acer Chromebook 14, Aluminum, 14-inch Full HD, Intel Celeron N3160, 4GB LPDDR3, 32GB, Chrome, CB3-431-C5FM

A month or so ago, the screen on my Toshiba Chrome 2 was broken (no fault of the computer, just someone slamming it shut in anger), necessitating its replacement. This Acer is the third computer that I bought in replacement, so I feel I'm in a pretty good position to judge where it stands relative to what else it out there right now. I'm a Chrome OS early adopter, having bought one of the early Chromebox's that were given out at the Google I/O off of eBay, and having bought my Toshiba Chromebook a couple of years ago. I'm somewhat sold on Chrome, the feature I like best about them is that the continuous updating and cleaning up of the OS. My Chromebox is about four years old and it works better now than when I bought it, and that's with zero attention paid to updating/upgrading/virus protection/etc. ever. It "just works" and it doesn't stop just working. So my first choice was the SUS C300SA-DS02 Chromebook 13.3" HD, which sells for about $225 on Amazon. It wasn't a horrible computer, but it looks and feels very cheap and underpowered. So I sent it back and instead ordered an ASUS ZenBook UX305UA 13.3-inch. It was of course much nicer, and I was looking forward to putting Windows Office on it so that I could get some more work functionality out of it. But I was amazed to learn that ASUS Windows laptops, apparently all of them, lock the function keys in such a way that you have to simultaneously press the function key in order to perform their non-function functions (i.e. if you press "F12" by itself you get the developer's code window rather than volume up), and it cannot be changed. It's hardwired into the computer, not even opening the BIOS can change it. That was a plain non-starter for me, I'm constantly fiddling with volume and brightness controls on my laptops, so having that as a two-hand operation . . . no way. So . . . reconsidering also the extremely marginal functionality of native Windows Office as opposed to Google Docs/Office Online, I decided to go back to another Chromebook, but this time the Acer Chromebook 14. Boy am I glad I did! This computer looks and feels like a $1000 laptop. It's a beautiful, solid all-metal device, with a nice, wide great looking screen. The trackpad works well, and the internals seem to be very quick, I haven't noticed any stuttering on anything as of yet. My only quibble might be with the keyboard, which is a bit shallow for my tastes, but it's decent enough. At $300 even, you'd be crazy to settle for one of the $200+ Chromebook when a vastly better machine can be had for just a little bit more. If you're looking for a computer in the range of this size and price and functionality, I would recommend this one.

I received this device on Friday, as promised. I fully charged during first use and despite the fact I've been running it on and off to write, to watch videos, to surf the internet, and to check my email, it's Sunday evening and I have over 71% battery life remaining. So confident in the product, I brought it out with me without bringing the power cord. I love this Chromebook. The screen is wonderful and though I believed the brightness might be an issue, I was able to write outside without any trouble. It was a bright, sunny day here today. I opened a doc and wrote for about twenty minutes and I didn't even have to bump up the brightness, which is set at about 55-60%. Since I was outside and away from a wireless signal, I turned off the wi-fi at this time. I've been leaving the wireless on and haven't plugged in the Chromebook since it reach a full charge on Friday. I never had a MacBook Air and I'm not in IT (though I had majored in Information Systems for a few semesters before changing over to Organizational Management.) That being said, I've seen a few reviews on here from people who have had MacBooks. I understand this is a Chromebook and only costs $299 but I feel this is a tremendous value. I can't see how it actually compares to the MacBook but since it costs considerably less, I don't have any expectations that this is a superior device. I have had no complaints, I've seen no imperfections in my device, no creaking or flexing anywhere, it has a solid aluminum construction, it runs silent as it is fanless (which means I can type in bed while my wife sleeps), and I find it has an excellent keyboard. Would I have liked a back-lit keyboard? Yes. Do I regret my decision? Not a chance and I don't think that omission warrants a star deduction, not even a half star. I knew what I was getting when I ordered it and I'm pleased to say, it's even better than expected. It runs quickly without experiencing lag (I've had up to 8 tabs open, with Netflix playing in one of the tabs and Google+ open in another.) I don't typically have that many tabs open at one time so if it can handle that, I'm confident it will work great for my use. I'm ready to start removing the stickers from the unit and will throw away the box it came in when I get back home, as I don't plan on returning it. I plan on using this Chromebook daily and give my enthusiastic recommendation! Oh, by the way, I thought I'd miss the SD card slot but really I hardly ever used it and since it has two USB 3.0 ports, if I need to transfer data to my Chromebook, I can always use a flash (thumb) drive, an external hard drive, or share data through Google Drive from another computer. Guess not having that slot doesn't impact me as much as I thought. If you need this slot, or prefer a backlit keyboard, I would suggest you buy something else. For everyone else, I honestly think you'll love it as much as I do.

