When Google announced a new batch of Haswell-based Chromebooks at last month's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, HP was first off the mark with its Chromebook14. This was followed by the colorful Chromebook11 a few days ago, and now Acer has joined the Haswell party with the launch of its third generation Chromebook. The thin and light C720 promises faster performance and longer battery life than previous models and sports a daylight-friendly anti-glare screen.
The Acer C720 Chromebook is of course built around Google's Chrome operating environment, which is updated automatically, so users benefit from the latest features. The device is 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi-capable, and users will be working and playing online for much of the time. Though documents and media files are stored and accessed from the cloud through a browser interface, offline file access is also available for those times when a hotspot or home network is not available.
The first Series C720 Chromebook from Acer is slimmer and lighter than previous Acer Chromebook offerings at just 0.75 in (19 mm) thin, and 2.76 lb (1.25 kg). It's powered by an Intel Celeron 2955U processor running at 1.4 GHz, supported by 4 GB of DDR3L RAM and 16 GB of SSD storage. It has an anti-glare 11.6-inch ComfyView display at 1366 x 768 resolution (with Intel HD graphics) that's reported to offer comfortable viewing in a variety of lighting conditions, though no further details have been given.
The C720-2800 boots from cold in under 7 seconds, boasts an almost instant resume from sleep, and is claimed to offer up to 8.5 hours of up time between charges. The Chromebook has USB 3.0 port as well as USB 2.0, HDMI out for connecting the device to a big screen TV, and an SD card slot. Remaining specs include Bluetooth 4.0, a full-sized FineTip keyboard, a HD webcam and built-in microphone for webchats and video calls, and stereo speakers.
The Acer C720-2800 Chromebook is up for pre-order now for a suggested retail of US$249.99. Other configurations in the C720 Series are due to follow shortly.
Source: Acer
Glare screens are OK if you live and work in a dark room with no lights or windows. But for normal day to day use, glare screens ruin the visual experience.
Flat TV makers switched to anti-glare screens years ago because of so many complaints about glare ruining the TV picture.
I hope all computer, tablet, and phone makers wise up and switch to anti-glare screens for all their products.
Until the developers of "mobile" devices learn this basic fact and start producing sunlight readable devices, nothing they have to offer is actually suitable for users (except perhaps if the users are troglodytes).