Gadgetory

well this is Dan from The Verge and this is the Acer Chromebook c720 acer's new Chromebook c720 is an update to last year's ultra cheap C 7 the C 720 slimmer faster lighter and longer-lasting than before and at 249 bucks it's likely to be the cheapest new Chromebook announced by Google this year though the C 720 has been more or less ignored by Google thus far it is a considerable upgrade over the c7 Acer has tightened up manufacturing on the device resulting in a much nicer laptop the display hinge isn't wobbly the laptop doesn't flex when you pick it up the keyboard is actually pretty nice to type on and the trackpad is remarkably usable for scrolling and other multi-finger gestures the C 720 is also thinner and lighter than the c7 but it still has a pretty boring utilitarian design compared to the flashy gloss and fun colors at the Chromebook 11 the C 720 is a snoozer to look at with its dark red color scheme and pedestrian looks but it's functionally much better you won't leave fingerprints all over its lid every time you touch it for example the 11.6 inch display in the C 720 is the same size and same 1366 by 768 pixel resolution as last year but this time is a matte finish which all but eliminates reflections and glare the screen is nowhere near as nice as the panel on the Chromebook 11 it's not as bright doesn't have as amazing viewing angles and doesn't have its deep blacks but it's perfectly usable and acceptable for this level of laptop you do lose some neat design features found on the HP speakers are on the bottom of the computer instead of built into the keyboard they get loud but they really don't sound all that great you can't charge it using a microUSB charger and there's no cool light-up strip to be found on the C 720s lid in exchange you get a USB 3.0 port a full HDMI out port along with the USB 2.0 port a full-size SD card reader and a Kensington lock port while the HP might be the fashionista the Chromebook family the C 720 is the workhorse the improvements to the C 720s design and build quality are all welcomed but the biggest difference between it and the c7 and frankly every other Chromebook is found on the inside the c7 is one of the first Chromebooks to hit the market with Intel's new processor known as Haswell this offers much better performance and usability but more importantly provides dramatically improved battery life the C 720 is quoted at 8.5 hours of battery life by a certain Google nearly double that of the C 7 in our tests it really lives up to that claim it lasted over 9 hours and 40 minutes in our rundown test and in real world use we've been able to get well over 7 hours of use from it the biggest complaint we've had from Chromebooks in the past is battery life and fortunately the C 720 has no issues there along with the new processor Acer has swapped out the C sevens antiquated spinning disk hard drive for much more fitting SSD you lose a lot of storage space the SSD is only 16 gigabytes compared to the old versions 320 gigabytes but you gain a lot in performance and with Chrome OS you're supposed to be living in the cloud anyways the new machine powers on much faster can handle dozens of tabs without choking doesn't drop frames and video playback and it's just snappier and more responsive than any Chromebook I've used save for the top-of-the-line pixel I can't say it's as fast as my MacBook Air but it's fast enough to where it doesn't get in the way of my work and that's really the most important factor at under $250 the C 720 is pretty much the cheapest laptop that you can buy these days and fortunately it's performance stamina Balai it's bargain-basement price Chrome OS still isn't for everyone you really have to give yourself over to Google services and be content with web-based apps but the C 720 is still a very capable machine which can't really be said for many other Chromebooks Google may be calling the HP Chromebook 11 the Chromebook for everyone but the C 720 seems to be the Chromebook for me and probably you too