Price drop on a newly released chromebook that offers great value for money. A FHD IPS display, 4GB RAM, a decent quad-core celeron processer, and a long battery life, should be great for light users.
CamelCamelCamel.
1.5kg isn't too bad considering that it's a 14" screen. Search for 'weight' in the reviews, and most people comment that it's light.
Of course. You can't have everything. The weight is a good compromise given the screen size, battery life and price.
I still consider is a real laptop, unlike the portly Acer Chromebook 15, which should be called a portable desktop.
Some of the Chromebooks are under a kg.
Can upgrade ssd and ram?
Not much point since it's a Chromebook.
exactly. you only really need 4gb ram as ChromeOS is basically a light OS, sort of like iOS on tablets. and SSD, well, use the cloud lol
I have a Chromie with 2gb that has a good year or so on it now. It runs everything fine. Occasionally it crashes when I have like 20 tabs open, my torrent program is downloading something, and I'm trying to run Duke 3D in DOSBox at max settings.
That's a shitload more stuff than the average user will be doing on a Chromie, and if an older 2gb model can handle it, you should be more than fine with 4gb.
There's always the Pixel though, if you really, really, REALLY want.
Interesting that you guys say this. I've been complaining today that Chrome (Browser) is like the fattest and most bloated thing out there! Considering it opens a new instance of itself for every tab, every add-on and every other feature. I have out of memory issues with Chrome even on a 4GB machine running Win 10.
It was done this way deliberately to provide sandbox security. The assumption is that there might be exploits, but they won't lead to compromised system.
I've heard it's pretty RAM intensive from some people, but I've never had any of these problems, maybe it's because I have AdBlock or something and maybe it stops the new tab stuff? Either way, it's never been a problem for me on here.
But if you're looking at a Chromie, you're gonna have to like Chrome, because like, unless you wanna go do Linux (which isn't actually that hard of a setup, I'm pretty shit at such things and got it in five minutes), your options aren't just limited, they're not existent.
Forking a "new instance" need not be resource intensive. Even read/write storage is only copied when changed.
Its also the best way to use multi-core CPUs.
The real bloat is in machine-generated web pages - megabytes of CSS and javascript.
But I do find sometimes that Chrome leaks resources, and has to be restarted.
Yeah well.. I've restricted myself to mainly use FF on the 4GB box and not Chrome. I'll probably upgrade it to an 8GB in the future if and when I get sick of out of memory errors.
Tempting.
I am holding out for the Acer Chromebook R13, or something like it with 12 hour battery, android apps, USB-C and a touch screen.
Yeah, I'm trying to wait for the new Samsung or ASUS but they're kinda taking their time.
yeah the samsung for US499 was a surface killer IMO
A bit too expensive for a chromebook
Hoping they drop the price to ~ $250 over Black Friday weekend
Highly doubt it'll drop much since it has only been released a few months ago. Similar specs to toshiba chromebook I posted a while back, I really hope they drop some of the older models like the toshiba during Black Friday (though Amazon hasn't stocked for a while)
Last year a $200 chromebook dropped to $99 so hoping the same here for this one around $250 mark
Can this handle lightroom
you can use a crappy watered down version of lightroom meant for Android via Arc Welder runtime, but yes, lightroom is possible.
Are we saying decent & celeron in same sentences now?
You clearly never had a Celeron 300A. Overclocked to 450MHz easily.
I had a Pentium III 450Mhz a millennium ago - does that count?
Definitely a nice well-built Chromebook at good price, although N3160 might be its achilles heel. It would be nice to have at least a Core m3 CPU.
Don't think you need m3 in a chromebook, the newer quad core n3160 should be able to handle things fine, though I do agree that it's the weakest spec. The Toshiba's 3215U probably had the best balance, though shame Amazon seem to no longer be selling it.
I am saying it's a shame that an aluminium body 14" IPS Full HD nicely-built Chromebook has a CPU that doesn't match up the rest of package. I am using ASUS Chromebook Flip with Rockchip RK3288 that does ~7,700 in Octane. It feels sluggish every now and then and it only has a 1280x800 screen. N3160 is not much better doing ~8,000 in Octane.
On the other hand there are Acer Chromebook 14 "for work" edition that comes with either i3 or i5.
Yeah I agree, do think such a nicely built chromebook deserves a better CPU
Why would you even waste your time doing this.
If you really wanted a Windows box, then buy a Windows box. Don't go half-arsed with this sort of thing. Plenty of cheap Windows boxes for under 400 bucks.
If you want to end up wasting a few hours of your time and end getting a frankenstein notebook whose hardware only half-works, yeah, I suppose you could try forcing Windows on it but it's just going to be a terrible user experience.
Ya reckon if I plugged this into my TV it could handle streaming 4K video? My old Samsung laptop with a 1st gen i3 and 8GB ram can't cope with delivering 4K via HMDI without stuttering.
question — what are all your thoughts on the actual ChromeOS? i must admit, i'm not a fan. i purchased a toshiba CB-30 and almost immediately flashed a new bios that allowed me to install Linux Mint. i love it. most bang for my buck in terms of usage-to-cost. had i not been able to do so — i dunno, not sure that i would commit to a chromebook.
![Acer Chromebook 14 - Gold US $294.23 (~AU $380) Delivered @ Amazon [14" FHD IPS, Intel N3160, 4GB RAM, 32GB SSD]](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/06/275106.jpg?h=61428029)
Nice specs, aside from the weight: over 1.5kg.