Computer Shopper – September 2019

100 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379

VALUE

CHROMEBOOKSARETYPICALLYsmall

and basic laptops that sacrificelooks for

affordability,but Acer’s Chromebook14 look

to shake up that trend. In an effort to prove

it’s possibleto build acheap laptop without

the usual trade-offs, it’s treadingan unusual

path with its latest ChromeOS portable.

In fact, you could be forgiven formistaking

the Chromebook14 foraMacBookAir at

first glance.The Chromebook14’s wedged

shape and gold or silver aluminium

chassis,black plastic hinge at the rear

and sunkenkeyboardare all reminiscentof

Apple’s classic laptop; only the brushedfinish

on the lid and Acer logo give the game away.

Still, the whole thing feels reassuringly

expensiveand barely flexes amillimetreif

you try to twist and bend it. It’s as chunky

as aMacBookat 17mm thick, althoughat

1.68kg it’s not quiteaslightweight.

NON-IDENTICALTWINS

There are acouple of variants available: the

£249 model we tested has a14in, 1,366x768

resolutiondisplay, an Intel Celeronprocessor

and 2GB of RAM, while £280 will upgradeto a

Full HD resolutionand 4GB RAM. This being a

Chromebook,both modelsonly include32GB

of flash storage,soyou’ll be reliant on

cloud-basedstorage solutionsformost files.

The Scrabble-tile keys are anotheraspect

of the design that seems to payhomage to

the MacBookAir,and the keyboardis also

similar in layout. Critically,the keys are all

large and nicely spacedout, with decent

travel resultingin comfortabletyping.

The sizable touchpadis responsive,too,

but since it’s runningChromeOS, there

aren’t as many multitouch gesturesto

take advantage of when comparedwith

other operatingsystems.

Sadly,asisthe case with most cheap

Chromebooks,the displayisn’t quiteupto

scratch. It’s adecent size at 14in, but

quality-wise it’s aletdown. It’s not

particularlysharp at 1,366x766,brightness

merely acceptableat 213cd/m^2 ,but it’s the

contrastratio of 287:1 that really lets it do.

It’s the same sorry case with colour

accuracy,too,with the TN panel displaying

only 54% of the sRGB colour gamut. It all

leads to awashed-out,dull display, with a

clear lack of richnessand vibrancy.While th

is largely par forthe course with entry-level

Chromebooks,there have been afew

exceptionsover the years, such as the Toshb

Chromebook2, with its impressivefull HD

ACERChromebook

14(2018)

★★★★★

£249•From http://www.currys.co.uk

VERDICT

AbeautifullycraftedChromebook,albeiton

withsomedisplayandstorageissues

d l y d h b k

( h pp ) y

b l y h h l

G

s.

Pe rf ormanceis also behind the pack,

thoughnot as much as displayquality.

Both versionsof the Chromebook14 include

the Intel CeleronN3160 processor,which

comes clockedat 1.6GHz with aTurbo Boost

speed of 2.48GHz,so it’s worth keeping

expectationsin check, especiallyconsidering

the frugal 2GB of RAM on this £249 spec.

AJetStream score of 47.7 isn’t exemplary,

with the HP Chromebook14 scoringahigher

52.9.Surprisingly,inthe WebGL 3D Cubes

test it achieved an average result of 22fps,

bringingit roughlyin line with the

ChromebookR11, and is double that of the

HP.Ingeneral use,itfelt responsiveand

reasonablyfast forthe most part. Just don’t

expect it run as fast with multipleChrome

tabs open; the 2GB of RAM will see to that.

EXCESSENERGY

Luckily,battery lifeisexcellent.In our video

rundowntest, it beat the HP Chromebookby

over an hour,lasting 10h 22m, and it also

beats many more seriousWindows-based

l t l th It’ th h

g y h gh ll k gd y d

l d g d -

b d b dg l h h

c osoftSu ace Go a d 6 ot o

h ll h h h l l.

In te rms of connectivity,there ’s agood

selectionof ports and sockets.It has two

USB3 ports and an HDMI output for

connectingexternal displays, and there’s a

3.5mm headsetoutput foryour headphones.

Wirelesssupportextends to dual-band

802.11ac wirelessand Bluetooth 4.2, too.

The downsideis that there’s no Ethernet

port and, more significantly,noSDcard slot,

so you’re stuck with the 32GB of onboard

storage and whatever allocationyou have in

the cloud. That’s avery strangething to leave

out; SD and microSDslots aren’t expensive

luxuriesand don’t demandalot of space on

the chassis,so it’s inexplicablethat they’ve

been leftoffalaptop that would benefit

enormouslyfrom easily added storage.

The built-in speakersare reasonable,but

nothingout of the ordinary.They’re clear,

reasonablyloud and mostly distortion-free

(this only kicks in at very high volumelevels).

However,aswith most laptops and tablets,

the sound doesn’t have much weight to it,

nor any bass to speak of.Ifyou want that,

l in your headphones.

CONFLICTOF INTERESTS

c er’s latest attempt at aChromebook

ds with mixed results.Its metal-clad

h isis excellent,the keyboardis great, and

uch acheap device,you’re gettingsuperb

b ld quality.The display, however,isabig

d pointment,as is the lack of SD card slot.

you don’t mind somethingalittle smaller,

d n 2-in-1 form rather than aconventional

l p ,then the Linx 12X64 is arespectable

b d etoption.It has twice as much onboard

ge ,not to mentionan SD card slot, and

indowsoperatingsystem is farmore

blethan ChromeOS.

oks

ng

sh

y.

k

ne

display, and Acer’s own ChromebookR11

(Shopper344), which has asmaller yet far

better-qualitytouchscreen.There’s also

Google’s Pixel Book, althoughthat doesn’t

seem avery fair comparisonat £969.

Perf is also behind the pack,

to get you throughafull workingday, and

also proves an advantage over Windows-

based budgetalternativessuch as the

MicrosoftSurface Go and Linx 12X64. Both of

these fell short of eight hours, let alone 10.

In te of connectivitythere’s ood

to

is

he

own.

g

this

el

shiba

IPS

laptops alongthe way. It’s more than enough plugi

CO

Ac

ends

chassi

forsu

build

disapp

If you

and in

laptop

budget

storag

its Wi

flexib