Verdict. This is my first Chromebook… And Chromebooks are great! Who knew?! This Acer laptop provides a lot of value and versatility into an affordable system, with a great operating system (OS). There is a lot to love here.
First impressions. It is sleek, light, with a nice display, a comfortable backlit keyboard, and a large touchpad. It comes with a power adapter, a mouse, and a stylus (neatly tucked away in the lower-front-right of the laptop).
Features. This is where the laptop shines. The laptop has a very responsive touchscreen that can fold all the way back so you can use the laptop as a tablet. Yes, many laptops do that, but the vast majority do not come with a stylus, and most are much more expensive. Additionally, the high-definition screen is gorilla glass! With convertible laptops, I am always worried about the screen. In this case, I feel much better when hauling around this computer all day, on commutes, to class, and at home. The laptop uses the 12th gen i5 processor and 256GB of SSD memory. While 256GB is not a lot, the SSD paired with the i5 provides a zippy experience and great performance for most daily tasks. The laptop has ample ports too: regular USB, USB-C (x2), and and HDMI port. The computer has a built-in dock that stores and charges the stylus... this is great, because styluses get lost or damaged easily, and you have to remember to charge them. This laptop makes owning a stylus super easy.
Chromebook benefits. This is my first Chromebook, coming from the other two main OS. I was concerned about the potential learning curve… and I was pleased to find out that there really isn’t one. The OS is very intuitive for the most part, it is very fast, it has built-in virus protection, and it makes all google tools accessible directly from the desktop. I am very impressed with having access to all of my google things as soon as I login with my google credentials. Native or built-in access to google tools is very very nice since I use many of their tools on a daily basis to email, store documents, watch videos, and create/edit documents. I prefer another suite of document creator in general, and I was able to use my subscription on the Chromebook without any issues, so the Chromebook aspect doesn’t limit the use of your favorite software. In fact, access to the playstore will give me added functionality I think because I haven’t really considered apps on the OS I normally use. Perhaps, I have been stuck in an old paradigm, until now.
For students. I used this laptop for a couple days a week when going to class for grad school. The laptop is great for typing notes, accessing stored documents, and communicating with others by messenger or video (with HD webcam!). It is light, so it’s easy to cary around, and I don’t bring the mouse to class. I could access Blackboard normally and login to classes online when needed. While the tablet mode is neat, taking notes with the stylus took some time to adjust. I normally use a different tablet and stylus pencil to write notes, and the feel is different, so it will take some time to get used to this system. Additionally, I had a bit of a hard time to save written notes, then finding where I saved them, and then trying to send them out by email. This is a small learning curve, and the only part of the experience I didn’t find intuitive. Once I figured it out, the workflow was faster on the next try. My daughter, a high school student, absolutely loves this laptop because she uses all google tools, especially all the document creating tools, and her school uses google classroom, so the integration is complete and perfect. Also, the fact this laptop comes with a stylus and mouse adds even more value for students who want a versatile and capable system. Finally, the extended battery life means that you don’t even have to take the charging cable to class! The laptop can go up to 10 hours on a full charge, and in a pinch, you can get four hours of battery on just a 30 minute charge. I haven’t actually tried to go the full 10 hours, but we regularly use it for 4 to 5 hours without charging, it still has more than 50% battery life.
Things I love:
- Sleek and compact
- Sufficient ports
- The screen folds all the way back so you can use the laptop as a tablet
- It comes with a mouse AND a stylus!!
- The stylus has a built-in dock that stores it and charges it
- Easy access to apps in the playstore
- All-day battery life! 10 hours without a charge, and quick-charge option to get 4 hours in just 30 minutes of charging
- HD webcam
- i5 processor and SSD provide a fast experience
- Wifi 6
- Anti-microbial Gorilla glass screen!!
Things I don’t love:
- 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage may not be enough for some people. On the other hand, at the price point of this laptop, this is a fair offering. Moreover, if you are using the google ecosystem, you may already have access to substantial cloud storage, so storage may not be a concern at all. If you don’t run heavy apps and keep tons of tabs open at once, 8GB should be enough
Overall, this is great laptop, offering lots of value and versatility in general, and more specifically, it’s a very compelling package for students. The Chromebook OS performs well and enables access to all google tools right from the desktop… I really like this aspect. It’s simple, convenient, and powerful. I will now consider Chromebooks for all future laptop purchases. For students who use google classroom, the utility is even better. I highly recommend this laptop.