Received my Chromebook and it is beautiful. The aluminum case really is impressive and feels very nice compared to most plastic bodied laptops. The problem is that I received a defective unit that will not charge and will not stay powered on when unplugged from the charging cable. After a bit of research on Google (search "Chromebook battery 1%" - yikes!), it sounds like there may be a fix for this of getting into the guts of the Chromebook and unplugging the battery, booting up, and then turning everything off and reconnect the battery. I am not going to attempt that with my brand new Chromebook, but I do find it troubling that so many others have had this problem. With the Chromebook plugged it, everything seems to perform beautifully. I am used to typing on a laptop that also has a number pad on the right hand side, so I find myself usually one letter off when trying to type. I am sure it is just a muscle memory thing that I will adjust to, but it was something I found interesting when using this new Chromebook. The 1080p screen is beautiful and HD video does look very nice. I watched some football on the TimeWarner streaming site and it was clear and crisp and motion was generally very smooth. From the other reviews, it looks like Acer may have some quality control issues with this Chromebook with others also receiving their brand new laptops DOA or with other serious issues. I have replacement on the way from Amazon (thank you Amazon!) and will adjust my review accordingly when the new one arrives. It may be a 5 star product if I had received a working unit, but I have a problem giving a product 5 stars when I have such a frustrating experience from the start. UPDATE 12/27/16 I received the replacement from Amazon (thanks Amazon!) and have been using it for about 3 weeks now. I am typing this update from my new Chromebook now. Everything is now working properly and it is a nice little computer. I only have a few complaints. -The first is that the keyboard is not lighted, which would be a challenge to have in a laptop in this price range. -The second is that the space bar does not seem to be responsive unless you hit it directly in the center with your thumb. I have found myself missing about half of my spaces when my thumb presses the space bar on the far right hand side. -Finally, the power button is placed just barely above the backspace key, so I have found myself accidentally pressing the power button when I get a little too aggressive with the backspace key. Overall, I am very happy with the computer for what it is. Had I not had to go through the mess of getting a replacement, I would give it 5 stars.

