After announcing the Acer Chromebook 514 back in August and then seeing the device certified by the FCC in October, I expected sales to begin in November. We’re now in December and you still can’t buy this Chrome OS laptop, but at least the Acer Chromebook 514 product page is live in the US.
There’s only one model shown currently and it has a price of $499.99, which is higher than expected, although Acer was coy on device specs a few months ago. I suspect we’ll see a few different configurations soon. The Pentium chip inside the 514 launched in 2016, so this device doesn’t have the latest CPU or integrated GPU technology.
Here’s a listing of the hardware specs you get for that price:
- Intel Pentium N4200 quad-core processor with 1.1 GHz base clock speed, 2.5 GHz turbo speed
- 8 GB of LPDDR4 memory
- 64 GB of eMMC storage
- A 14 inch IPS touchscreen display with 1920 x 1080 resolution
- Backlit keyboard and HDR camera for video chat
- Intel UHD Graphics 505 with that shares memory with the system
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi (no mention of Bluetooth but I would expect it there)
- A pair of USB Type-C (USB 3.1) and two USB Type-A (USB 3.0) ports, a headphone jack, microphone and stereo speakers
- Battery life expectations of up to 12 hours
- Weight of 3.31 pounds
Like the Acer Chromebook Spin 13 I recently reviewed the Acer Chromebook 514 has an aluminum chassis and a Gorilla Glass trackpad. This Chromebooks is not a 2-in-1 like the Spin13, however. It’s also not as powerful, which is to be expected since it’s $400 less than the Spin configuration I used: You’re getting a Pentium chip here instead of a Core i5.
If Acer does have a Chromebook 514 priced at $349.99 — which is the starting price the company announced in August — I’d expect that model to have a Celeron processor and 4 GB of memory; possibly even 32 GB of storage. More information on availability to follow as soon as I have it; thanks Mike for the tip!
