Acer C7 Chromebook Impressions

rat

rat

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Just some general notes and impressions with the Acer C7 Chromebook.

Picked one up to replace my aging Aspire One netbook, first gen Atom CPU and capped at 1.5GB of Ram. The netbook served me perfectly well for in the bed browsing but the lack of ram was becoming a problem. Browers were crashing too often when I was trying to keep tabs open.

$199. C7 Chromebook. Dualcore Celeron 1.1Ghz CPU that is based off the Sandy Bridge procs. 2GB Ram. Expandable to 16GB. 320GB Hard Drive. Can chainboot Ubuntu. Seemed worth a try.

The build quality on this thing is actually pretty fantastic considering the cost. I rank it above my netbook's build and that's a first gen thing, usually they overbuild for those and cut back/slim down later on.

One single screw secures the bottom panel. Unscrew it and slide the entire panel off. Access to 2nd, unpopulated, memory socket, 7.5mm SATA hard drive, CPU cooler, wifi card, etc. Usual laptop guts. Takes DDR3 1066/1333 ram. HD can be swapped for an SSD. ChromeOS restore does not distinguish original hardware and you can easily restore it once the drive is replaced.

The CPU is no slouch. Best estimates based on benchmarks is that it's roughly equivalent to a 1.6Ghz Core2Duo. Almost never gets warm. Even at its hottest it's still cooler than the Atom netbook under load.

Chicklet keyboards continue to suck. Trackpad is a giant button and uses multitouch to distinguish between left and right clicks. Hate two finger clicking for right clicks, two finger scrolling is handy.

Netbook got to the point (due to the ever increasing complexity of video streams and compression) to where it could no longer play 480 streams fluidly. Even 320 sometimes had issues. Chromebook does 720 without breaking a sweat.

Local 1080p playback is no issue whatsoever.

Backlight is uneven and bleeds at the bottom. Color gamut is slightly muted. Not severe enough for me to complain. General tones are accurate, greys are grey without hint of coloring. Backlight is painfully bright. I have it set to 10% and could probably go lower.

The main motivation for getting the Chromebook was on the road gaming. Since I chainbooted Ubuntu on this system, this meant giving Steam for Linux a try.

TF2 runs okay. Turning stuff off helps a lot. Since I play on some pretty frantic multiplayer servers, I opted to go for maximum performance.

It actually does pretty well without looking too terrible. Onboard is an Intel HD 2000 GPU.

Screenshot example: http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/577858410409529700/058CF0B0102CB7DCBCAC241FFD9F34A29A96E6B0/

Other, simpler, games like Closure, Shank 2, Spirits, Splice, Zen Bound 2, World of Goo, Braid, Limbo, etc... all play quite well. (Yes. They're all Humble Bundle games.)

Wifi in this thing is probably the best I've ever seen. It picks up APs I would struggle to see even if I was standing outside the house with my phone.

This is a damned good laptop/netbook. If I end up having anyone ask me what they should get and they end up only needing something to get online, check email, watch Netflix... I'll tell them to just get a Chromebook. ChromeOS is perfect for that.

For $199? It's pretty much worth getting just because.
 
I suspect they really aren't that bad. For $200 its pretty damn good. Course you are always going to have people say Chrome OS is stupid and is just the browser. Which it did start out that way. But its gotten much better since they started the project. Personally, I think its perfect to browse the internet, take to class, etc.
 
I've been looking at either the Samsung or Acer Chromebook recently. Only need it for web browsing and accessing documents/spreadsheets on Google drive while at work.

I've got a confused impression so far from other reviews I've read though, the Acer seems to be considered faster despite the lower price. Not sure if that is down to the SSD vs HDD or what though. I ws leaning toward the Samsung simply because I'll need almost no local storage, so having everything on an SSD appeals to me.
 
Stryke1983 said:
I've been looking at either the Samsung or Acer Chromebook recently. Only need it for web browsing and accessing documents/spreadsheets on Google drive while at work.

I've got a confused impression so far from other reviews I've read though, the Acer seems to be considered faster despite the lower price. Not sure if that is down to the SSD vs HDD or what though. I ws leaning toward the Samsung simply because I'll need almost no local storage, so having everything on an SSD appeals to me.
Click to expand...

I would suggest getting the Acer and doing a drive swap. A 4GB SSD is more than large enough for just ChromeOS. (You can get a 30GB SSD for about $30)

The Samsung notebook is appealing because it's ARM based, requires no fans for cooling and lasts longer on the battery as a result... but it seems to be hampered by poor multitasking. The Samsung unit is also fixed specs (no ram sockets) and as updates require more resources, you're going to end up with worse performance over a machine where you can add more ram easily.
 
I have to say I really have been enjoying my Samsung Chromebook. the battery life is great, and I find it better to web browse while watching TV over my tablet. I can't say that its the first machine I reach for when I'm going out on the road, but for web browsing at home I find it to be quite capable.
 
It's great. I've been doing a lot of writing in my spare time and my tablet+bluetooth KB isn't cutting it anymore now that I'm past the note-taking/outline phase.

I do like Chrome OS, but I can't be connected to the internet all the time and I don't want to have my writing on Google Drive for various reasons. So I installed Ubuntu and it's working great. Trackpad does suck, and that's my only real negative. Same problems as Macbooks that I do not like, and not sure if I ever will.
 
Another 11" Samsung Chromebbok user here. They are excellent. I have no complaints really. For the price it seems chrulish to moan about anything really.

I have a Nexus4 and a 7" tablet but the Chromebook is my sofa browser device of choice now.

Everyone I've shown it to has been impressed. I have also removed the Samsung lettering on the cover (drip some isopro over the lettering and they slide off easy) which looks nicer.

Hassle free, cheap computing! Whats not to like for the general computer user.
 
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