Acer Debuts Stylish Aluminum Chromebook 14 With 14-Hour Battery Life And Full HD Display

The ultra-limited 14-inch Chromebook category grew by a single model today with the introduction of Acer's CB3-431, one of just two 14-inch Chromebook models on the planet (HP owns the other) and the only one to boast up to an impressive 14 hours of battery life for all day and night productivity and fun.

That battery life claim applies to the HD version, which sports a 1366x768 display resolution. Acer also offers a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) version, and while Acer doesn't suggest you can squeeze 14 hours of run time out of the thing, it's rated up to a still impressive 12 hours, plenty to get you through a full work day and into the evening. Both models feature high-end IPS panels with wide viewing angles to boot.

"With its industry-leading battery life of up to 14 hours, the Acer Chromebook 14 is an important new product in Acer’s award-winning Chromebook line," said Jerry Kao, president of Acer Notebook Business Group. "Customers have a wide range of needs for battery life, size, performance and features, and our line of Acer Chromebooks is expanding to make sure customers get exactly what they want. The Chromebook 14 is an excellent choice for customers who want a stylish, large-screen Chromebook with long battery life at an attractive price."


A 14-inch display and long battery life aren't the only things Acer's new Chromebook 14 has going for it. The new Chromebook makes a bit of a fashion statement with an all-aluminum chassis that's reminiscent of a MacBook Air. It has a hairline brush finish, rounded corners, and a svelte profile measuring just 0.67 inches thick and weighing only 3.42 pounds.

Inside the the Chromebook 14 is an Intel Celeron quad-core N3160 or dual-core N3060 processor and 2GB or 4GB of LPDDR3 SDRAM. It also features 16GB or 32GB of eMMC storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, two USB 3.1 ports (operating at USB 3.0 speeds), 720p webcam, and of course Google's cloud-centric Chrome OS.


Acer plans to offer several configurations of its Chromebook 14, starting with a premiere model in April with a Full HD display, 32GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM for $300 MSRP (you can pre-order one now at Amazon).