Acer Chromebook 14 Review

Acer Chromebook 14 Review: Acer has long been known as a maker of cheap laptops and then in 2011, the company was one of the first to embrace Google’s Chromebook concept. The idea behind Chromebooks can now be assumed as well known; on laptops running Google’s ChromeOS, which is a lightweight Linux distribution and uses the Chrome browser to run applications. Because the software requires little hardware components do not cost much, Chromebooks are therefore generally not expensive.

The Acer Chromebook 14 follows the Acer Chromebook 13 and the Acer Chromebook 11. Moreover, the Acer Chromebook 15 is the predecessor. However, this article provides Acer Chromebook 14 review. We look at the design, specs, features and everything in between.

Acer Chromebook 14 Review - Acer 14 Chromebook
Acer Chromebook 14 Review – Acer 14 Chromebook

Acer’s first Chromebook, the AC700 featured rather limited hardware and a moderately small screen with a low resolution, but there was also a low price attached. However, through the years, the equipment has significantly improved, while the price remained cheap. Acer’s latest 14 “Chromebook is the ‘most expensive‘ version at 369 USD. For that money, we get an IPS panel with full HD, a full metal body and the promise of an impressive battery life of twelve hours.

Design

The Acer Chromebook 14 has, as the name suggests, a screen of 14″, which is a new measure again for Acer. Earlier the manufacturer built Chromebooks at 11.6.” – 13.3 “- and 15 6 “screens. This screen size suits us well. The screen is clearly greater than that of a 13.3 “laptop, while the dimensions are such that the laptop fits easily in a bag. The weight of one and a half kilograms makes for a very lightweight laptop.

acer chromebook 14 inch - acer chromebook 14 review
Acer Chromebook 14 Inch Back View

Furthermore, Acer mentions that the Chromebook 14 has a thickness of 16.95 millimeters, and features an ‘all-metal chassis.’ The housing is, on the black strip at the hinge post, indeed made of metal. Thus, the notebook looks robust, and it is so in most places too. Only in the middle of the laptop, above the ‘6’ button, you can press the housing slightly, but this is a place where normally there is no pressure.

The connections for peripherals are on the sides. The main ports, two USB 3.0 and an HDMI connector, are present, but we would have liked a card reader. Imagine taking your Chromebook along with you on holiday and you want to view your photos or upload to cloud storage, you will also need to carry a separate card reader as the Acer Chromebook 14 has no SD Card Reader. Virtually all Chromebooks from other brands and other models from Acer itself has a built-in (micro) SD card reader. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Acer decided not to install one on the Acer 14 Chromebook.

Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431 Review
Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431 Review

Keyboard and Touchpad

Chromebooks have a slightly different keyboard layout than Windows and OS X systems. The F keys are missing and the home button sits on the place you would normally expect caps lock. The top row of keys consists of function keys to operate with ChromeOS, making the keyboard tidy-looking. The keys of the Acer Chromebook are flat. Anyone who has ever had a cheaper Acer laptop, the somewhat weak touch of the buttons will be familiar.

Acer Chromebook 14 Keyboard and Touchpad
Acer Chromebook 14 Keyboard and Touchpad

The touchpad satisfies. It is large, and the surface causes your finger to glide smoothly over it. The built-in ChromeOS multitouch movements that are well recognized and implemented.

Acer Chromebook 14 Specs

Acer CB3-431-C5K7
Processor Intel Celeron N3160
Cores / Threads 4/4
Clock frequency (turbo) 1.6GHz (2,24GHz)
GPU Intel HD Graphics 400
Working memory 4GB LPDDR3
Warehousing 32GB eMMC
Wifi Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265
Sound chip Intel HD Audio
Operating system ChromeOS (tested with version 52)

Acer delivers the Chromebook 14 in different versions, with the cheapest featuring a dual-core Celeron N3060 processor and a screen with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels. We tested the version using a Celeron N3160, which is slightly lower than the clocked N3060, but it has four instead of two cores. The screen also has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels.

The last difference with the cheaper versions, the storage memory, which is 32GB, instead of 16GB. Furthermore, Acer has fortunately not chosen the most affordable wireless network but installed the dual-band Wireless-AC 7265, which supports transfer rates up to 867Mbit / s.

"<font><font><font><font><font>-88.5%</font></font></font></font></font></font>

 

Of course, the Chromebook 14 is easily screwed open using a Phillips screwdriver. As usual, the inside leaves no room for adjustments. Storage memory, working memory, and the processor is soldered to the motherboard. And, the only thing you could replace is the wireless card and the battery.

Extended Specs

favorite specifications

Keyboard Layout

The keyboard layout refers to the first row of letters on the keyboard. QWERTY is the default format in Belgium and France. QWERTZ is used in the German-speaking countries and QWERTY is used in other European countries, including the Netherlands. In the Scandinavian countries, they use a different QWERTY layout because of the extra characters such as Æ and Ø.

qwerty

Diagonal screen size

The screen diagonal screen size measured from lower left to upper right expressed in inches ( “), one inch represents 2.54 cm.

