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- Is a Chromebook
- Is a Chromebook
The C720 is Acers latest Chromebook and it improves on its predecessor, the Acer C7 , in almost every way. Its thinner chassis has been completely redesigned, taking more than a few design cues from Samsungs Series 3 Chromebook, and its tapered sides now measure just 19mm thick. This shaves more than half a centimetre off the original C7, and the C720 looks all the better for it.

Sadly, there are fewer connection ports, as the C720 has just two USB ports, one of which is USB3, an SD card reader, an HDMI output and a 3.5mm headset jack. The C720s lack of a VGA output is no great loss, but its a shame theres no Ethernet port in case you hit a Wi-Fi dead-zone and cant get online. Even so, the C720s range of connections should be enough for most users.

Perhaps the most exciting addition to the C720 is a Haswell processor, which is a dual-core Intel Celeron 2955U with a clock speed of 1.4GHz. Paired with 2GB of RAM, its one of the quickest Chromebooks weve ever tested. We couldnt run our usual multimedia benchmarks in Chrome OS, but it completed our SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test in a lightning fast 355.6ms. This is more than twice as quick as the HP Chromebook 11, and Chrome OS feels a lot snappier as a result. Files loaded quickly in the File Manager and we could open multiple Chrome tabs without the system becoming sluggish.
Another benefit of the Celeron 2955U processor is its low energy consumption, which resulted in one of the longest battery lives weve seen from a Chromebook. With the screen set to half brightness, the C720 lasted an impressive seven hours and 2 minutes in our continuous video playback test.
The C720s integrated Intel HD Graphics chip is also perfectly capable of playing the Chrome Web Stores small selection of games. The C720 played Bastion without issue, and even Ubisofts From Dust ran smoothly in our web browser.

Also thanks to various improvements, the C720 is great to use for everyday tasks. The redesigned keyboard means you wont accidentally hit the Pg Up and Pg Down keys when you use the arrow keys. The Caps Lock key has been replaced with Googles dedicated Search key, but you can still enable Caps Lock by pressing Alt and Search. We definitely prefer the new location of the Search key because its closer to our hands when typing.
The keyboard felt a little cramped when we were typing compared to other Chromebooks weve used, but it didnt seem to affect our typing quality. The touchpad is a little too small, but its perfectly responsive and multitouch gestures such as two-finger scrolling worked beautifully.
The C720s 11.6in display has a 1,366×768 resolution, but now it has a matt not glossy finish, which significantly reduces the amount of reflections that appear onscreen when youre outside or in a brightly lit office. The screens overall brightness is still dim, but we could see the screen clearly from a variety of angles thanks to wide viewing angles. Theres also a generous amount of screen tilt as well, so you shouldnt have any trouble finding a comfortable working angle.

We couldnt run our normal colour accuracy tests as theyre not compatible with Chrome OS, but overall we were pleased with the C720s general image quality. The C720s contrast levels were superb, and we could see a very high level of detail in our test photos.
CHROME OS
Of course, the C720 isnt just about hardware, the major feature is Chrome OS, Googles operating system based on the Chrome web browser. With Chrome OS, you can only install programs from the Chrome Web Store. Chrome OS is ideal for those who spend most of the computing time browsing the web and sending emails, and are happy to use Googles online services to write text documents and create spreadsheets.
Chrome OS is simple and easy to use, but you must be online to get the most out of the C720 because most of your documents and media will be stored in the cloud. Although the C720 has a 16GB SSD, this capacity is too low to store lots of files and media locally.
Conveniently, an increasing number of Chrome apps work offline, so you wont lose access to some files when you cant find a Wi-Fi connection. Google Drive documents are all synchronised to your Chromebook and you can create and edit existing word processing documents offline. Spreadsheets are less flexible, and at the time writing they can only be viewed offline. Gmails available offline, but youll need to download the separate Offline Gmail app from the Chrome Web Store to use it. You can then read and compose emails when youre offline.
CONCLUSION
Admittedly, Chrome OSs offline support still needs a little work, but its hard to complain when the C720 is such a bargain. If all you need is a no-nonsense laptop where you can get online easily and take with you on the move, the C720 could be for you. It wins a Budget Buy award.