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Acer Chromebooks are largely cut through the same cloth. Small, lower-resolution screens, minimal onboard storage, low-end Intel CPUs, along with modest plastic body. A few conditions pop up here and there, such as Lenovos brand-new touchscreen hybrid-style Yoga 11e, but regarding $200 to $400, its hard to expect more.

Acer is among the first to create a step toward upscaling the actual processing power with the Acer Chromebook platform, first using a model featuring a good Intel Core i3 model, and now while using first Chromebook to utilize Nvidias Tegra-based K1 model. 

The simply called Acer Chromebook 13 drops the most popular x86 CPU to the ARM-based K1, comparable to what one will dsicover in an Google android device. The Chromebook 13 gets additional upscale-feeling tweaks too, including a decently slim, angular body, a 13. 3-inch full-HD 1, 920x1, 080 exhibit, and excellent power supply life. Id fear if these brand-new features were a justification to drive way up prices, but this specific model, with an incredibly Chromebook-like 2GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD, costs $300 (£220 in england, with no Hawaiian availability announced yet) putting it firmly in the heart of the mainstream Chromebook marketplace.


As a Firefox OS device is created work almost only through Googles Firefox browser and different cloud-based services, the actual on-board specs turn out to be less important, as well as who made the actual processor inside.


Its a fine theory, playing with practice, we ran right few hiccups, perhaps indicative with the the work non-Intel (or non-x86) Chromebooks have prior to them to be truly transparent towards the end user. Some popular Chrome OPERATING-SYSTEM apps, found by means of Googles Chrome app store, refused to run using the Acer Chromebook 13 because of a software incompatibility relating to the ARM and x86 processors used by different Chromebook companies. This issue is usually explored in far more depth below.

Aside at a few apps that might not run, the actual acer chromebook 13 release date usa supplied a mostly upscaled Firefox OS experience, in comparison with other Chromebooks. The 13-inch HD display is often a big step way up, and the body, while plastic, didnt feel like it was about to fall apart underneath heavy typing. Most important, the efficient K1 podium ran for much more than eight several hours on our power supply test, which is significantly more than alot of Chromebooks, including the actual 13-inch Toshiba Chromebook along with and 14-inch HEWLETT PACKARD Chromebook 14, neither that offers a full-HD exhibit. My initial effect is that regarding $300, youre getting a great deal of cloud-based computer. But the podium incompatibility issues tend to be something to watch as more Chromebooks ditch Intel to the K1.

Part of the benefit of moving to Nvidias Tegra K1 platform is the opportunity to create a effective 13-inch laptop that may be 0. 71 in . thick and 3. 3 weight, and fanless, allowing it to run cool along with quiet. Intel is promising a very similar thing from its upcoming Core Meters processors, but many of us wont see those people devices until later in 2014, and theyll certainly cost far more.

The Acer Chromebook 13 is often a plastic laptop, to be sure, but it can feel very solidly built, and its matte light design comes off as more minimal and sophisticated as compared to budget. You wont mistake this for any $1, 000 notebook computer, but it wont bring you laughed out from the coffee shop, both.


You had just better hope that restaurant has robust wifi. As with many Chromebooks, the Acer is built to work primarily on the net, using web-based companies, from Gmail to help Netflix to on the net shopping sites such as Amazon. Pretty much any website youd visit at a Windows or Mac PC by using a Web browser is fine largely similarly over a Chromebook.


Googles online "app store" offers many apps, such because Pixlr for touch-ups photos, but theyre normally web-based tools that you need to you to cloud-based companies. For the most part this works well, but we did encounter a few compatibility difficulty with this Nvidia-powered Chromebook that individuals did not using Intel versions. Once we tried to run games such as Bastion or Spelunky -- equally frequently cited as examples of Web-based games that display the entertainment chops involving Chrome OS, they refused running. In the case of Bastion, a trendy multi-platform action RPG sport, the app/page popped up an email that read, "The page runs on the Native Client app it doesnt work on your hard drive. "


What meaning is that the actual version of Indigenous Client, a technology which allows complex software running in a Browser, used in this case is only compatible with Intel (or AMD) CPUs. Nvidia tells us this is the "known behavior, " but that programmers is now able to use the same technology to make versions of the apps that work seamlessly on equally x86 or EQUIP platforms.


