Hey guys, I’m Roland the Techusiast.
This is a review of the Acer 14” Chromebook and while I’m fairly certain that some of
you don’t even want me to mention the name “ChromeBook”, I think its important to
keep in mind and accept the fact that these laptops do indeed have a large market share
– mainly in the US – and a lot of potential.
I believe that it could one day become a 3rd operating system alongside Windows and MacOS
– and the big players all know what and who they are up against – Google.
See, Google has created this Linux based Operating System to first, help students study and allow
them to access the internet at an affordable price and an easy-to-use form factor, and
since then, even Apple and Microsoft is trying to catch up to what Google has managed to
overcome and reach in the past few years.
But you’re not here to learn about the past – so let’s get straight into the review.
The design is fairly minimal and it takes a lot of cues from the Apple’s MacBook Pro
lineup – but it’s not all that bad.
I appreciate the metal build and the simplistic design – it’s kind of amazing to see how
some of these affordable laptops have got a whole lot better build quality and feel
over the years.
It’s lightweight, compact and very stylish.
Comparing it to the 13” MacBook Pro from 2015 is really surprising, when you compare
it side by side.
I’ll let you decide if you’re a fan of this sort of similarities – I certainly
am, as a customer I get amazing quality that previously could only be found on the higher
end of devices.
The hinge flexes a tiny bit, but its rock solid thanks to the metal frame holding it
in place.
The laptop looks as if you could open it with a single hand, and you can – halfway, so
unfortunately you’ll need 2 hands to hold the base down in order to fully open it up.
The keyboard is really easy and comfortable to type on – and its also very quiet.
Unfortunately one of my lectures were too tiring, so I decided to write an article…time
spent well and I really enjoyed my time with it.
Having the power button not separated but inline with the function keys is frustrating
– but you can get used to it very quickly.
I guess that was the easier and logical way to place it to keep similar with the keyboard
layout and design.
The mouse pad is plastic and it’s also exceptionally great.
It provides a clicky feeling and you can get used to it in no time – if you’ve used
a Windows precision equipped laptop or a MacBook before – it’s clearly not as good as on
a Mac, but it’s still amazing for its price.
It’s worth mentioning that when you click, it’s on the loud side, so while you type
very quietly, your clicks will definitely be heard.
There’s a Kensington lock, 2x USB-3.0 ports and a HDMI port on the left side, while the
right side contains only the 3.5mm headphone jack and the charging port.
I wish Acer would’ve been able to at least fit in a full or a microSD card slot but I
assume there wasn’t enough space due to the compact and thin design.
I also would have love to see an ethernet port, but since the laptop supports gigabit
wireless connection – I really can’t complain.
The screen is a 1920 by 1080 IPS LCD display with great viewing angles and decent colour
correction.
I have not found an issue while using the display and watching YouTube videos and other
content - everything was enjoyable.
It’s surprising to see a full hd display on such low priced laptop and if you take
a look at similar priced windows laptops – you’ll see that most of those devices are only equipped
with an HD display.
Unfortunately, there is no touch-compatibility feature to be found, though you can tilt the
display up to a 90 degree angle for whatever reason.
In terms of specifications, This particular model has a quad core Intel Celeron N3160
to be found that’s clocked at 1.6 GHz with a turbo boost up to 2.24 GHz.
There’s 4GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC flash storage on-board that I’ve found rather
fast – having used it on a daily basis.
It has Bluetooth 4.2, and an extremely fast internet speed to that allows you to browse
the web very quickly.
Unfortunately some Bluetooth devices are not compatible and cannot be connected to the
laptop such as my Logitec MX Master 2S mouse, but my Anker headphones are – check out
my review linked below in the description.
The 720p camera is usable but it’s certainly not recommended to be used for any sort of
conference talks.
The overall quality of the video isn’t great, but the microphone is fine.
The stereo speakers are faced downwards which means that it can be very easily covered by
your lap or small objects on a desk – but when it’s not covered, it’s decent for
the price and you can get some okay performance out of it for consuming content.
