Mobile business owners who need to get online fast and travel light now have a new option. The Acer Chromebook C720 is the latest of the company’s Google Chromebooks.
At less then an inch thick, the new Acer Chromebook should be sufficiently mobile as an alternative to a tablet. Of course, it does have limits. Chromebooks are good for getting on the Web in a flash. But other than that, their uses are fairly limited.
Still, if quick online access is critical they remain a viable option.
Here’s a quick overview of the new Acer Chromebook device from Notebook Italia:
Stripped Down Acer Chromebook Offers Useful Features
The new Acer Chromebook is 30 percent thinner than the company’s last model. And Acer promotes the Chromebook’s ability to get online – using the Google Chrome browser – in just 7 seconds.
It features an 11.6-inch anti-glare monitor and a full-size keyboard. The full keyboard is a plus for those who simply can’t type on a tablet or prefer a traditional set of keys.
It can also connect to a second display through an HDMI port and you can connect other devices to it through the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports.
Inside, the Chromebook has a new Intel processor based on Haswell micro-architecture, Acer said in an official release.
But don’t let the lack of additional features bother you. The new Acer Chromebook C720 is selling for about $250 at Amazon.com and at Best Buy stores.
So, if you’re using cloud storage like Google Drive and get most of your business work completed through online apps, it could be an affordable option.
Image: Notebook Italia
ed pierce
I am planning on buying one of these for my daughter this Christmas. It doesn’t have the features I need and I really need my laptop back from her! 🙂
Shawn Hessinger
Hi Ed,
Smart move. I’m sure, for her purposes, it’ll work just fine. And if you can’t get yours back, I guess you could always learn to work in Google Drive. 🙂
Hmm, not bad. That’s roughly £150. I can see it coming in handy for someone who does a lot of their work online or someone who does that in addition to having to be mobile (like travelling abroad).
Shawn Hessinger
Ebele,
I think it really comes down to what you need your laptop to do. People assume they need lots of bells and whistles, but you might not want to take a laptop with lots of valuable files on the road with you anyway. So even as an auxiliary machine for travel it might be a good choice.
Shawn,
A laptop like that would be perfect for me as I only want the most basic of things: to be able to type and access the internet. So if I ever travelled, that would be ideal. Plus it appears to be so light.
Aira Bongco
I find that it will be handy for people who constantly use their netbooks for work and want to limit distractions. Some laptops can be overly powerful and can be filled with games. This is not good especially for people who work at home.
Aira, for me re: working from home, that laptop wouldn’t limit distractions as I have the DNA of a squirrel! The internet in and of itself can be a distraction, or my need to tidy round the house all of a sudden, or make a phone call or put on my cape and go save the world 🙂 (does a Superman fist pump)
I have a Samsung Chromebook C303 with a 16GB SSD drive and 11.6″ display. It’s better then a tablet in my opinion as I can use it with a keyboard and a full browser. It does everything I need and boots to login in less then 10 seconds. Great tools for mobile users everywhere.
Shawn Hessinger
Hi Mike,
Thanks for your comment. It really does seem like a good tool if you use a lot of online resources anyway. I don’t suppose there’s much in the way of memory or flashy software. But if you wanted to, say, keep up with various social media channels and update a blog post or two while on the road, I’m sure it would be fine. I’m also guessing you could always store any documents you really needed to work with in Google Drive or Dropbox or something, if you didn’t have a lot of on board storage.
ANGEL
THIS ACER C720 RUN WINDOWS 8 ?
Bill
I have the original Acer C7 and I have owned it for about a year now, maybe more. It’s a daily driver and I have few reasons to grab another machine to get something done. I very seldomly grab the wife’s Macbook Pro, and even then it is only for a single task I can’t do on the Chromebook. So, for the other 99.xx% of my time the Chromebook works superbly, runs cool in my lap, and is quiet, lightweight and easy to navigate.
Chromebooks make great gifts and the recipient gets the benefit of navigating the web without threat of virus or trojan infection (yet). And it’s now humorous to get the Windows-themed popup that says my computer is infected. With a Chromebook those attempts at phishing, spreading malware or infecting with a virus are easy to dismiss. The machines are relatively quick and they don’t slow with age or updates. I’ll be buying again once mine starts to show its age. At this point it looks and acts just like it did when new so it’s difficult to justify buying a new one (but I want one!).