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Mid-size screen, but with a big battery: That’s what Acer is offering with the newest in its long line of Chromebooks, the Chromebook 14.
The promise of the Chromebook and Google’s Chrome OS has always been a low-cost, simple computing system that covers the basics. Traditionally that’s meant smaller screens and low-end processors. Acer has bucked that trend over the years, putting out Chromebooks with Intel Core processors and even one with a 15.6-inch screen.
The Chromebook 14 slides back on the screen size and processing power, but compensates with a 14-hour battery life. Well, that’s what Acer is promising — we’ll wait until we’ve had a Chromebook 14 in the lab and done some testing before we get too excited.
Still, it’s the longest battery life that Acer has even claimed for one of its Chromebooks. The company does warn that the battery life is based on the HD screen, which presumably means the full-HD model won’t have quite as much staying power.
It’s also Acer’s first Chromebook with an aluminium frame. Previously Chromebooks have gone with a plastic construction to keep costs down. There are a couple of configurations available:
- 14-inch screen with either full HD (1,920×1,080) or HD (1,366×768) resolution
- Intel Celeron processor, either quad-core or dual-core
- Either 2GB or 4GB of RAM
- Either 32GB or 16GB of storage
- 720p forward-facing camera
- 3.42 pounds (1.55kg) and 0.67 inches (17mm) thick
- 802.11ac/a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
- HDMI port and two USB 3.1 ports
Acer
The Chromebook 14 is available to preorder in the US now and will be released in April. No information for the rest of the world just yet. Pricing starts at $299, which is around AU$395 or £210 converted, but there’s no official pricing for those regions. That price will definitely reflect the lowest of the possible configurations but we’ll update with more detailed specs and pricing when that becomes available.