ChromeOS itself has nothing too fancy in it.
I would go as far as comparing the experience to a toned down MacBook that only offers the
essentials, but it does so by doing it very well.
While this can’t really play and work with all applications from the PlayStore, there
is a long list of software that work and can make you even replace your Windows computer
for the better.
Google has worked hard on making Chromebooks more usable while spending time offline, and
it has gotten really good – but not to the level where I’d recommend it for users who
are more advanced and require a lot of work to be done – at least not on ChromeOS but
maybe with Ubuntu alongside it.
The performance is everything you can expect from a Chromebook at this price range.
It boots up in the matter of seconds and it runs okay-ish.
I experienced a few slowdowns here and there, but usually after running the laptop for 10
or more minutes, the performance became a lot better and much smoother.
I think it’s worth mentioning that I’m the kind of person that always has, on average
at least 50 tabs open in Chrome – so having used this Chromebook with between 5-15 tabs
open in the background, I can’t complain about the performance.
It slowed down a little at certain times, but I’d say it was totally usable up to
10-12 tabs, depending on what was displayed of course.
When watching a few videos here and there on Full HD resolution, sometimes the video
was sluggish for a couple seconds – but luckily that has only happened a few times
during my usage.
Using this Chromebook as a student myself, it has allowed me to keep my larger, heavier
Dell Inspiron 7577 at home and pack this in my backpack when I went to university.
It was a joy to use during lectures as it was compact, quiet and powerful for my needs
– not the fastest, but I was even able to use a few programming software on it.
Check out my Dell Inspiron 7577 Review, linked in the description down below!
Now, using programs like Visual Code or Eclipse is not something you can run on a Chromebook,
and that’s why I’ve installed Ubuntu alongside ChromeOS.
As I’ve come to find out, Ubuntu is mostly fully functional – even if not the fastest
- on this particular ChromeBook, and there are plenty bugs to be found – such as: when
using anything in Ubuntu, at times, some or all programs may close themselves down for
no reason.
Therefore, compatibility is certainly an issue, but I can assure you that it’s a good little
device to carry if you’re a student at a university or college and even maybe for work.
In terms of battery, when I only used ChromeOS I would get 7-9 hours of use out of this device
by browsing the web and maybe using a few Android applications here and there.
However while using ChromeOS and Ubuntu, I would only get between 6-8 hours, depending
on what would be running on the computer and for how long.
I’ve noticed that when I’ve left ubuntu open, it would still make the computer go
to sleep and hibernate when closed down, but would drastically drain more battery – roughly
10-20% more in the background while not in use.
After I’ve learned my lesson, I always made sure to power and close down ubuntu and I
would get a consistent 6-8 hours of use while using Ubuntu and ChromeOS.
So, the conclusion part.
I feel like this Acer Chromebook is aimed at not only students, elderly people and those
who want an affordable device – but pretty much everyone.
It allows everyone to keep themselves entertained and allow them to get some work done while
being on-the-go.
Sure, more advanced people might laugh at me when I say this, but ChromeOS and its features
have gotten so much better over the years that it’s now worth thinking about it.
This Acer Chromebook pretty much excels at everything.
It has a great aluminium design that’s lightweight, thin and very compact.
It has a Full HD display that allows you to watch movies and multitask just like you would
on any other laptop or computer.
It has a decent performance – and while not class leading – it will definitely allow
you to get some work done or to have some relaxing time watching Netflix.
The battery will definitely allow you to go through a full workday without charging it
– that is, if you don’t install a Linux operating system alongside ChromeOS.
So there it is, the Acer 14” ChromeBook review.
I can certainly recommend it and I would definitely love to see more people using it in the near
future, so Google would have more reasons to improve it and make it even more competitive
on the market.
But that’s been it.
I hope you enjoyed this review – if you did, please leave a like on this video and
make sure to subscribe to my channel.
Also, don’t forget to check out my website Techusiast.com where we share a lot of important
and interesting stuff.
All that said, thank you for watching.
I’ll see you next time.