooling gadget that virtually removes heat. The keyboard is well-built however the key tour is a little shallow for my liking. Performance from the Celeron processor is extra than ideal and rarely shows its boundaries.

If you had been burned with the aid of netbooks or are looking for an fantastic 2d computing tool, I’d endorse giving Chromebooks a chance – you will be just as pleasantly surprised as I turned into. With firmly planted roots, a waning 30market and aid for Android apps on the horizon, the Chromebook’s future appears brilliant. Given its charge, it’s tough to move incorrect with the Acer Chromebook 14.

85
TechSpot
rating

Pros: Excellent construct best. Superb trackpad. Top-notch audio machine. High-resolution matte show. Good value.

Cons: Dimly lit display screen. Shallow key tour.

Other reviewers said: 75