14

Resolution

The resolution is displayed by default in pixels (colored dots) in the ratio Width x Height. The higher the resolution, the sharper the image.

1920×1080
CPU / SoC Intel Celeron N3160

 Video Chip

The video chip is responsible for producing the image signal. A fast chip ensures that you can display complex images without stuttering playback.

Intel HD Graphics
memory Size 4GB

CPU and motherboard

CPU / SoC Intel Celeron N3160
CPU architecture Intel Braswell

clock frequency

The standard speed of the processor, measured in MHz or GHz (= 1000MHz).

1.6GHz

Maximum turbo clocks frequency

When the frequency is increased automatically, the processor temporarily needs more power. This allows the processor will perform better.

2,24GHz

Memory

Memory Type

Computer memory comes in two different sizes, standard DDR DIMM and the smaller SO-DIMM DDR which is mostly used in laptops. The higher the GDR version, the faster it will work memory.

DDR3 (SODIMM)
memory Size 4GB

Maximum memory size

What is the maximum memory size that can be used?

4GB

Warehousingstorage

Warehousing storage Flash
storage capacity

storage capacity

The space available for pictures, movies, music and store programs. The storage capacity is usually expressed in GB. 1GB equals 1000MB and 1TB is equivalent to 1000GB.

32GB
total storage capacity 32GB

Display and graphics card

Diagonal screen size

Diagonal screen size

The screen diagonal screen size measured from lower left to upper right, expressed in inches ( “), one inch represents 2.54 cm.

14 “
Resolution

Resolution

The resolution is displayed by default in pixels (colored dots) in the ratio Width x Height. The higher the resolution, the sharper the image.

1920×1080
Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio is the ratio between width and height of an image. Gears have wide-screen aspect ratio of 16: 9. (16 units in width, 9 units in height).

16: 9

Backlight

The way the screen is illuminated from the back.

backlit
Display Coating Mat

LCD-panel

The type of screen that is used. TN and IPS (or a derivative) are the most commonly used panels which IPS has improved color reproduction and better viewing angles.

IPS

Video Chip

The video chip is responsible for producing the image signal. A fast chip ensures that you can display complex images without stuttering playback.

Intel HD Graphics

Interfaces

video out HDMI
(USB / FW) 2x USB 3.0
Connection (WLAN) 802.11a, 802.11ac, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n
5GHz support Yes
Compound (Bluetooth) Bluetooth 4.0

Other specifications

Multitouch Touchpad Yes
Numeric keypad No
Laptop extras webcam
Operating system Chrome OS
Battery Capacity (Wh) 45Wh

Keyboard

keyboard Layout

The keyboard layout refers to the first row of letters on the keyboard. QWERTY is the default format in Belgium and France. QWERTZ is used in the German-speaking countries and QWERTY is used in other European countries, including the Netherlands. In the Scandinavian countries, they use a different QWERTY layout because of the extra characters such as Æ and Ø.

qwerty

Dimensions, weight and color

Height 16,95mm
Width 341mm
Length 236,6mm
Weight 1,68kg
color Aluminum

Warranty and details

Manufacturer’s Warranty 1 year carry in
Specifics Battery capacity 3920 mAh

More information

Product Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431-C5K7
Category laptops
Brand Acer
Series Chromebook

Benchmarks

Kraken 1.1
laptop CPU / SoC time in ms (lower is better)
Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) Ci5-5200U
*

-88.5%

Samsung Chromebox Series 3 Ci5-2450M
*

-88.4%

Google Chromebook Pixel Ci5-3427U
*

-87.1%

HP Chromebook 14 q000ed cell 2955U
***

-74.2%

Acer Chromebook 14 Cell. N3160
****

-64.9%

Dell Chromebook 11 (2015) Cell. N2840
****

-61.3%

Toshiba CB30-B-104 Cell. N2840
****

-61.1%

Asus C200MA Cell. N2830
****

-60%

HP Chromebook 14 x002nd Tegra K1
*****

-54.9%

Samsung Chromebook 2 13.3 “ Exynos 5 Octa E5800
*****

-53.2%

Asus Chromebook Flip RK3288
*****

-50.9%

Samsung Chromebook Series 5 Atom N570
**********

100%

Acer is slightly faster than the Chromebooks running on the Celeron N2840 processor, which, although higher clocked, but has two cores less compared to the N3160. Acer makes it the fastest Chromebook with passive cooling that we have tested. 2955U- the Celeron and Core i5 processors faster Chromebooks consume much more energy and therefore generate more heat.

CrXPRT 2015
PC CPU / SoC in points (higher is better)
Samsung Series 3 Chromebox Ci5-2450M
**********

136.00

Google Chromebook Pixel Ci5-3427U
*********

120.00

Acer Chromebook 14 Cell. N3160
****

56,00

Samsung Chromebook Series 5 Atom N570
*

17,00

CrXPRT is a tool that tells you how fast a Chromebook handles things you do every day, like playing video games, watching movies, editing pictures, graphic design, etc.

