CES 2015: Acer pins hopes on Chromebooks
GOOGLE’S Chromebooks continue to be bargains with Acer releasing a cheap yet large 15.6-inch Chromebook
GOOGLE’S Chromebooks continue to be bargains with Taiwanese manufacturer Acer releasing a cheap yet large 15.6-inch Chromebook starting at $US250. It’s in fact the biggest Chromebook to date.
The Chromebook 15 features fifth generation processors. You can choose an Intel Core i3 processor or Celeron processor based on Intel 5th Generation microarchitecture. It comes with either a 16 or 32 Gigabyte solid state drive, 2 or 4 GB of RAM, and optionally a 1080p full HD display.
Despite its large size, it weighs only 2.2kg. Australian pricing is not known yet.
At a time the traditional PC market is shrinking, Acer is pinning its hopes on Chromebooks.
The company says it has already achieved about 40 per cent of Chromebook market share worldwide, citing figures by market research agency Gartner.
The Chromebook has two full-sized upward facing speakers and Acer says customers will enjoy all-day productivity on one battery charge.
The Chromebook 15 has a white fabric-like surface and Acer says the case can withstand up to 60kg of force, while corners can tolerate up to 45cm drops. It has multichannel wireless connectivity.
Users can connect devices to it using a variety of means: Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and HDMI. It also has an SD card reader.
Acer also has released a touchscreen version of its currently selling 13.3-inch Chromebook.
And it announced two gaming monitors, and a 5-inch 4G LTE smartphone. There is no indication of the smartphone making it to Australia.
Chris Griffith is attending CES in Las Vegas courtesy of Acer, Sony and Samsung.