Chromebooks continue to be some of the more affordable laptops available, but many manufacturers are trying to make their cheapest notebooks stand out. Acer just added the Acer Chromebook 14 to its lineup, which addresses two of the bigger issues for Chrome OS users by offering 14 hours of battery life and 4GB of RAM.
First, let's talk about the Chromebook 14's design. This is Acer's first all-metal Chromebook, featuring an aluminum chassis with rounded corners that weighs just 3.42 pounds. The initial images of the Chromebook 14 show a sleek laptop but not necessarily an inspired design. One of the first Chromebooks to look like a MacBook Pro clone was the Toshiba Chromebook 2, and Acer's Chromebook 14 fits that bill as well.
Another first for Acer comes in the laptop's display: it's the company's first Chromebook to sport a 14-inch IPS screen, which is notable as most Chromebooks still suffer from lackluster displays. However, the screen is also a key factor in battery life. The Chromebook 14 is available with 1080p and 1366×768 screen options, and you'll have to get the regular 1366×768 model for the 14-hour battery life. The 1080p model should get at least 12 hours on a single charge.
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The Acer Chromebook 14 has an all-metal, lightweight design with rounded corners.
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You can get the 14-inch IPS display in FHD (1920x1080) or HD (1366x768).
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It looks like a MacBook Pro copy, but many low-end devices are trying to mimic that sleek style now.
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The base price is unknown right now, but the model with 4GB of RAM will be $299.
Several OEMs are working out the best ways to make their Chromebooks more "premium" while still keeping prices down. Dell's Chromebook 13 is the best recent example of this, as it's a highly customizable laptop that starts at $399 but could be beefed up to $899 by adding more storage and RAM, an IPS touchscreen, and a Core i5 processor.
Acer's Chromebook 14 appears to provide ample bang for the buck at $299, with the kicker being fantastic battery life if you're willing to stick to the 1366×768 display. While its 4GB of RAM will make multitasking easier and faster on Chrome OS, you'll still have to pay a bit more for that much memory. Even with the Acer Chromebook 14, 2GB of RAM will be standard on the base model, with 4GB being the max.
"Several models" of the Chromebook 14 will be available, but full price information hasn't been released yet. However, you can now preorder one model on Amazon for $299 that has a 1.6GHz Intel Celeron processor, the 1080p IPS display, 32GB of storage, and 4GB RAM.
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