Acer Just Modernized the Classroom Chromebook with a 3:2 Display

Acer unveiled a number of Windows 11 SE laptops for Okay-8 school rooms earlier this month after asserting a fleet of Chromebooks previous to CES, and now the corporate is giving educators much more decisions by launching 4 extra laptops operating on Google’s Chrome OS.

Where the Chromebooks Acer revealed earlier this month are meant for on a regular basis customers with reasonable budgets, the Chromebook 512, Chromebook 511, Chromebook 314, and Chromebook Spin 311 have been made for youthful college students. These 4 laptops share lots of the similar traits, however a number of essential variations set them aside.

Let’s begin with the options discovered throughout this complete lineup. Each of those notebooks comes with an “impact-resistant” chassis that meets MIL-STD 810H military-grade sturdiness requirements. This is achieved with shock-absorbent bumpers and bolstered surfaces that make them robust sufficient to outlive four-foot drops in case a pupil brushes one off their desk. Each has a keyboard that may be drained in order that they don’t get sticky from juices and chocolate milk, and all however the Chromebook 314 have anchored keys which might be tough to pry off.

Other shared options embrace versatile hinges that can help you rotate the screens again 180 levels, or 360 levels on the Chromebook Spin 311, the one convertible on this foursome. They even have chassis containing post-consumer recycled plastics and touchpads constructed from ocean-bound plastic waste. Acer calls it “OceanGlass” as a result of it supposedly seems like glass, however don’t purchase the advertising: these are plastic.

As for the variations between these—Chromebook 511 and Chromebook Spin 311 flaunt 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel shows whereas Chromebook 512 and Chromebook 314 have bigger 12-inch (1366 x 912) and 14-inch, 1080p panels, respectively. And the Chromebook 512’s display screen is the one one with a 3:2 side ratio, deviating from the standard 16:9.

The Chromebook 512, 511, and 314 are powered by Intel Celeron N4500, N5100, or Pentium Silver N6000 (512 and 314 solely) processors whereas the Spin 311 depends on a MediaTek MT8183 CPU. Similarly, these first three units have 8GB of RAM whereas the Spin 311 has solely 4GB. And all however the Chromebook 314, which matches as much as 128GB of eMMC storage, prime out at 64GB.

Each of those ought to final you thru a full faculty day, although the Spin 311 has the longest estimated runtimes at 15 hours whereas the Chromebook 314 (10 hours), Chromebook 511 (12 hours), and Chromebook 512 (12 hours) will energy down a category interval or two earlier.

Students additionally get a ample collection of ports with every of those containing at the very least one USB-C and one USB-C enter, and with all however the Chromebook 314 (3.2 kilos) weighing solely 2.87 kilos, they need to be light-weight sufficient for youthful youngsters.

The Acer Chromebook 512 will arrive in January for $349 and the Chromebook 511 launches a month later on the similar value. The Chromebook 314, which has probably the most highly effective specs and the most important show of those, will value $429 when it arrives within the second half of this yr. You gained’t have to attend so lengthy for the Spin 311, which drops in March for $399. It’ll be attention-grabbing to see whether or not educators proceed to buy Chromebooks like these or if they’re tempted away by Microsoft’s new Windows 11 SE OS.