Mark is seduced by a laptop that owes little to Microsoft or Intel
To hugely exaggerate, I’ve been trying to get my hands on Acer's Chromebook since the formation of the early solar system. I was therefore delighted when it provided its latest CB5-311-T7LG so I could experience how these devices have evolved from the initial hardware released when Google’s Web OS first appeared.
The early Chromebooks weren’t that great, and there was much chuckling from the Apple, Intel and Microsoft corners of the tech industry. They’re not laughing with the same conviction now, as these devices are now one of the biggest selling technology items on American college campuses.
Picking up the CB5-311-T7LG, it’s easy to understand why; at £280, or less, this system provides almost perfect access to Google’s apps and services, in a lightweight and sturdy form factor with genuine all-day battery life.
Surely, that’s what many people spend literally thousands of pounds on Ultrabooks to do, so how does this differ? Less than you’d think, confusingly. From the outside this looks for all purposes like a high quality notebook, as it has a 13” display, a webcam, full sized keyboard, touchpad, dual USB 3.0 ports and even HDMI out. Where it starts to diverge is that it’s all built around the Nvidia Quad-core Tegra K1 processor, an ARM device that isn’t Intel x86 compatible. Therefore this machine has more in common with Android phones and tablets from a purely architectural perspective. That has some implications which we'll come to later mention later, but what it can do really well is run the Chrome OS and its associated Google applications.
Open the clam-shell design and put in your Google password and you’ll be browsing and Gmail-ing away in just a few seconds. Internet access is via inbuilt 802.11ac wi-fi, and some of the applications are designed to work offline. That allows you to work away from a connection and then sync when one becomes available, in a pseudo-cloud way.
The video performance is especially good, and you can use this machine to playback HD movie files very cleanly indeed. The only issue I had was that when dealing with MKV files some audio codecs aren’t supported. The H.265/HEVC player – downloaded from the Chrome Store – fixed that problem partially.
However, there are apps – mostly games like Bastion – that use ‘native’ x86 clients and thus won’t run on this hardware. Google, for its part in this, has released development tools that allow coders to create executables that work on both ARM and x86, but the density of ARM Chromebooks isn’t high enough yet to expect globally converted software immediately.
What it also obviously won’t do is run Windows applications, so if that feature is critical to you then this isn’t the 'droid you’re looking for. Conversely, if you want a machine to take away that can be used to access the internet, playback movies and music, access streaming services, review SD card photos, then you’ll be happy.
However, the hardware is certainly not perfect in every aspect. The 1080p display is something of a mixed blessing, because the interface is too small for older eyes, and I dropped it to a lower resolution to make if more useable. The viewing angles are generally limited, and the colour representation is somewhat subdued. I also wasn’t a fan of the thin tubular power jack, a primary candidate for accidental breakage if ever I saw one. Beyond those points, and considering the cost, this is a very nice solution.
One warming however: this review model is the CB5-311-T7LG, but you can get it’s lower-specified brother (CB5-311-T9XM) for £199 or less. That saving of £90 or so means you only get a 1366 x 768 display, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, but It’s up to you if the price difference between it and this justifies the extra spec for what’s a mostly cloud based user experience.
If you can develop the I-don’t-need-Windows mind-set then you’ll have a computer that does most of the critical jobs, isn’t always desperately in search of mains power, and requires little or no software maintenance. Also, to sweeten that deal even more, Google will give you a 100GB boost to your Google Drive capacity for two years when you buy one.
Apple and Microsoft should be very worried, because the Chromebook era is here and it’s eminently affordable. Mark Pickavance
At last a Chromebook that’s built for the job.
Specifications:
• Operating System: Chrome OS
• Processor Type: Nvidia Tegra K1 CD570M-A1 (2.1GHz Quad-core)
• Memory: 4GB DDR3L SDRAM (1,600MHz)
• Storage: 32GB eMMC SSD (24GB useable)
• Display Type: 33.8cm (13.3") active matrix TFT colour LCD
• Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080
• Graphics: Nvidia Kepler
• Wireless Networking; IEEE 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
• Built-in Devices: 720p Webcam, SD Card reader, Microphone
• HDMI: Yes
• USB Ports: 2x USB 3.0
• Maximum Battery Run Time: 11 Hours
• Maximum PSU Wattage: 45W
• Size (H W D): 18mm x 327mm x 227.5 mm
• Weight (Approximate): 1.50kg