Acer’s Chromebook 15 Is a Big-Screen Chromebook Worth Buying

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So far, most Chromebooks (with the exception of Google’s Pixel) have been inexpensive, and on the small side. They’re good, utilitarian, compact portables.

But Acer’s new Chromebook 15 is a pickup truck. With a massive 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 resolution display, Acer’s offering is the largest laptop running Google’s Chrome OS that you can buy. And like a base model Ford F150, this Chromebook, with a starting price of $249, might be a deal that’s too good to pass up.

A beast in both size and looks

The Chromebook 15’s large display is certainly a plus for people looking for a big-screen laptop on the cheap, but it also comes with some tradeoffs: its  bulky and not very attractive design.

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For comparison’s sake, at 15.1 x 9.7 x 0.95 inches and weighing a hefty 4.9 pounds, the Chromebook 15 is far larger than Apple’s top-of-the-line 15-inch MacBook Pro, which measures 14.1 x 9.7 x 0.71 inches and weighs 4.5 pounds. (The Macbook Pro starts at a wallet-draining $2,000, however).

The Acer’s build quality isn’t exactly the best, either. Everything feels solid and properly put together, but it’s just that the laptop’s body is made of a stiff plastic that feels cheap. The notebook’s white paint job doesn’t do it any favors, either: It’s practically begging to be scuffed and stained.

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Open the Chromebook 15’s lid, and you’re met by its full-size keyboard and touchpad. On either side of those are the Chromebook’s two huge top-mounted speakers. While I appreciate the fact that Acer wants to give this machine some multimedia chops, I would have liked to see a dedicated number pad added to the Chromebook 15, rather than two giant speakers.

Google’s second-generation Chromebook Pixel, with its seamless metal design, is proof that Chromebooks don’t have to be unattractive, but that looks come at a steep price. In the Pixel’s case, that price is a whopping $1,000.

A big, beautiful display

The Chromebook 15’s biggest selling point is its huge — for a Chromebook — 15.6-inch display. The $249 base version of the Chromebook 15 comes with a 15-inch, 1366 x 768 display, a relatively low resolution for such a large screen.

Add an extra $100 to the price tag, and you’ll get a far sharper 15-inch, 1920 x 1080 panel. Text on the panel looked exceedingly crisp, and details in images were easy to spot. The screen’s matte coating also keeps light reflectivity down, and its viewing angles are decent.

Colors viewed on the Chromebook 15’s screen, however, looked washed out, especially compared to my MacBook Air’s display. Darks tended to blend together, as I watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, making it difficult to make out certain details.

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If you want a Chromebook with an incredible display, you’ll definitely want to check out Google’s second-generation Chromebook Pixel, which packs a gorgeous, though smaller, 13-inch, 2560 x 1700 resolution screen. There’s also Toshiba’s Chromebook 2, which packs a 13-inch 1080p display for $329.

One of the biggest benefits of the Chromebook 15′s larger display is the fact that you have so much more real estate to work with. I’ve got two browser windows open side by side, and they’re equally large and easy to read. It’s a huge and welcome change from using a smaller 13-inch display, and is the laptop’s single biggest selling factor.

Keyboard and touchpad

Both the Chromebook 15’s keyboard and touchpad are wonderfully responsive. The Chromebook’s full-size keyboard offers a good amount of key travel and it’s nicely clicky. If you’re new to Chromebooks, the keyboard’s layout may be a bit disorienting at first, as there is no Caps Lock key, and the top row is made up of a series of system settings buttons.

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The one downside to the Chromebook 15’s keyboard is the fact that it’s not backlit. So if you’re working on the train or bus, you’re going to need that annoying overhead light to find the nonstandard keys.

The laptop’s touchpad is just as responsive as its keyboard. Multitouch gestures like two-finger scrolling are incredibly reliable (unlike early-generation Chromebooks’), and there isn’t a hint of jumpiness.

Chrome OS

Google’s Web-based Chrome OS has come a long way since the first Chromebooks hit the market in 2011. Back then, owning a Chromebook seemed ridiculous. The common complaint: “You mean I have to be online all the time?”

Today, owning a Chromebook isn’t such a strange concept. There are a variety of good Chrome apps available through Google’s Chrome app store, and if you don’t have a Web connection, you can use many apps offline. In fact, Google has mandated that all Chrome apps must soon work offline if they are to remain in the Chrome app store.

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Apps don’t run in their own windows in Chrome OS, as they do with Microsoft’s Windows or Apple’s Mac OS X. Instead, everything is opened in a webpage, just as it would be in the Chrome browser.

There are, however, a number of popular apps and programs that don’t run on Chrome OS, specifically Apple’s iTunes, Skype, and native games. Chromebooks are also notorious for being difficult to connect to wireless printers, so you’ll want to keep that in mind.

Performance and specs

Speed, speed, speed.The  Acer Chromebook 15 is fast. With a fifth-generation Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of RAM, this laptop absolutely flies through webpages with ease. I didn’t notice a bit of slowdown during my time with the Chromebook 15, despite having 19 different tabs open in Chrome at the same time.

Chromebooks don’t come with much onboard storage space. The Chromebook 15 has just 32GB of memory, so to compensate, they usually come with some kind of free cloud storage option through Google Drive. The Chromebook Pixel, for example, comes with 1TB of free cloud storage for two years. The Chromebook 15 doesn’t get that much love, but it does get you 100GB of storage for two years.

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Still, 32GB of onboard storage is probably too little for people who want to save all their movies and music to their laptops for when they don’t have an available Web connection.

With its 3,220 mAh battery, the Chromebook 15 is estimated to last up to nine hours on a single charge. I didn’t see numbers that high, but during my real-world testing, which consisted of regular Web browsing, streaming music, and general usage over the course of a day, I managed to get more than seven hours of battery life out of the Chromebook. That’s pretty good for a low-cost laptop with such a large display.

A Chromebook you can call your own

Though the Chromebook 15 isn’t the best-looking device on the planet, and its display could be a bit more colorful, the fact that it packs a large screen, strong performance, and lengthy battery life into such an inexpensive package is impressive.

Still, because Chrome OS can’t run Windows and OS X programs, I wouldn’t rely on the Chromebook 15 as my sole computer. If you need a secondary computer or are looking for a laptop for a student, the Chromebook 15 is worth a look.

If you want something a bit smaller and lighter, though just as inexpensive, you’ll want to check out Toshiba’s Chromebook 2, with its 13-inch, 1080p display.

But if you’re not going to be traveling much with your Chromebook, or just don’t mind a little junk in the trunk, get the Chromebook 15.

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley or on Google+.