Chromebook Unveiled

The Acer AC700 measures 11.24 inches long and 8 inches deep. Users gets about 6 hours of battery life from the AC700’s 4,400-mAh battery, compared with 8.5 hours with the Series 5 Chromebook. The extra battery life can mean the difference for users who work the standard 8-hour workday and can’t be bothered to recharge.

The notebook—at only 1 inch thick—is a svelte machine.

Acer branding is prominent between the 11.6-inch high-definition CineCrystal LED-backlit LCD (with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1366 by 768 resolution) keyboard, which includes a track pad and Web-navigation keys in addition to standard letters and numbers.

Note the ports for HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) output, USB, and headphone and microphone jacks. There is another USB port on the other side of the machine.

The Chrome home screen on the machine includes preinstalled applications and a link to the Chrome Webstore for downloading new applications. The Acer AC700 also has an HD 1.3MP webcam with LED indicator for video chat.

The AC700 also boasts 2GB of DDR3 (double data rate type three) memory, a 16GB SSD (solid-state drive) for storing files, and a 4-in-1 card reader that accepts flash storage.

The notebook, which has the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150, has 64MB of dedicated video memory.

The underside of the Acer700 chassis won’t win any beauty contests with all the screws and angles, but the device appears sturdily built.

Acer explains the benefits of the AC700 Chromebook on its Website.

Consumers may preorder the Acer AC700 from Amazon.com for shipment after the July 11 release date.