Acer Chromebook 514 sails through FCC, headed for US shores

Back in August, Acer introduced the Chromebook 514, a 14-inch laptop expected to start at $350. The company then said it would be available in North America around October and here we are: It appears the large Chromebook with a relatively small price tag is about to go on sale in the U.S.

The Acer Chromebook 514 was certified this week by the FCC and I caught the above label information showing the model number which confirms which device was tested.

At the time of the device announcement, hardware information was generally non-existent. But Android Police took the device for a spin about a week later — they weren’t impressed by the build quality but that could have been an early production model — and came away with these specifications:

CPU: Intel Celeron Quad Core N3450 or Intel Pentium Quad Core N4200 (both Apollo Lake)
Display: 14″FHD Acer ComfyView IPS LED LCD or FHD (1920×1080) IPS Multi-touch LCD
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 500 or 505
RAM: 4 or 8GB
Storage: 32 or 64GB eMMC
Camera: HDR
Battery: 12 hours
Connectivity: 2x USB 3.0, 2x Type C (Power and data on both sides), MicroSD card slot, 3.5mm headphone jack

Surely, the expected $350 price tag is for a combination of the Intel Celeron, no touchscreen, 4GB of memory and 32GB of storage, so upgrades will set you back another $100 to $250 in my opinion, depending on your choices. Assuming the final build quality is improved over what Android Police experienced in September, the Acer Chromebook 514 might be a nice entry-level Chrome OS laptop for those on a budget.