Last month Google announced a new sleek Samsung-branded Chromebook intended for everyday computing tasks. The $249 price tag seemed attractive enough in this post-netbook era but now Acer has launched a Chromebook of their own priced at just $199.
The C7 Chromebook is powered by a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron 847 processor, unlike the ARM chip found in Samsung's offering. As Geek points out, it's a decently fast chip that's in line with older processors like the Core Due T2700 and the Core2 Duo T7250. It's not a powerhouse chip by any stretch of the imagination, but it's faster than an Intel Atom and should be able to handle common computing tasks without incident.
Acer also elected to bump up the storage capacity on their Chromebook significantly by including a 320GB hard drive. It's a lot of space for what is essentially a notebook that will be used to surf the web and check email. For comparison, the Samsung variant ships with just 16GB of flash storage.
As with most any tradeoff, there are pros and cons to weigh here. While the Acer delivers a ton more storage space, it comes at a cost: speed. The physical hard drive in this system will be much slower than the zippy flash storage found in the Samsung system.
Other specifications include an 11.6-inch, 1,366 x 768 resolution display and a battery that leaves a lot to be desired. Acer says the unit is good for up to 3.5 hours of life - that's a full three hours less than Samsung's Chromebook.
Interested parties can pick up an Acer Chromebook starting tomorrow at select retailers and through Google Play.