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Acer announced four new Chromebook lines in a wide array of shapes and designs, including the industry’s first 17-inch Chromebook, the Acer Chromebook 317—B317-1H has a large FHD 17.3-inch 1920 × 1080 IPS display with an anti-glare coating and is surrounded by narrow bezels. It also has an optional 82-degree FOV webcam. There is optional backlighting for a full-size keyboard and the touchpad is complemented with an integrated numeric keypad.
The 360-degree convertible uses an Intel Celeron processor and Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) and comes with 4 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and a 64GB Flash memory. The unit has a microSD slot for extra storage. It has Bluetooth 5.0, and there are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports and dual USB 3.2 Type-C ports that can also be used for battery charging Acer says the 317 provides up to 10 hours of battery life based on their testing. With the Chrome OS, the NB has a boot time of about 8 seconds. It includes integrated malware protection.
The Acer Chromebook 317 (CB317-1H) will be available in North America in June starting at USD 379.99, and in EMEA in June starting at EUR 399.
For the power users, Acer offers the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 and Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 713: Updated with 11th Gen Intel Core Processors and Thunderbolt 4
The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W) and Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 713, the world’s first Intel Evo platform-verified Chromebooks.
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The Spin is positioned as a premium design that combines an aluminum chassis with military-grade (U.S. MIL-STD 810H) durability in a convertible form factor, the updated model features two full-function USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 for data transfers, and power delivery and audio to external displays. In addition, the new Chromebooks now have an optional fingerprint reader.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W) will be available in North America in June starting at USD 699.99, and in EMEA in June starting at €769.
What do we think?
More is better when it comes to displays so a 17-in Chromebook should be a great device. The units are feature-rich, but lack a pen option, and have a limited amount of RAM. Designed to be an always-on, always-connected terminal, it relies on the cloud to store and distribute files. Using Google Docs you can edit online as well so not-so-much RAM is not a severe handicap.
The limited HD resolution of the consumer device is disappointing, but for $300 more you can get a high-resolution screen and a more powerful CPU.