Acer's 14-inch Chromebook tries premium on a budget
Or perhaps, "Macbook Air on a budget."
Acer's Chrome OS strategy is all about saturation. The company has been an ardent supporter of Google's browser-based OS, and it offers laptops, convertibles and all-in-ones in a wide range of sizes. One thing it's been missing, though, is a 14-inch model. That changes today.
The Acer Chromebook 14 is an Air-lookalike with a 100-percent aluminum chassis. It's powered by an Intel Celeron chip -- the new dual-core N3060 Braswell, to be precise -- which improves power and efficiency over previous models. The rest of the spec sheet is down to you.
The "Premium" version comes with a 1080p IPS display, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a claimed 12 hours of battery life. The regular model has a 1,366 x 768 display, 2GB or 4GB or RAM, 16GB or 32GB of storage and a claimed 14 hours of battery life. All have the same accoutrements, namely dual USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI port, Bluetooth 4.2, 801.11ac WiFi, stereo speakers and a 720p webcam.
We only have pricing for the Premium model so far. It'll set you back $299.99 and is already up on Amazon for pre-order (Acer says it'll come to regular retailers like Best Buy in April). Expect the other models to follow soon after at a reduced price.
