Acer intros a new version of the C7 Chromebook with a better battery and $280 price point
by Adrian Diaconescu on Mar 13, 2013 with 0 Comments
Acer’s $200 C7 Chromebook might not be playing in the same league as the Pixel (not even close), but it is six times cheaper, so budget-conscious folks are likely to call the quality-price ratio fair. But what if you need just a little extra oomph and you don’t mind coughing up 80 bucks more?
In that case, you should meet the C710-2055. This looks exactly the same as the base C7 Chromebook model (C710-2847) and has most of the specs of the original, save for two key features, which have been boosted.
The puny 4-cell battery now has two extra cells and a 5,000 mAh total capacity, which should add two whole hours of autonomy to the previous four. Multitasking is bound to get an important lift as well, given the 2 GB of RAM inside the base C7 have been upgraded to 4 gigs.
I know what you’re thinking, a slightly snappier processor would have made the new C7 perfect, but for the time being you’ll still have to make due with the 1.1 GHz Celeron 847. The rest is also the same, with all the ups and downs that go with it – 320 GB of storage, 11.6-inch 1,366 x 768 pix res screen, Intel HD Graphics, Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI, multi-gesture touchpad.
And, as you might have guessed already, the C710-2055 is worth $280. Meanwhile, remember there’s another C7 version around, the C710-2605, going for $300. That’s for some reason very difficult to score (currently out of stock at most online retailers) and is esentially a C710-2055 with a larger 500 GB hard drive.
As for other Chromebook options, you can find Samsung’s old Series 3 starting at $250, the new Series 5 at $550 and up, and the HP Pavilion going for $330. And, of course, the almighty Pixel is available for $1,299 in a Wi-Fi only flavor or $1,449 with 4G LTE. That’s what we like to call freedom of choice!
So what say you, boys and girls? Is Acer’s rehashed new C7 worth a second look? Is it the Chromebook with the best quality-price ratio? Are Chromebooks in general worth the trouble?
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