Acer Chromebook 13: 1080p with Tegra K1

Closing Thoughts

Chromebooks are always a bit of an interesting topic for me. On the one hand, I really like some of what they offer as a glorified web browser, email checker, etc. On the other, I’ve got a smartphone – not to mention tablets – that can do all of that nearly as well. What you don’t get with a smartphone or a tablet however is the experience of a real laptop. That turns the Chromebook into a sort of modern typewriter with extras, and while the starting price of $199 to $249 (depending on the Chromebook in question) might seem a bit too high for some, for others this is a great alternative to a tablet.

As far as Acer’s Chromebook 13 goes, let’s start with the 13.3-inch display. This Chromebook is a bit larger than others, but while it might not be ideal for a student looking to put something into their backpack, it’s going to be easier for people whose vision isn't so great (like me, or perhaps more importantly, my parents) to read. The 1080p display in the Acer is a disappointment in terms of overall LCD quality, but it does result in more screen real estate, which is important now that Chrome OS supports windowing of apps. It’s also something you can set on your lap or in an airplane or on a desk and you don’t have to try and hold the screen the whole time, an area where for me tablets and smartphones fall short.

What really pushes the Chromebook 13 up the list in terms of something that I can recommend is the typing experience. So far, it’s the best of the bunch for Chromebooks that I’ve handled (and I’ve managed to at least poke at most of them now), so as a typewriter it definitely works for me. The overall aesthetic is also a plus, and I really like having a fanless laptop with no moving parts other than the keys on the keyboard and the hinges – less stuff to break. Even under full load (as much as you can load a Chromebook), the CB13 never gets more than slightly warm to the touch in my experience. Battery life is also near the top as far as Chromebooks go, with Internet surfing breaking the 10 hour mark. Turn off WiFi and just start typing and you’re likely to get closer to 11-12 hours. Even video playback clocks in at a rather impressive eight hours.

In terms of complaints, I really only have a few. First is that the 1080p display should have been a lot better than this, but at $249 the price has now dropped to the point where it’s not as big of a problem. The other complaint is that performance just isn’t really there if you do anything moderately taxing in terms of surfing the web. 1080p YouTube content works fine, but some of the complex websites can still be slower to load than I’d like. As noted in the performance section, the older Acer C720 with its Celeron 2955U ends up being substantially faster in pretty much every meaningful test I could come up with, outside of a few graphics specific workloads.

NVIDIA for their part has pushed Tegra K1 as the most powerful graphics solution in an SoC, and that’s mostly true – at least back when TK1 first launched in the first half of 2014. The problem is that using TK1 in a Chromebook opens it up for comparison to a lot more than ARM SoCs, and Chrome seems to hit the CPU a lot harder than Android in normal use. We end up seeing once more that while it may not be the lowest power option, Intel’s Core architecture is very difficult to beat once we’re looking at laptops. That same comparison incidentally also applies to Bay Trail, though the gap should be a little narrower. It’s why I think Acer’s next Chromebook, the CB15, is going to be the one to beat, but the 15.6” display is going to be a bit of a problem. Give me an updated Chromebook 13 with a fan to help cool a Broadwell-U processor and fix the display and I’d have basically the Chromebook I want.

Looking at the bigger picture, it’s impressive how much Chrome OS has improved since the first time I looked at a Chromebook a few years ago. With offline apps and real multitasking, all built around a secure platform running what is perhaps the world’s most popular browser, for those that don’t need to do anything really complex a Chromebook might be just what they’re after. I’d love to see more apps (and more importantly, better apps), though with a bit of work it’s possible to repackage and run some Android apps on Chrome OS now. There are also a ton of applications and other software available in the browser that will run on a Chromebook, but finding replacements for things like Microsoft Office or Photoshop is asking for too much in my book, at least for now.

Probably the most compelling argument for Chrome OS is if you’re tired of supporting certain family members or friends that constantly seem to download and run malicious software that trashes their PC; I don’t know that it’s “impossible” to get a virus on a Chromebook, but it would certainly be a lot less likely than on Windows. That’s perhaps a big part of what has helped make Chromebooks so popular in the education system, and I know our school district and many others are now using Chromebooks instead of Windows in the classroom. I can’t see many businesses switching to Chromebooks in the near future, but as the platform continues to evolve and the apps improve, that just might change.