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Acer Officially Announces C720 Chromebook

Posted by timothy on from the don't-stray-outside-the-wireless-zone dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "Acer officially announced its new Chromebook, C720. The C720 is 30% thinner (at 0.75 inches thick) and lighter (at 2.76 pounds) than Acer's previous Chromebook, C7. The C720 Chromebook has an 11.6-inch anti-glare widescreen, with a 1,366-by-768 resolution. Acer claims seven second boot times and up to 8.5 hours of battery life. The C720 comes with 4GB of DDR3L memory and uses an Intel Celeron 2955U processor based on Haswell technology. The system also has 16GB of local SSD storage along with 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi to get to Google's cloud-based storage. Like previous Chromebooks, the C720 Chromebook is constantly updated with the latest version of the Chrome OS and built around the Chrome browser." One thing this machine lacks is the most intriguing feature of the new ARM-based (and lower-power) Chromebook 11 from HP: charging via Micro-USB.

27 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Crappy screens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Keep me from upgrading my current ancient netbook.
    Get with the program guys!

    1. Re:Crappy screens by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yup. I lost interest at 1366 followed by 768.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    2. Re:Crappy screens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      First is Cost per pixel per square inch. Second is the greater power requirements of greater pixel densities, other things being equal.

  2. Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    0.75 inches = 19 mm
    2.76 punds = 1.25 kg

    1. Re:Units by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

      So it takes approximately 300 bMpc of volume in my backpack? Sounds good.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  3. want more pixels, ffs! by SMOKEING · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It has been told many times already. 768 dots may be OK for a phone. For a laptop, anything less than a 1000 is just sad news.

    1. Re:want more pixels, ffs! by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      There were no spelling mistakes in the previous post.

    2. Re:want more pixels, ffs! by Salgat · · Score: 2

      It's 720p, which is just fine for an 11" monitor that is only doing basic web browsing, e-mail, and video playing. You have to remember, this is a bottom of the line $250 laptop/netbook, very minimal by design. Considering it's half the price of even new low end laptops, you have to delusional to expect it to be feature rich.

    3. Re:want more pixels, ffs! by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      I can remember when (and your are begging for this) computer resellers went around making claims to business that they would need nothing beyond amber text based 14 inch screens as they were capable of reproducing all the information a business needed. With regard to this product it is all about cost efficiency, how much bang for how much buck. At $250.00 it seems pretty impressive and a worthwhile contender for reasonable loss with death by misadventure, as long as the SSD is readily removable and can be easily placed into another unit.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  4. Warning: Ad pop-ups on mouse-over by Misagon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The page linked to has annoying ad pop-ups that show when you hover the mouse pointer over keywords. The summary above is practically all the info in the article, so there is no reason to go there.

    And by the way... How did this article get up-voted enough to get to the first page? There is nothing particularly interesting about yet another Chromebook with incremental updates over its predecessor ... or is there?

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
  5. Pretty darn useful little machines by Yold · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I recently replaced my MacBook Air with a Acer Chromebook refurb I picked up for $150 on ebay. It is an awesome portable dev machine. Good battery life, and Crouton is incredible. You can run Linux and ChromeOS simultaneously (via a chroot); it makes switching between the a matter of two keystrokes. I never thought I'd actually like ChromeOS, but it's actually pretty slick.

  6. Chromebook is a waste by onyxruby · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why bother making Chromebooks, the market doesn't much seem to care for them. Instead they should be putting Android onto laptops since the market is already very familiar with Android and the marketplace is already well stocked with apps.

    The transition from a phone or tablet that runs Android to a laptop that runs Android would be quite minimal. You would be able to continue using very cheap hardware and people wouldn't have to worry about adopting an entire additional OS in their lives. Office applications exist for Android as well as many common applications for any number of purposes.

    Google's support for Chrome is puzzling when Android is incredibly entrenched in the market and public conscious. It would also allow Google to concentrate the resource on one Operating System instead of two. When you consider that people are already being forced to learn a new interface with Microsoft's Metro stunt, now is the time to step up to the plate and make Android that interface.

    1. Re:Chromebook is a waste by Misagon · · Score: 5, Informative

      I see Chromebooks as:
      1) For those who want to serf the web casually but prefer mouse and keyboard over touchscreen interfaces.
      2) A proper netbook, as it was supposed to be. The first netbooks were quite similar to the Chromebook concept, a legacy-free system with a small (often Linux-based) OS that wasn't too taxing on the machine. Then Windows hijacked the "netbook" concept and made them into underpowered Windows PCs instead.

      That said, I really don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to also run touch-oriented Android apps on the ChromeOS desktop.
      Google, go show Microsoft how it should be done!

      --
      "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    2. Re:Chromebook is a waste by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why bother making Chromebooks, the market doesn't much seem to care for them

      Chromebooks are actually doing pretty well.

      I'm a huge Android fan, but there are some issues with apps on Android that don't translate too well to the laptop experience (yet):

      • * While multitasking apps works great, there's no support for multiple on-screen app windows. (though some people have tried to add them.)
      • * though there is mouse support, there's still a heavy reliance on the touch-based interface compared with laptop point-and-click.

      That said, Android is open source. You're free to do a port yourself. Some have done so already.

    3. Re:Chromebook is a waste by 0123456 · · Score: 2

      Why bother making Chromebooks, the market doesn't much seem to care for them.

      Because netbooks became uncool, but the market for them didn't go away.

      There's still a substantial market for a small, cheap, light laptop that boots fast and lets you browse the web and type the occasional document. Aren't Chromebooks the best-selling 'laptops' on Amazon these days?

