MOST BEAUTIFUL ACER CHROMEBOOK 11 CB3 111 C670 REVIEW

If a little laptop for getting on the Internet and doing some basic browsing and word processing sounds like your cup of tea, then Acer Chromebook 11 CB3 111 C670 should be right up your alley. It’s an 11.6in laptop with a light weight and a small footprint that offers an easy way to work with Google’s services.

The Acer Chromebook 11 CB3 111 C670 has a price tag, and it offers enough CPU performance for most typical online tasks, be they email correspondence, video and music streaming, and document creation (through Google’s services). Since it runs Chrome OS rather than the Windows operating system, you can’t just install any programs on it that you’re used to. Instead, you will have to browse the Chrome OS Store to find any extra little things that you might want to use.

ACER CHROMEBOOK 11 CB3 111 C670 GOOGLE SUPPORT

For the most part, the Acer Chromebook 11 CB3 111 C670 is designed to be used with Gmail, Docs, Google Play, and other Google services, and it will work optimally when it’s online, though there is provision to use the laptop in offline mode. It’s a laptop that’s essentially ready to go from the moment you unbox it. If you already have a Google account, all you have to do is log in.

If you’ve never used Chrome OS before, know that it’s basically like using the Chrome Web browser for everything. The only aspects of the operating system that aren’t in a Chrome Web browser window are the File manager (which is essentially the folder through which you can access downloads and files from USB storage devices), the image viewer, and any other apps that you download that run in their own window.

The operating system hasn’t changed all that much since we first started reviewing Chromebooks, so look at our reviews of the first Chromebook we reviewed, the  Samsung XE30C12, for more information on what the actual interface of the Chromebook is like.

Physically, the Acer Chromebook 11 CB3 111C670 is slightly different to the previous Acer Chromebook that we reviewed, the C720P. It weighs 1.08kg and has more of a streamlined look on its base and keyboard tray. It’s a laptop that looks attractive enough (though be careful not to scuff the white finish), and it’s light enough to be carried on a daily basis without much hassle (making it good for school, for example).

The hinges now sit at the top rather than being right on the spine, and the port layout is a little bit different. They are relatively small changes that make the Chromebook look a little better overall, while the new hinge layout allows the screen to tilt back a little more than usual.

Storage is mostly by way of Google’s Drive (meaning it’s Cloud-based storage), though there is a 16GB solid state drive installed for you to store some local files. That space is also used to synchronise up to 5GB worth of Google Drive files so that you can work offline when you don’t have an Internet connection.

ACER CHROMEBOOK 11 CB3 111 C670 Performance

It’s not overly fast, though, and this was shown in the online, browser-based tests that we ran. In comparison to the Acer C720 and the Acer C720P, the Acer Chromebook 11  CB3 111 C70 recorded slower performance in the Sunspider, Octane, and Peacekeeper tests.

Benchmark	Acer C720	Acer C720P	Acer Chromebook 11
Sunspider (time)	355.4ms	312ms	543ms
Octane Javascript (score)	10502	10253	7403
Futuremark Peacekeeper (score)	2806	3046	1536

That’s not to say that the notebook feels uncomfortable during everyday usage. We actually found it to be fine for Web browsing news sites and content aggregators. It also went okay when processing 1080p YouTube video, as well as streaming video from premium video services. The usual caveats apply, though: Web pages that are heavy will have the potential to slow down the device as the Celeron takes its time to process them.

High-definition YouTube videos played back with some stuttering at the beginning of the clip before they got their groove on, while services such as NBA League pass were watchable when we used mid-range quality settings, albeit with some noticeable skipped frames now and then (these showed clearly due to the fast-paced nature of the video content). Videos from Google’s Movie and TV service played back without any performance issues after we allowed the service to analyse the Chromebook in order to provide optimal playback.

The screen has a native resolution of 1366×768, and it’s not glossy, so reflections from room lights won’t be bothersome. What will be bothersome are the viewing angles, which we found to be too narrow for comfortable viewing. It looks very much like a cheap screen — and it is a cheap laptop after all.

A full-sized HDMI port resides at the rear of the Acer Chromebook 11 cb3 111 c670, and this position serves well when you want to use the laptop as a desktop device while plugged in to a monitor — the HDMI cable won’t be in the way. Since it’s a full sized port, you also won’t need an adapter for it; just plug in your regular HDMI cable.

ACER CHROMEBOOK 11 CB3 111 C670 DISPLAY

We plugged it in to a Full HD TV in order to watch some streaming video, and ChromeOS automatically extended the screen to the TV and used its native resolution. You also have the option of mirroring the screen, though this won’t look good on a Full HD screen that is forced to show the native resolution of the Chromebook.

One of the other new pieces of tech in this laptop is 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which allows for quicker Wi-Fi data transfers as long as you have an 802.11ac wireless router, and you also get Bluetooth 4.0. We received mixed results when using Bluetooth. When connected to our Bluetooth-enabled Rotel amplifier, music that was streamed from Google Play sounded slow and choppy. However, when we connected to a small Lenco Bluetooth speaker, the sound was fine.

The thing is, you are better off just using the Acer Chromebook 11 cb3 111 c670 built-in stereo speakers rather than a little mono Bluetooth speaker. We would have preferred the Bluetooth to have worked better with our stereo system.

For typing, the keyboard has soft keys that don’t make any noise when they are hit, though they do offer a bit of resistance. It’s a comfortable keyboard for long typing sessions, and the palm rest offers a large enough area to rest your wrists.

 

 

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