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Acer Chromebook 14 CB3-431 - (Intel Celeron N3060, 2GB RAM, 32GB eMMC, 14 inch HD Display, Google Chrome OS, Silver)

£9.9£99Clearance
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However, when you team the range of ports with its very reliable WiFi connection, the overall connectivity of Acer Chromebook 314 is pretty solid - though not spectacular. We used the Acer Chromebook 314 to book an important event during our tests, and this presented an opportunity to get a serious amount of tabs, sheets and docs open up at once. Thanks to the quad-core Intel Core i5-8250U CPU, this is a Chromebook with genuine performance chops. It’s capable of much more than just web browsing and media consumption. It’s powerful enough for light content creation on the move.

Acer Chromebook 714 review | TechRadar Acer Chromebook 714 review | TechRadar

The bright, roomy screen makes it ideal to peruse maps and images as well as documents and forms, seamlessly transitioning between tasks. Combine this intensive work out with usual work tasks and still the Acer Chromebook 314 had no trouble doing exactly what was required of it without any hiccups. As expected, however, the sound quality takes a dive on those top levels. For enjoying music you’ll want to plug in some ‘phones or a dedicated speaker. One upside of the low-power spec is that battery life is very good. In our video rundown test, the Chromebook 314 kept going for just over 13 hours: a superb result.

A tremendous Chromebook harboring great performance and battery life

The Acer Chromebook 14 is one cool customer. After the laptop streamed 15 minutes of full-screen, HD video, our heat gun registered comfortable temperatures on its touchpad (74.5 degrees Fahrenheit), keyboard (78.5 degrees) and underside (80 degrees). All were less than our 95-degree comfort threshold. Measuring 0.81 by 12.3 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and weighing 3.3 pounds, the Vero 514 is a touch bigger than Acer's less eco-friendly standard Acer Chromebook 514 (0.76 by 12.7 by 8.7 inches and 3.1 pounds). The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, which has a 13.5-inch screen with a squarer 3:2 aspect ratio, is trimmer at 0.65 by 11.6 by 8.7 inches and 2.8 pounds. Acer's Chromebook 14 earned a score of 46.95 on the JetStream 1.1 test, which measures JavaScript performance. That beats the HP Chromebook 14 (46.1), but it's lower than what the Dell (86.3) and the Toshiba (99.2) notched.

Acer Chromebook 14 Review | Trusted Reviews Acer Chromebook 14 Review | Trusted Reviews

Some Chromebook displays are touch compatible, which makes sense as the OS is basically a spin-off of Android. Unfortunately you don’t get any touch support here, so it’s just as well that the touchpad is decent. That said, the Chromebook did have one total meltdown where all of my apps simultaneously crashed and shut down. Thankfully the laptop recovered immediately and I didn’t see a repeat performance. Of course, restarting everything was a major pain in the posterior. Acer Chromebook 14 – Battery life Anyway, the upside of what for the most part is a tough, all-metal laptop should be good long term durability. The downside is weight. It’s a fairly slim device at 1.8cm. But that tough build means it weighs in at 1.6kg. It’s still very portable, with a compact 45 watt charger, but this is not a featherweight laptop. It feels significantly larger and bulkier than a typical 13-inch Ultrabook or the likes of the MacBook Air. This really is a Chromebook with a 14in 1080p screen, an eight-core CPU, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage at a remarkably low price. It’s also slim, light and generally well designed.This is all while retaining the restrained make up and, importantly, a smaller price tag than most laptops, which we have come to expect with good mid-to-high range Chromebooks. The Chromebook 14's full HD-resolution IPS display is great for work and entertainment. Sarah Tew/CNET Performance is good, but the design is what sells it Acer's Chromebooks are some of the most readily available in the world, and as a result, at the time of writing - and to be expected - the Chromebook 314 is available globally.

Acer Chromebook 314 | TechRadar Acer Chromebook 314 | TechRadar

Other pluses include a well-spaced keyboard and a sharp Full HD screen. Brightness levels are pretty good by Chromebook standards, and there’s more colour depth than with many budget rivals. In fact, the only reasons not to invest in the Spin 514 are that faster models, with 12th generation Intel CPUs, have now arrived and that the battery life isn’t quite up there with the leading models. But, if you’re happy to live with a slightly dated spec, this is still one of the best value Chromebooks out there. Contrast is perfectly fine for a budget panel, so you can make out plenty of detail even on those murky Marvel shows. Colours are also quite punchy. Just don’t expect hyper realism. Beneath the Chromebook 14 you’ll find a pair of stereo speakers, which fire your audio straight into your desk, lap or whatever else the device is sat on. Pretty standard for a budget laptop, although at least that audio is quite powerful. On top volume levels I had no trouble making out dialogue in movies or shows, even when watching in a noisy environment. Only the desperate wailings of a distraught three-year-old were enough to conquer that output. It lags well behind that of the more powerful – and more expensive – Dell Chromebook 13, however, which scored 2139 milliseconds on the Kraken test (lower scores are better), and 13,795 on the Octane test (higher scores are better).Most Chromebook connections are wireless, as you'll use the machine almost exclusively when attached to Wi-Fi. Wired Ethernet ports are rare, but support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi is ubiquitous, with 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 found in upscale and corporate Chromebooks. Another slightly marginal aspect is the 14-inch 1080p screen. It’s IPS, so color accuracy and viewing angles are decent. But it’s a little short on punch, brightness and vibrancy. It’s not a terrible panel. But neither is it good enough to be a highlight or a feature you can enjoy in its own right. Chromebooks run quite different software to Windows and macOS laptops so we can’t run our usual suite of benchmark software on them. However, the principles remain the same. One thing the 314 is missing, however, is connectivity. There’s a USB-C port on the left-hand side, but the only USB-A port is USB 2.0. Given that you’ll need the Type-C port for charging, that doesn’t leave much to go around. As for wireless connectivity, you’re looking at a familiar combo of dual-band, 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0. Acer Chromebook 314 (NX.AWGEK.003) review: Keyboard and touchpad

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