The new Acer Chromebook 14 feels like the beginning of a new generation for Chromebooks. I have owned an HP Chromebook 14 for a couple of years now, so I'll be making comparisons to that device in this review. I love my HP Chromebook, but there were two reasons it kept me from considering it as a 5-star worthy computer. Screen resolution and fan noise. The Acer Chromebook 14 fixes both of those by providing a 1080p IPS display and fanless design for complete silence. I set up both Chromebooks side by side and started with a screen quality comparison. While my HP screen had a narrow "sweet spot" where the angle and position to the screen looked its best, the Acer looks good at any angle, and fantastic from a straight on viewpoint. IPS technology is to thank for this. Both devices appear to obtain similar maximum brightness output, while the Acer does offer more fine-tuning of the lower brightness spectrum. I was pleased to find that the screen on the Acer Chromebook can open up greater than a 180° angle. The HP didn't even come close. While using these Chromebooks in tandem I noticed that while changing the wallpaper on the new Acer it would also change it to match on the HP just next to it within a couple of seconds. It was really cool to see how quickly the Google account updated in the cloud and copied settings over to other Chrome devices. This made it very easy to compare the image quality as I perused many different images on each device. The new IPS display on the Acer really does shine when compared to an inferior product. The colors are much more natural and the clarity of the higher pixel count is easily apparent. My next test was on the keyboards and touchpad. Honestly, the keyboards and touchpads on each seem to be extremely similar. It was hard to notice any real difference. I loved the keyboard/touchpad combo on the HP, so I'm glad the Acer Chromebook 14 provides the same experience. The Acer's touchpad does appear to be slightly larger, which is always nice. My final comparison test involved the speakers. The Acer has bottom mounted speakers just like my HP. They're probably extremely similar in design, and they sound very similar as well. I played identical YouTube videos on each one, pausing after every few lines to compare one after the other, and both sound good and get plenty loud at max volume. I can't say one was an improvement over the other. I believe the only way to improve the speaker design would be to implement a top-mount design, perhaps above the keyboard. My only real complaint with Acer's new Chromebook 14 would be the power supply/cable. The cable length is shorter than my HP's, so placement in certain situations where you need a charge could be an issue. Thankfully the battery life is so good that if you charge it before you go anywhere you should make it through your day without needing to top it off. The other thing to note is that Acer really skimped on the quality of the power supply cable. It's twice as thin as the HP's and I'm worried about the durability of it. I have dreadful visions of another company whose power cables are often much too thin and began to crack and fray. Here's to hoping that is never an issue! In the end this Chromebook fully deserves a 5-star rating. You get a fast web-browsing device with a full HD display, great keyboard and touchpad combination, and amazing battery life that exceeds other Chromebooks that are in its price range. It's hard to argue that it would benefit from anything else, except perhaps a backlit keyboard.

If you consider the 20 free GoGo Inflight Internet passes (worth $240 to $360), the 100GB of online storage for 3 years ($72), and the 90 days of free Google Play Music / Youtube Red ($30), you're pretty much being paid to buy this computer, so I consider this a free computer... Bought this for my mom to replace a 3 year old Chromebook that worked like a champ until recently. First, Chromebooks should be the only type of computer anyone should buy... especially if being used by your older parents or anyone who's sick and tired of computers that store everything locally, viruses, crashing computers, etc., etc. The build quality is amazing for the price, pretty close to a MacBook Air - not quite, but pretty close. The IPS display is amazing and it's non-reflective which is another great bonus. The speakers on this system are unbelievably good. While not as fast as the Chromebook Pixel (I have two of them, btw it's the best laptop out there with the highest resolution screen of any laptop on the market, including any MacBook out there, by far), it's a snappy computer. By changing the default download directory to your google drive 'downloads' directory, you'll never worry about losing files, losing your computer, or having something go wrong when the system crashes. Now that tethering is free from your phone, you can have internet anywhere you go. I have both a Project Fi Google Nexus 6P phone (the bill averages out to about $20/mo, no matter where I travel in the world), and a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, so I just tether Chromebooks to my phone when not in range of Wi-Fi... even works great at 200mph on the Japanese bullet trains! I'm an early adopter, someone who buys pretty much anything and tests it out, and spend around $180K a year on Amazon alone... I could go and get the most expensive computers out there, but trust me, you'll be very happy with this computer, and like I said, it's like being paid to buy this thing so the risk is low. You'll love it, and once you go Chromebook you'll never go back. Google really is fantastic and knows what they doing here. Ah, and again, you'll never get malware, spyware, viruses, etc. on this thing. My suggestion as soon as you buy this, or any Chromebook, is to change your downloads directory to your Google Drive downloads folder... set up Google Photos (free unlimited storage of photos, great searching capabilities, and deletes photos from your phone with one click as soon as they're backed up in the cloud), and set up "Open these tabs automatically" under settings so that you have all your tabs open automatically as soon as you start your computer... for me, I autostart Google Keep, Google Calendar, Google Voice, MightyText, MixMax, Hangouts, Facebook, Google Inbox, Google News, QuickBooks Online, Feedly, Weather Channel 10 day forecast, Nest (for home thermostats and cameras and smoke/carbon monoxide), Rachio (my sprinkler control system that saved 80% on my water bill), and a few other tabs. Enjoy this computer... you'll be totally impressed. Ah, and the keyboard is one of the best in the market. Wouldn't change a thing except for having USB-C quick-charging.