      The real question is: will these run Linux, so I can eventually replace my old netbook with one when it dies?

    4. Re:Chromebook is a waste by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 2

      Several Linux Kernel Devs have installed Fedora on the high end Pixel. I don't know if there are any efforts to support any other machines.

      --
      Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
    5. Re:Chromebook is a waste by lordofthechia · · Score: 5, Funny

      I see Chromebooks as:
      1) For those who want to serf the web

      Your page is ready m'lord.

      --
      Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
    6. Re:Chromebook is a waste by onyxruby · · Score: 3, Informative

      Is 500,000 in sales considered pretty good? To put this in comparison the Surface has been considered a disaster by many here (myself included) and that sold 1.7 million.

      I won't argue your other points on mouse and multiple on-screen app windows as they are quite valid. My point is that I think Google could be much more successful in pushing Android on laptops than Chrome. Certainly there is work that would be needed, but that is absolutely paltry compared to the amount of work that it would take to bring Chrome up to par in terms of apps, developer familiarity and market acceptance.

  7. What it doesn't have by koan · · Score: 2

    An usable screen size for anyone over 40, a keyboard usable by anyone but a small handed former female Foxxcon employee (slave?), storage of any real kind, because *YOU* use the *Cloud* and the cloud is the continuation of turning the computer into a fixed media device... or for the slow minded out there, a TV.

    --
    "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
  8. Re:Mfg using Chrome to offload their stockpile by jandrese · · Score: 3, Informative

    You know what's ridiculous? Literally 90% of the 15" laptops on Newegg use that crap resolution. And people wonder why Laptop sales have been flagging.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  9. *sigh* by sootman · · Score: 2

    > The C720 Chromebook has an 11.6-inch anti-glare
    > widescreen, with a 1,366-by-768 resolution.

    So it's like the 1024x768 Compaq laptop I had 15 years ago, but with 342 more pixels of width? Progress!

    Dear laptop makers: moar pixels, please. Even my original 13" MacBook from 2006 ago had more vertical pixels. (1280x800)

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  10. Questions by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How does Ubuntu run on it? Or any other decent linux distro? How is battery life under GNU/Linux? Does it also run Wine? (Need to run some windows apps on it)

    I'm interested in getting one as a replacement for my EEE, especially since it has a non-glare screen, but this "Chrome OS" would be useless for me.

    1. Re:Questions by Yold · · Score: 4, Informative

      It runs OK (google Chrubuntu), but the WiFi and trackpad drivers were so finicky that it was a deal breaker. ChromeOS actually is a stripped down version of Linux, which means that you can actually run a full-blown linux desktop along side it via Crouton (using a chroot). If that sounds tedious, it is actually fool-proof to install.
      Since the trackpad and WiFi drivers are still handled by ChromeOS (again, a linux kernel), it works great! If you are looking for a good linux laptop, I'd highly recommend it, especially if price and battery are your two main considerations.

       

  11. 12V charging is better than USB... by evilviper · · Score: 3, Informative

    One thing this machine lacks is the most intriguing feature of the new ARM-based (and lower-power) Chromebook 11 from HP: charging via Micro-USB.

    To hell with your freaky mutually-incompatible and non-standard ways to get 3amps over USB! Give me a 12V DC, positive-center barrel plug any day... Vastly more durable than MicroUSB junk, and far cheaper.

    Car adapters cost $3, since they're just a cord... Wall adapters are also dirt-cheap, and I can use any of the dozen I have lying around... Everything from my Netbook, to my GbE switch, to my computer speakers, to my NiMH battery charger, to my portable fan, to my UPSes, to my old video game consoles, ALL run on 12V DC. They can all swap adapters, because there's no crazy non-standard resistor levels on other pins that make half of them incompatible with the other half... And unlike MicroUSB jacks with the tiny reed in the center, barrel plugs are practically bullet-proof, can be inserted easily in any orientation, etc.

    I tolerate MicroUSB as a middle-of-the-road standard, that is better than a complete mis-mash of incompatible charging connectors, and varying voltages (3? 7.5? 9? WTF?), but only for small devices. Tablets should NEVER have started using it, and larger phones that can't fully charge with 5V should be jumping to 12V DC barrel-plugs ASAP, and getting everyone on a compatible, higher-power standard.

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    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    1. Re:12V charging is better than USB... by amorsen · · Score: 2

      To hell with your freaky mutually-incompatible and non-standard ways to get 3amps over USB!

      USB3 provides completely standard 5A charging. It's great that you love 12V. I don't think I have a single 12V device, all my notebook-type devices are 19V with weird plugs, and everything else is a random value from 3V to 24V (but strangely not 12V), sometimes AC and sometimes DC, with no relation between plug type and voltage or current requirements. I have discarded otherwise-functioning devices because I lost the power cord and it was not worth it to get a new one.

      I really look forward to getting it all onto USB3.

      --
      Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
  12. Acer quality by 1s44c · · Score: 2

    Everything, and I mean everything, I ever brought from acer stopped working within 3 years. They make the lowest cost laptops because they use the cheapest parts. Saving $50 by buying acer is false economy.

  13. Why I use my Samsung Chromebook all the time by walterbyrd · · Score: 2

    I am using it way more than my windows notebook, my android tablet, my kindle, or my ipod touch.

    - fast boot
    - small and lightweight
    - long battery life
    - enough power to load websites in a reasonable time
    - real keyboard
    - no worries about malware
    - screen, and keyboard, big enough to be useful
    - screen is high enough resolution for everything I use it for - and I am well over 40 years old.

    It is not perfect for everything. But for the $145 I paid, I'm very happy. I'd buy it again.