Acer's new Chromebook 13 is a good way to be productive away from the desk, as long as you don't mind your data living in cyberspace, where it could be vulnerable to bad people.
Chromebooks are basically small, light and inexpensive notebook computers, kind of the spiritual successor to the Netbooks of years past. They look like a laptop and act like one, too, but instead of coming with a big hard drive and bloated Windows operating system, the run Google's Chrome operating system and are designed for online connectivity and storage.
Many people like keeping their info online, so there's undoubtedly a decently sized market for Chromebooks such as this model CB5-311. And while I'm not one of those (I'm more of a cyber-curmudgeon who doesn't trust letting my data out of my control), I can see the value in such a strategy. Heck, a couple of years ago I had a hard drive crash that, if I hadn't backed up my stuff, would have left me wishing I'd have stored everything in the Cloud.
One of the first things you notice is just how nice and slim this Chromebook is. It's less than an inch thick when closed, and very light – yet it doesn't seem flimsy. It also doesn't have a fan, so its operation is very quiet. It also boots up really quickly.
This Acer Chromebook features a 13 inch screen (there's an 11 inch version as well) that can run 1920x1080 resolution (the same as Blu-rays) and besides its prodigious multimedia abilities you can use it to access a cornucopia of web-based stuff, from word processors and other productivity tools to online games. Some are also available with a touch screen, though this one didn't offer that particular wrinkle and I didn't miss it a whit.
One thing I did miss was a decent keyboard layout – though of course this unit is hardly unique in this regard. But it bothered me – and slowed down my typing a lot – to have the "enter" key shrunk and shifted over in a manner that meant I kept hitting another, neighboring key they'd stuck where my fingers would fall naturally on other keyboards. This actually bothered me enough, as a touch typer of about 70 words per minute, that I'd probably look for a different model were I searching for a Chromebook such as this. Naturally, your mileage may differ.
Other than its layout, however the keyboard's feel and functionality are just fine.
The trackpad works just like a trackpad – which means I hated it as much as I hate every trackpad – but we also noticed that you can use several Mac gestures on it, including three-finger swiping for switching apps and two finger scrolling in web pages.
I asked my son to try out the Chromebook as well, and while he hated the keyboard as much as I did, he liked the unit overall. He did have some issues, however, with unlocking it and syncing it. Not big deals, or deal breakers, he said, just unexpected wrinkles.
Battery life is pretty good most of the time, but Netflix seemed to suck it back like a giant sized pop at a movie theater. We noted that it dropped by about 40 per cent after only about 40 minutes. Acer estimates battery life at 13 hours, however, and if not for our Netflix experience that would have seemed about right. And of course you can plug the thing in and use it that way as long as you're close to an outlet.
The basic interface is like a web browser (hence the Chrome name, I guess) and through that you can access a variety of apps. And that's exactly what I did, playing with stuff ranging from a word processor and spreadsheet to media players and games, and everything worked as expected and advertised. Well, mostly; when my son tried a 3D Flash game of Quake he found it quite choppy – and said it had to be the Chromebook (or a lousy job of porting the game over) because it played fine on his Macbook.
As expected the Chromebook is integrated tightly with Google Drive and many "apps" that you can "install" aren't really installed locally; they're actually just bookmarks that lead to the regular web app, sometimes in a borderless window. This is kind of neat, because you don't usually need to wait or to search for a dedicated Chromebook "App." This depends on the websites you're using, of course. We also noticed that not all of the Chrome apps that are available would work on the Acer. This doesn't seem to be the Acer's fault, however; rather it's the individual apps'.
The Acer does a nice job with multimedia and thanks to its 1080p output and HDMI port you can play your audio and/or video files through a similarly-equipped TV, which is great because a 13 inch screen leaves a lot to be desired when watching movies.
The Chromebook uses the latest 802.11ac2 wireless technology for connecting to the Cloud (or wherever you may want to connect). Acer claims connection speeds up to three times faster than that of previous-generation wireless technologies, but that also applies to other such devices these days. Onboard storage consists of two gigabytes of RAM, with 16 Gig of on-board storage. This might seem like a paltry amount, but don't forget that most of your storage will be online, in the Cloud.
I asked a friend of mine who bought a Chromebook what he thought of his purchase (I don't know what type it was, so this point refers to Chromebooks in general rather than this Acer specifically) and he said that, while it's hard to love the unit, he takes it with him everywhere. He reports that it isn't as good as a "regular" computer, but it's far more versatile than a tablet – so much so that he hardly uses his tablet any more. That's quite the testimonial.
Obviously, I'm not the target audience for the Chromebook, but I can certainly see how handy this Acer can be. It's inexpensive (Acer's website lists it at $329), it's extremely portable, is built well and offers excellent multimedia features. Battery life is very good, the unit's performance is nice and fast and the 1080p video, including via HDMI output, means you can use it to give yourself "smart TV" apps without having to shell out for a smart TV – let alone put up with their often awful interfaces.
Sounds like a potential winner to me.
Copyright 2015 Jim Bray
TechnoFile.com
Jim publishes TechnoFile Magazine. Jim is an affiliate with the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada and his careers have included journalist, technology retailer, video store pioneer, and syndicated columnist; he does a biweekly column on CBC Radio One’s The Business Network.