Edit 5/27/2016 to below... After writing this review, Acer contacted me and got me in touch with a real support contact. We briefly discussed the issue and they decided I definitely should send it in for repair (a battery replacement). They gave me a prepaid FedEx label and contacted me when the Chromebook arrived at their repair facility in Temple, TX. So far, I'm happier with the support experience. I'll add a star for this. After I get the computer back (and have the opportunity to actually use it), I'll update this to a product review vs. a service review. I won't knock the device because I think it's reasonable to expect *some* units to have manufacturing issues... it happens! ------------------ Well we had the thing 10 days and it's dead. Worked out of the box, charged it to full. Then, unplugged it for a day or so without really using it. Battery got down to 20% roughly so I just turned it off. 2 days later, I tried to plug it in.... dead. No charging indicator (it's supposed to light up blue near power port while charging), cannot turn the device on. Here's the worst part: contacted Acer support by phone. The first rep seemed to be somewhat helpful, and put me on hold to make notes. We got disconnected so I called back and got a different person named "Manuel"... who was NOT helpful. Essentially he told me to buy another AC adapter at a "computer store" or take it to a big box store and try to plug it in. I found this to be a ridiculous response. I pressed the issue and said it needs to be looked at and repaired/replaced.... it's 10 days old for crying out loud! He gave in and created a ticket and sent a return instruction email.... but I'm supposed to pay return shipping. This isn't my idea of how a warranty on a brand new product should work.

I have been incredibly satisfied with this purchase. It's everything I would like from a Chromebook. I love the thinness, the aluminum build, and the screen. The battery life is great, and I love the simplicity and reliability of Chrome OS. I had looked into getting the Toshiba Chromebook 2, but was put off by the quality issues and the lack of responsiveness from customer service others had experienced. I settled on this Chromebook because of the positive reviews, and the quality of the build and features. What some say have been cons vs my experience: -Some have said that the quality and brightness of the screen are not great, but I am very happy with the range of brightness and almost never use it at its max brightness. I use it inside but have natural light in the room. -Some dislike the lack of a back-lit keyboard, but I think the value was put into other areas of the computer. A back-lit keyboard would have bumped up the price. I don't find it necessary for the way I use it, as I have lights on in my home, and I can type without looking down as well. -Lack of SD card, I don't miss at the moment. If I need more storage I will use a USB stick or connect a hard drive. But I haven't needed it, and I don't think I will, as I store everything on the cloud. Whatever other hangups others have experienced, I can say have not affected me at all. If you can get over the cons others have mentioned, I highly recommend this machine! To me, it's all "pros," no "cons," and a really great value for what you are getting. Do look into Chrome OS first, to ensure it is a good fit for how you plan to use the computer. For the average computer user, it is all you need.

I ordered 2 of these at the end of August 2016, for my 2 kids in middle school. Both were outstanding machines and worked great. Fast, easy to use, relatively inexpensive (especially compared to traditional laptops), and long battery life. I would give 5 stars... It is now less than 7 months later and both stopped working properly. On one, the left side of the keyboard works intermittently and one vertical column of keys not at all, the other machine will not turn on. The screen stays black. Yes it's fully charged, and we checked the contrast. No noise, no screen, no nothing. This happened within 2-3 weeks of each other, I am mailing these back this week for repair (they're still under warranty) and we will see what is done. I will update this review after seeing how it is handled. UPDATE: Shipping was free for both, but I had to pay @$20 for the boxing/packing at UPS. Received both machines back w/in 2 weeks. 1 needed a new motherboard, the other they replaced the whole upper half of the case. Both are working great again. These are excellent machines for the price. Will keep the rating at 3 stars due to both having a problem in such a short time period from purchase.