The problem is that this requires the creators of these apps to actually go and retrofit their software for this specific purpose. And with merely a single Nvidia K1 Chromebook available right now (and one or two more coming later on this year), there might not be a huge incentive to take action in the instant future.

To become fair, this behavior only affected a few apps, and additional Chrome-friendly games, via Flow to Vegetation vs. Zombies towards the ever-popular Angry Gulls, all worked okay. Nvidia further suggested some links to graphically intensive web apps that showed from the power of the actual K1 chip, which might be expected, as Nvidia is famous best as some sort of PC graphics organization. Those examples, including a 3D-rendered motorcycle and a 3D model of our body, were both impressively simple to manipulate in real-time, and certainly not the performance one would expect at a $300 Chromebook.


Throughout other app assessments, the usual suspects, via Netflix to Amazon online Instant Video to help Hulu all worked fine, and particularly Google Drive as well as office applications experienced especially zippy, which is not something one can always say in relation to $500 low-power Glass windows 8 hybrids.


Googles office apps also gain benefit move to some sort of 13-inch screen, which often leads to an increased, more usable keyboard when compared with more common 11-inch Chromebooks. Acer pairs some sort of full-size island-style keyboard using a large buttonless touchpad. Important keys, such because Enter, Shift, along with Ctrl are amply sized, and the solid body provides for virtually zero flex, even under heavy typing.

Note that the actual Chrome OS keyboard set layout -- because dictated by Google -- has many subtle differences you should adjust to if youre new to Firefox. The caps fastener key is replaced with a search key, as well as the top row involving function keys carries a Chrome OS record of commands, as well as page forward along with back, and fullscreen setting. Another Chrome OPERATING-SYSTEM oddity, while Windows along with Mac keyboards almost always have uppercase letters stamped in it, Chrome OS keyboards use lowercase letters.


The 13. 3-inch 1, 920x1, 080 display is very useful for a $300 personal computer. Its not a little screen, but thats rare in Chromebooks (you will find that feature throughout Acers own C720p as well as the new Lenovo Yoga 11e Chromebook). Off-axis viewing was very good, but less while tilting the display vertically. A 1, 366x768 version can also be available, but the $20 price difference can be so small, you should get the full-HD display.


Acer Chromebook 13

As a Chromebook on the larger end with the scale, you might expect a few more ports and contacts than an 11-inch type. The included HDMI production is welcome, but apart from that, its just a couple USB 3. 0 ports and an Sdcard reader. Including 802. 11ac Wi-Fi can also be a plus, especially taking into consideration the online nature involving Chrome OS.

In a number of online benchmark assessments, different from the more common installed apps we use to check Windows and OPERATING-SYSTEM X systems, the Nvidia Tegra K1 processor harmonized well against Intel-based Chromebooks, specifically one elderly model from HP and one newer one via Lenovo. In a more graphically challenging Net GL test, the Acer Chromebook 13 far outperformed competition, showing the advantage you have in graphics performance from using a major graphics card issuer build your computer hardware platform.


This Nvidia-powered Chromebook felt much more robust than additional models weve tried out, but not outrageously so in many tasks. For the several graphically intense experiences currently available for Chrome OPERATING-SYSTEM, its an evident advantage, and could possibly wide-open future now for game development, although that requires developers to make game content regarding Chrome OS along with Chromebooks, which largely have not happened yet.

Battery life gets a nice boost over additional Acer Chromebook 13, running with an excellent 8: 03 by using an online streaming video test. That test differs from our own Windows, Mac, and Android battery tests for the reason that it requires a live internet connection and cloud-based HD video stream, making it more challenging using some ways.