Acer Chromebook C720

A cheap laptop, only 269 euro at the time of writing (04/01/2014) with the relatively new operating system, Chrome OS. Is this the next step to cloud computing? This value is now a functional product? For consumer or professional? HARDWARE Let's start with the hardware. What we actually get our 269 euros. A new generation (read haswell) low-end Celeron processor with integrated graphics card, 4 GB of Double Data Rate 3 memory (there are also versions 2GB) and a small but fast SSD hard drive (16 GB). This sounds very weird all right, just 16 GB of storage? However, this is explained by the operating system "Chrome OS" and how the user will be required to cloud computing directly. When you purchase this laptop google therefore reserve 100GB (free for the first 2 years) of storage on Google Drive. chrome This book, like all others radiate mobility. Too bad in this respect is that they do not support 3G. With dimensions of 20.2 cm by 28.8 cm, it fits in anywhere. Both an optical disk reader and Ethernet connection are omitted. The lack of the latter can sometimes be distracting. However, we do have an HDMI port, SD card reader, two USB ports (2.0 and 3.0) and an audio output. Furthermore, we observe a strong and lightweight enclosure. The keyboard feels solid with pleasant keystrokes. The keyboard layout differs slightly from the standard. So we get a search key and the F-keys each have their own function (similar to that of the macbook pro). Think of sound control, brightness control, screen navigation key, browser navigation, fullscreen button and the on / off button. Then the touchpad is a little too small and feels somewhat cheap. It does support multi-touch and continue to work properly. The screen is a different story. The use of an average LCD screen of 1366x768 is disappointing. The difference with an IPS panel, which I normally use is large (read: a little too big). But what do you want a laptop for 269 euros! Finally, the battery is sufficient for a full day to get through. My inaccurate test came at 7.15 min SOFTWARE: Chrome OS - All in HTML At startup / open asks the operating system to your google account and one minute later everything is synchronized. There are two types of programs. Those who open the Chrome browser and the others, such as the file manager. However, others are very limited, but this is certainly not a flaw. The focus is entirely on the browser. This gives a new but highly productive way of working and everything is instantly synchronized with your drive (cloud storage from google). Chrome OS runs smoothly, frame drops and other natural ailments are completely absent. Moreover, it is certainly not a replacement for traditional computer work. Programs like eclipse, netbeans, adobe suite ... will of course not work, this is chrome os therefore not designed. PROFESSIONALS By going to the url "chrome :/ / chrome-urls" we get all important system pages. All pages that are important to the average consumer user, are also user friendly accessible. By default there is no access to the normal bash terminal but only to a very limited crosh (Chrome Shell). It is however possible to get our traditional boot. The laptop in developer mode linux terminal This I do not go further. functionality I see on a professional level is to use ssh and remote desktop for managing remote systems. SSH is available directly from the crosh terminal and the VNC viewer from the app store works fine. CONCLUSION For 269 euros you get a very good product at home. For a consumer who just browsing, email and video viewing this is great and more than adequate. For others it can be a very nice addition as ultraportable, just shame about the lack of 3G and moderate screen. It is a very intuitive way of working on Chrome OS and the system works without any hitches.