Acer unveils C720 budget Chromebook powered by Haswell, 16GB SSD

A R2 500 (US$250) Haswell-powered Chromebook with not-too-shabby specs. Yes please. Acer’s C720 Chromebook promises a durable battery, fast performance and is of course pretty darn cheap. Acer’s latest release is in direct competition with HP’s Chromebook announced by Google earlier this week.

The 1366×768 11.6″ display carries 4GB RAM with 16GB SSD of space under the hood. Intel’s 4th gen processor, Acer claims, will bring you “up to 8.5 hours of battery life.”

Haswell also allows Acer to slim down the overall design of the Chromebook to make it 30% thinner than its predecessor — the C710. It’s 0.75″ thick and weighs a mere 1.25kg.

On top of that there’s an HD webcam together with a USB 3.0 port as well as a USB 2.0 port. The HDMI and SD card reader are welcome additions as well.

With Google Chrome OS, Acer hopes the C720 Chromebook will meet the needs of anyone on a budget and, of course, people who enjoy Google’s ecosystem and virtually breathe WiFi.

Earlier this week Google announced the R2 700 (US$270) HP Chromebook 11 with some really competitive specs. A 1366×768 11″ display, weighing 1.04kg with soft white rounded edges makes it looks like a cheap Macbook. Inside, there’s a Samsung’s Exynos 5250 processor alongside 2GB RAM and 16GB SSD with no expandable storage.

Acer’s Chromebook is part of its C720 series, going under the official name of the C720-2800. It’s currently available for pre-order via Amazon and BestBuy. The company states that more details will follow in the coming weeks with the possibility of a LTE model version with touchscreen to follow.

Images via Amazon