Review: Acer Chromebook 15

Introduction and design

Chromebooks thus far have cemented themselves into the small notebook space. Over the last few years, manufacturers have refined their cloud-based offerings and come out with some truly excellent machines, such as the premium 11-inch Samsung Chromebook 2 and 13-inch Toshiba Chromebook 2, one of the first models with a vibrant 1080p screen.

Now, we have our hands on something new and yet very familiar with the the world's first 15-inch Chromebook from Acer. Aptly named the Acer Chromebook 15, this machine is not only the largest Chrome OS notebook to ever exist, it's also the very first that's come equipped with Intel's 5th generation processor.

Despite all these changes, the Chromebook 15 still comes at a very affordable $349 ( £249, about AU$458). That's well beneath the usual 500 smackers you would pay for a budget Windows laptops, and frankly, this Acer notebook has more than a few qualities that might make you consider this budget machine over all others.

Design

After so many 13-inch Chromebooks, Acer's latest 15-inch Chrome OS offering looks downright massive. Of course, that means way more plastic, but the Taiwanese computer manufacturer has done a great job at making it feel entirely solid.

The laptop's entire plastic exterior is also wrapped in a net-like texture. The entire laptop has been given this finish including the lid, bottom and even the on the back of the screen hinges. So, no matter how you're carrying around the Chromebook 15, you'll have a bit more to grip onto. This woven finish also just feels much warmer than a slab of smooth plastic.

Open up the laptop, and you'll be greeted with a massive, 15.6-inch screen that seemingly just absorbs all light and diffracts it without any reflections or glare. Acer calls this its ComfyView antiglare display, and it's much easier on my eyes. Even with the screen turned off, it resembles something more of a dark satin sheet compared to the mirror like sheen that comes off other notebooks outfitted with with glossy panels.

Just below this extremely nice display, you'll find even more space for activities. The spacious keyboard deck leaves plenty of room for a full-size keyboard without any truncated tilde keys or short shift bars. I would have loved to see a number pad as well, but Acer reserved the space for two large speaker grills that flank the keyboard.

Towards the bottom there's also a large trackpad, which – not unlike the new MacBook – will click in no matter where you press on it. You'll want to be careful about pressing in too deeply around the trackpads two bottom edges, though, as it bends a few millimeters beneath the palm rests.

Specifications and performance

The Acer Chromebook 15 is definitely a laptop that falls into the 15-inch category, weighing in at 4.85 pounds (2,199 g), while measuring 15.08 x 9.65 x 0.95 inches (383 x 245 x 24 mm). The Chrome OS machine is still lighter compared to some of Acer's other 15.6-inch Windows laptop offerings, such as the 5.5-pound (2,494 g) Acer Aspire E5, which also has a larger 15 x 10.1 x 1.2-inch (381 mm x 257 mm x 30 mm) footprint.

However, as a 15-inch notebook, it's easily bigger and heavier than any 13-inch machine we've reviewed. For instance, this Acer machine's smaller sibling, the 13-inch Chromebook 13, weighs in at 3.31 pounds (1,501 g) with dimensions measuring 12.9 x 9 x 0.71 inches (327 x 228 x 18 mm). Meanwhile, the 12.6 x 8.4 x 0.76 inch (320 x 213 x 19 mm) Toshiba Chromebook 2 tips the scales at 2.95 pounds (1,338 g).

Here is the Acer Chromebook 15 configuration given to TechRadar for review:

Spec Sheet

• CPU: 1.5GHz Intel Celeron 3205U (dual core, 2MB cache)


• Graphics: Intel HD graphics


• RAM: 4GB DDR3


• Screen: 15.6 Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, LED-backlit display, 16:9 aspect ratio


• Storage: 32GB SSD


• Ports: 1 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0, HDMI, SD card reader, headphone/mic jack


• Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0


• Camera: 720p HD webcam


• Weight: 4.85 pounds


• Size: 15.08 x 9.65 x 0.95 inches (W x D x H)

Priced at $349 (about AU$458) for the configuration you see above, this 15-inch notebook definitely comes at a higher premium than we typically expect from Chromebooks. Arguably, this higher-end price tag comes at the cost of the larger screen, plus the new Broadwell-generation Celeron chip. (And the AC wireless will help future proof this machine for the next Wi-Fi standard.)

Users who want to save an extra buck will also be able to purchase this laptop for $249 (about £168, AU$326) with some major tradeoffs. The lower-end model comes outfitted with only 2GB of RAM and a lower-resolution 1,366 x 768 display. Even if it means forking over an extra hundred clams, these are two downgrades I would suggest steering clear of.

Unfortunately, it seems that those in the United Kingdom have been dinged again. It seems Acer is only offering a model packing 2GB (but at least the FHD screen is still offered) in that region for £249.

Either way, new Acer Chromebook 15 owners will get a few extra perks with their machine: including 100GB of Google Drive storage for a year, a 60-day pass to Google Music All Access and 12 in-air passes for GoGo Flight available until the end of the year.

The Toshiba Chromebook 2 comes at premium of its own with a $329 (about £223, AU$431) price tag. Like the Chromebook 15, this Toshiba laptop comes sporting a 1,920 x 1,080 screen in a more compact and sleeker 13.3-inch frame. It's also not quite as well outfitted, with an older 2.16GHz Intel Celeron processor and only 16GB of storage.