Video: Acer Chromebook 14 Review

In this video, we’ll take a more in-depth look at the all-new Acer Chromebook 14. With an all-aluminum build, unique 14-inch design, and $299 price tag, could this become the budget Chromebook to beat? Let’s take a look!
SHOW MORE

Screen/Display

The first Chromebooks had screens with a low resolution of 1366×768 pixels and availed themselves of TN panels, but as IPS panels were cheaper with high resolutions, they came more often into Chromebooks.

Acer has, with the most expensive version of the Chromebook 14, also opted for an IPS panel with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The cheaper models also have an IPS panel but have a resolution of 1366×768 pixels. However, there is an Acer Chromebook 14 for work that has the 1366×768 screen

screen Brightness
laptop Resolution LCD-panel in cd / m² (higher is better)
Toshiba CB30-B-104 1920×1080 IPS
**********

389

Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) 2560×1700 IPS
********

323

Asus Chromebook Flip 1280×800 IPS
*******

268

Samsung Chromebook 2 13.3 “ 1920×1080 TN
*******

260

HP Chromebook 14 q000ed 1366×768 TN
******

243

Dell Chromebook 11 (2015) 1366×768 TN
******

243

HP Chromebook 14 x002nd 1366×768 TN
******

237

Acer Chromebook 14 1920×1080 IPS
******

230

 

Contrast (max. Brightness)
laptop Resolution LCD-panel Contrast ratio (higher is better)
Acer Chromebook 14 1920×1080 IPS
**********

1359: 1

Asus Chromebook Flip 1280×800 IPS
********

1155: 1

Google Chromebook Pixel (2015) 2560×1700 IPS
******

798: 1

Toshiba CB30-B-104 1920×1080 IPS
******

758: 1

HP Chromebook 14 x002nd 1366×768 TN
****

492: 1

Samsung Chromebook 2 13.3 “ 1920×1080 TN
***

452: 1

HP Chromebook 14 q000ed 1366×768 TN
***

366: 1

Dell Chromebook 11 (2015) 1366×768 TN
**

328: 1

No matter which version you take, you are not bothered by the reflections that glossy screens bring because the screens have a matte finish. That’s a good thing because of the maximum brightness, resulting in you getting the feeling a lot of ambient light. There is little ambient light; the screen appears to give a good picture, thanks to an excellent contrast.

We do except the brightness measurements on the color of the Chromebook screen. Also, we are not too critical, for a laptop in this price range you can not have too high expectations. Furthermore, the resolution, brightness, and contrast much more influence on image quality than the correct color reproduction.

Battery Life

Acer promises a battery life of “up to 12 hours. Because the numbers of such promises often do not come close to the practice, we test the battery life in two scenarios; continuous browsing and scrolling through websites, and when watching a movie at 1080p resolution.

In our test, we checked to see if browsing would last for twelve hours, but a battery life of nine hours is what we came up with. During video playback, there appeared to be a little more energy to be asked for and we got to almost seven and a half hours.

Pros

  • Matte screen with high contrast
  • Long battery life
  • solid housing

Cons

  • Sd card reader is missing
  • Moderate maximum brightness

Conclusion

The Chromebook 14 is not the first Chromebook Acer built, but a good and perhaps the best we’ve tested so far. The days Chromebooks had poor displays and poor battery life are long gone, so shows Acer. The screen has a high resolution, a matte finish, and excellent contrast. Only the maximum brightness leaves room for improvement.

Also, during browsing, battery life is a good nine hours and the laptop feels sturdy thanks to the metal housing. Another miss, we find the lack of an SD card reader disappointing. But you pay then only 369 USD for this laptop, less than what Dell and HP ask for their cheapest full-HD Chromebooks.

Is the price so sharp? We know that Chromebooks considerably cheaper than conventional Windows laptops. Asus, for example, the Asus VivoBook R417, which does have slightly less high specifications and a TN screen, but comes with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, an SD card reader and room for a conventional SATA drive (or SSD), for just 699.96 USD. Medion Akoya S4219 even comes in a 270 euros for an IPS screen, 64GB storage, and also the possibility of retrofitting a hard disk.

What do you think?

It’s a bit like apples and oranges, and therefore your personal preference depends on whether Acer’s new Chromebook is an interesting buy. Are you looking for a Chromebook? Then, the Acer is a good choice, thanks to its sturdy enclosure, the good screen, and long battery life. If you do not have a distinct preference for Google’s operating system; there are other laptops that on the market that is at least as interesting as the Acer, for less money.

[wp-review id=”13348″]

Also, as always thanks for reading, Acer Chromebook 14 Review, Specs, Features, Price here on OrDuh! Have questions? Then, leave us a comment. What are your opinions on the Acer 14″ Chromebook? Share your Acer Chromebook 14 review below!

4 Comments

  1. Chromebook User January 7, 2019
    • Jeremiah Carmichael January 7, 2019
  2. Chromebook User October 20, 2018
    • Jeremiah Carmichael October 24, 2018

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