In a further attempt to edge-out the competition in the computing market, Google have announced another wallet-friendly Chromebook in partnership with Acer. Only last month Google and Samsung teamed up to produce an ARM based Chromebook retailing for only £229.
So, with the two Google branded laptops launching so close to each other, I thought I’d do a quick run down of the specs so that you can decide which is better.
Thickness
Samsung’s ARM based Chromebook measures in at only 0.7 inches thick, meaning it is substantially thinner than Acer’s version, which is 1 inch thick. I doubt the extra size will matter too much, but the point of the Chromebook is that it’s easy to use anywhere, so the thinner the better. Samsung Wins
Display
Both devices are 11.6 inches with a 1366 x 768 display. Neither machines are anything special, but they do the job and compete with each other equally. Tie
Battery Life
No question here, Samsung’s Chromebook wins with a battery life of 6 hours, compared to Acer’s which only has a 3.5 hour lasting time. Of course, it depends what you are doing, but again I feel part of the point of the Chromebook concept is that it can be used everywhere, and a 6 hour battery life means you can practically take it out for the day without the charging cable. Samsung Wins
Processor
Acer’s Chromebook has an Intel processor, whereas Samsung’s has an ARM based Dual Core Processor. I’m not quite sure of the specifics, but as I understand the Samsung Chromebook is slower than previous generations using the Intel chip, so I don’t see why this would be any different. Correct my if I’m wrong. Acer Wins
Hard Drive
The only storage in the Samsung Chromebook is the SD card slot which is expandable up to 16GB, with 100GB of cloud storage for two years. Acer’s has 320GB of storage alongside the same cloud deal. Depending on what you want to do, this would probably mean that Acer’s Chromebook is the winner, however Google are really pushing people to use the cloud and web applications more, and after almost a week using a Chromebook I really haven’t needed any of the storage. Acer
Camera
This category has a clear winner, Acer. Their Chromebook has a ‘HD Camera’, whereas Samsung’s only has a VGA quality camera. Acer
Extras
Both laptops come with 3 USB slots. However all of Acer’s slots are 3.0, whereas Samsung have only used the technology for one of their ports. Again, this probably won’t bother most people, however if does slightly increase the speed of file transfers.
Samsung’s Chromebook comes with Bluetooth so that you can connect it to a mouse or keyboard. As far as I can tell from the early information on Google’s website, the Acer Chromebook doesn’t come with this feature.
All in all, Acer wins in the categories I have mentioned above, which I feel are the most important. However I urge you to read through the categories to see if you really need some of the features, and identify which one is right for you. I have been using Samsung’s Chromebook for the past few days (review coming soon), and I have found no faults with it. The keyboard is fantastic and the design of the device seems to be leagues ahead of the Acer Chromebook. Take your pick!
