Acer C720 Google Chromebook – good laptop for everyday tasks

I have been using the Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, Haswell micro-architecture, 2GB & 32GB SSD) as my main laptop computer for a few months, and it has work great as a cheap laptop for doing typical laptop tasks like web browsing, online video, listening to MP3 music files, and watching MP4 video files.

The specs of the Acer C720 is pretty good for an affordable laptop which you can buy for $200-250.The Celeron 1.4 GHz Haswell CPU, 2GB of RAM, and Intel Graphics are pretty good for doing most of my everyday tasks in my experience. The 16GB of storage is enough space for storing my documents, photos, and other files. There is also a SD card slot, and USB ports to plug-in more storage to open bigger files like video on a Chromebook.

Acer C720 Specs.

Intel Celeron 2955U 1.4 GHz (Haswell micro-architecture)
2 GB DDR3L SDRAM
16 GB Solid-State Drive
11.6-Inch Anti-Glare Screen, Intel HD Graphics
HDMI port, 8.5-hour battery life

The Acer C720 is pretty fast in my experience, and rarely freezes, and crashes when I use it. It starts up in about 7 seconds, and I can start using my computer after I login to my user account which is my Google gmail account. It also takes a few seconds to wake from sleep by opening the lid. Shutting down the Chromebook is fast as well. The Wi-Fi connection on the Chromebook is pretty good. I usually get 3-4 bars out of 4 bars of signal, and the connection rarely disconnects in my experience. Google Chrome running on the Chromebook is pretty good. It comes with Adobe Flash Player, and Chrome is compatible with HTML5, so most sites with games, and online videos work on Chrome running on Chrome OS. The speakers on the C720 also is loud enough for watching online video, listening to music, and playing web browser games. There are programs which come with Chromebooks like Google Docs/Drive which I can use to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations from. The programs installed on my Chromebook are also very fast, and load in seconds. The programs, and operating system on a Chromebook also don’t require me to manually install updates like Windows because Chrome OS and its Apps/programs are automatically updated as updates are released. I also get one free year of 100GB of online storage from Google. There is also a remote desktop app which you can use to login to your other computers by using the remote desktop app, and an internet connection. The webcam, and microphone on the Chromebook is also pretty good for video chat.

I like the keyboard on the C720 Chromebook. It is easy to type on, and don’t make a lot of noise when I type on it. There are also a lot of useful shortcut buttons on the Chromebook to adjust the volume, brightness, and make the Chrome web browser full screen. The mousepad on the C720 is also pretty nice because it is big. There are also USB ports on the Chromebook to plug in a Mouse, or you can use a Bluetooth Mouse since the Chromebook also has Bluetooth support. The non-reflective screen on the C720 is also pretty good because it does not reflect much light, so I can use it by a window without much light reflecting back on me.The Screen’s lid is also very easy to open, and close with one hand.

The Acer C720 Chromebook also makes very little noise. The cooling fan does not spin very loudly like other laptops where I occasionally hear the fan spin very loudly when I use it. The Chromebook also does not get hot, so it does not warm up a room, or my hands like more hot running laptops.

The Chromebook is also pretty light, and portable, so I can easily carry it with one hand, or slip it in a bag to carry around with me to use. The battery on the Acer C720 also last pretty long. I usually charge my Chromebook after 9 hours of use, so the battery life usually last for the whole day, or more depending on how often I use my Chromebook. The charger which comes with the Chromebook is small, and light, so it is easy to carry around, or store at home.

If you need a more feature rich operating system, it is possible to install Ubuntu on the Acer C720 according to videos and articles about installing Ubuntu on Chromebooks.

The Acer C720 Chromebook is one of the best affordable 11.6 inch laptop which I used because it is fast, quiet, comfortable and does not require a lot of maintenance like manually installing updates to software  and the operating system on a laptop like other laptops with Windows.