The Acer Chromebook 15's smaller 13-inch sibling is also quite alluring, coming in at only $249 or £219 (about AU$326) with a full HD display plus a 2.1GHz Nvidia Tegra K1 twist for the CPU.

Performance

Intel's last generation of Haswell Celeron processors were able to smoothly power Chromebooks, and you get even more milage out of the new Broadwell parts. Despite loading several tabs full of cat GIFs, the Chromebook 15 never hit a performance snag and it was a an almost perfect multitasking machine.

That is until I started running into errant computer crashes. On more than one occasion, the Acer Chromebook 15 came to a hanging stop. Worse yet, a seemingly more serious crash happened in the course of writing this review: the laptop fell into a screen-flashing and audio-looping cycle until I performed a hard reset on my machine.

The crashes were random and have yet to cause a real problem, but it was still an annoyance to have to stop for a few seconds to force restart the computer. As of late, a few of Intel's latest processors have been buggy, including an underperforming Intel Core M chip inside Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, so Broadwell might just be going through some early teething pains.

Absolutely radiant

With such a large screen, the Acer Chromebook 15 is the perfect media streaming machine to share with some couchmates. Aside from when sharing your screen, you rarely get to appreciate how useful more screen real estate is until you have it.

There's simply more room to move around windows, view web pages and generally feel less cramped. Plus, with a 15-inch screen you can just sit back and watch Netflix rather than getting right up to your screen as you have to do with a 13-inch or 11-inch machine.

The full HD resolution also makes the viewing experience much sharper from the app icons to text on websites. The best part of the display, though, is thanks to Acer picking out a vibrant IPS panel with some of the widest viewing angles we've ever seen – almost stretching to the very edges of the laptop screen.

The speakers on this laptop don't deliver the most full bodied sound, and they're surprisingly tinny considering the size of the underlying drivers, but they're serviceable. Unlike other laptops that have tweeters hidden under the keyboard deck, or worse pointing downward, the Acer laptop does a much better job of directing sound to your ears. Unless you have a particularly trained ear for the best sound setups, the on-board audio is more than serviceable and their positioning only adds to the laptop's overall cinematic experience.

An all day use machine

Intel promised better battery life with its latest crop of Broadwell processors, and the Acer Chromebook is one of the first machines to fully reap its benefits. Whereas anything over 5 hours is excellent for any 15.6-inch laptop, this machine was able to run for 7 hours and 49 minutes without stopping for a quick charge (or even a nap).

During my battery test, I ran down the machine with a combination of web browsing on Chrome, reliving my favorite Metal Gear Solid 4 moments on YouTube for an hour, streaming Google Music and typing up a long word document in Google Docs. At the time, I was also using the machine at 75% brightness and playing music with the volume set to 10%. If you were to dim the laptop's screen some more, turn off Bluetooth and run fewer tasks at once, you could likely draw out another 45 minutes to an hour of battery life.

Comparatively, the Toshiba Chromebook 2 ran for a much shorter 6 hours and 26 minutes. If you're looking for the machine with the absolutely longest battery life, the Acer Chromebook 13 will blow your socks off with a run time of 8 hours and 56 minutes.

Verdict

The Acer Chromebook 15 is a breath of fresh air in the Chromebook space. It takes this series of laptops to two new places, as the first with a 15.6-inch screen and the first packing a Broadwell processor. More importantly, this Chromebook gets so many things right out of the gate, helping me overlook the minor flaws that can be expected when breaking ground.

We liked

Acer has leveraged all it's past experience making Chromebooks to create a solid package, one that jumps over nearly all the hurdles early Chrome OS machines struggled with. First and foremost, it neither looks nor feels the least bit "budget".

The laptop also comes well equipped and is fully capable machine for multi-tasking. What's more, it has a positively radiant screen that's perfect for long Netflix binges.

We disliked

Sadly, the Acer Chromebook 15 isn't without its problems, and sudden crashes are a huge issue. In just a few days of testing, the laptop came to a screeching stop that required me to do a hard reset to bring it back. In each case, I was able to get back online in mere seconds. But imagine if your machine froze as you were working on an online Google Doc file during a long flight. You wouldn't be able to log back on and continue working until the plane landed.

The crashes came as a real surprise, because in my years working with these Chrome OS-powered machines, this is the first time any has ever outright crashed. Hopefully this is an issue Acer can address in the future with an update or software patch. (Plus, remember that your hard-earned cash also buys a one-year limited warranty.)

Final verdict

The Acer Chromebook 15 is a excellent Chrome OS laptop, but it asks you whether you need a machine this big just to run a Chrome browser?

For most people, that answer would be no, but I would easily pick this machine over any budget 15.6-inch Windows laptop. It's simply better built and comes at a better price to boot. The 15-inch display on this laptop itself would even be worth the $349 or £249 (about AU$458) price of admission.

Both the Acer Chromebook 13, and even more so, the Toshiba Chromebook 2 are excellent options in their own right. So, picking the right machine for you will come down to how much screen real estate you need. No matter what though, the Acer Chromebook 15 is on the cutting edge and first sign of where Chrome OS devices will end up this year.

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