Très mauvaise expérience. Produit acheté en janvier 2017 sur amazon.fr avec garantie d' 1 an. Le produit m'a été expédié par un vendeur USA (UShopMall) avec clavier américain et câble d'alimentation avec prise USA. Le produit tombe en panne (ne s'allume plus, ne se recharge plus). J'essaye de faire jouer la garantie: - amazon.fr me redirige vers le vendeur - le vendeur ne reprends plus le produit car le délai de 30 jours (pour reprendre la marchandise) est dépassé et me redirige vers le constructeur Acer - Acer France ne peut pas m'assister car le SNID et le SN (serial number) américains ne sont pas reconnus dans leur base de donnée européenne. Je peux faire réparer le produit chez eux mais à mes frais - Acer USA ne peut pas m'assister car le produit a été acheté en France - J'essaye d'explorer la garantie A à Z d'Amazon mais le délai de deux jours depuis ma demande initiale est dépassé et je ne peux plus bénéficier de ce service (en effet les différents détours entre le vendeur et Acer France et USA m'ont pris un peu plus que deux jours....)

I’m a freelancer and I use the laptop to do my research, write articles, create presentations and watch videos on YouTube, Amazon Prime and Netflix. In my opinion it is perfect. The performance of the device will depend on your degree of use. For me, its works great. The lightweight build and screen crispness are HUGE positives! The only time it slightly lags is when I try opening or working on documents over 9-10 MBs, which is not always so it works smoothly for me! Great buy.

I paid full price for this ($300) and it was worth every penny in terms of hardware. I personally hate ChromeOS, so I replaced it with GalliumOS, and it's amazing. It looks amazing, feels amazing, and runs everything you need besides games. Perfect for college/university. A word of warning for those looking to install Linux: everything is broken on distros besides GalliumOS, which was built for chromebooks. I spent hours upon hours trying to install other distros and none of them had the necessary drivers and/or firmware (or a way to get them). You also need to open up the laptop and remove a screw in order to overwrite the BIOS. It's a huge pain. Just stick with ChromeOS, or buy a non-Chromebook to have the least amount of issues.

Excelente opción! Precio inmejorable y hardware de calidad. El tamaño es el típico de una laptop de gama media, la pantalla se ve bien y clara, acabado elegante en aluminio El sistema operativo y las especificaciones de esta laptop se mezclan y logran un desempeño impecable. Recomiendo para estudiantes por precio y función: Google se ha esforzado por brindar soluciones nativas o en la nube para cualquier necesidad. En caso de requerir instalaciones distintas, la mejor opción es trabajar con Crouton y hacer un dualboot de Chrome OS y cualquier distribución de Linux o usar el proyecto Crostini por el cual se pueden instalar aplicaciones Linux en Chrome OS. Hoy el día, el único pero que le encuentro es 1) Falta de aplicaciones "exclusivas" de diseño de otros sistemas operativos y 2) falta de procesamiento para labores que lo requieran (edición de vídeo, diseño, rendering).

Primo punto come sempre positivo per quanto concerne la spedizione amazon. Il chromebook è importato US quindi vi ritroverete con il layout della keybord US non retroilluminata (al primo avvio potete impostare il layout ITA ed poi applicare degli adesivi ai tasti per poter così utilizzare la tastiera come fosse italiana, io sconsiglio tutto sto trambusto si riesce ad utilizzare tranquillamente il layout US) passiamo al trackpad ampio, sensibile, presciso restituisce un feeling ottimale merito anche di chrome OS. Il monitor essendo un FHD impressiona per risoluzione/definizione e luminosità per me adeguata in tutte le condizioni (anche in esterno). Materiali premium unibody d'alluminio finitura opaca il tutto veramente bello ed elegante. Unico neo le casse, essendo posizionate sotto producono un suono un pò ovattato e non tropppo potente. Mi dilungo un secondo su chrome OS; prima cosa importante da sapere che è un OS cloud based semplificando un grande browser tuttte le app sono sviluppate su questo concetto rendendo poco pratico l'utilizzo off line, non dico impossibile perche sarebbe fuorviante ma se pensate di utilizzare il chromebook come un normale notebook siete in errore. Il sistema è veloce e reattivo il processore Intel Celeron Quad-Core N3160 riesce a portare a termine rendering delle pagine web e piccole elaborazioni decentemente, ma da una cpu a basso consumo è sbagliato pensare di ottenere di più. Guardando al futuro con la possibilità di poter installare il google play le potenzialità di questo chrome book sicuramente si amplieranno a dismisura! Per il mio utilizo direi un ottimo acquisto!