Acer was the first company to introduce a Chromebook with a 15.6 inch display when it introduced the $250 Chromebook 15 in January. A few months later the company added a more powerful model with a Core i5 processor for $500.
Now Acer is going the other way, introducing a cheaper model with a starting price of just $200. The Acer Chromebook 15 CB3-531 should be available in North America starting in July.
This laptop features a 15.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, an Intel Celeron N2830 Bay Trail processor, up to 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of eMMC storage.
Measuring 15.1″ x 10.1″ x 1″ and weighing 4.4 pounds, it’s not exactly the most compact Chrome OS laptop. But Acer says you should be able to use it for a long time between charges: the CB3-531 should get up to 12 hours of battery life.
Other features include 802.11ac WiFi, stereo speakers located on either side of the keyboard, and an HD webcam.
If you’re looking for a more powerful model, Acer also offers the CB5-571 consumer model and C910 commercial/education model. These Chromebooks have the same basic design as the CB3-531, but they come with a choice of 1366 x 768 pixel or 1920 x 1080 pixel displays, feature 4GB of RAM, and are available with 16GB to 32GB of storage.
The Acer Chromebook 15 C910 is available with a choice of Broadwell processors including Celeron 3205U, Core i3-5005U, or Core i5-5200U. The Acer Chromebook 15 CB5-571 is available with just the Celeron or Core i3 options.
It is a bit too expensive compared too the new RK3288 Chromebooks (those start at $149).
Also, a 768p / 15.6″ screen is not something I would like to view content on.
Cheaper and bigger doesn’t make the product better.
Man, I just want this in 12″ or 13″.
If they included an open drive bay, it would be perfect! (There should plenty of room in there)
Kind of disappointing not to see ChromeOS versions of some of the other laptops they announced. Hopefully some more will be added but it’s odd they wouldn’t announce them now if that were the case.
12 *hours of battery life.