The acer cb3-431 is a Chromebook encased in an aluminium alloy, that has a very thin profile and a matte 14-inch IPS LED display with Full HD capability for productivity and great viewing. It runs on Google’s Chrome operating system and is powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Celeron N3160 quad core processor, an Intel HD Graphics 400 graphic card and 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM as internal storage.
This isn’t the most powerful hardware but it will run most Web apps and Android Apps when support arrives later this year. It may slow down a bit if you try to surf the Web and work on spreadsheets at the same time but for the most part it will stay very responsive.
On the left side of the laptop you’ll find two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack and a HDMI port. The power-in port and the speaker are on the right side. Unfortunately there is no SD slot for added storage.
The screen does a very good job at keeping colours punchy, even when viewing those murky Marvel TV shows. The contrast is very good too. But don’t expect hyper realism – this is a budget panel after all.
When it comes to audio, the speakers are very loud and they do a nice job of reproducing James Blake’s “Timeless,” with clear guitar strings and sweet high notes. They also fill a large conference room without distortion.