Verdict
The Acer Chromebook 515 is a not bad mid - range Chromebook with a big 15 - inch CRT screen . It looks secure , and offer up a decent interface natural selection and keyboard , while its functioning is snappy with a high capacity drive for the damage , too . Just view out for the underwhelming expected stamp battery life .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Acer ’s recent crop of Chromebooks have sure as shooting been pretty telling , and 2022 has seen the exit of the new Acer Chromebook 515 .
Priced at £ 499.99 , it sit down slap bang in the mid - range for a Chromebook , featuring a serious spec canvass to mate . You ’ll be get a 15.6 - column inch FHD showing , alongside an 11th gen Intel Core i3 processor , a 128 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM , which is plenty to be catch on with .
Can those spectacles , and more , help it to become one of thebest Chromebooksmoney can buy ? lease ’s find out .
Design
The dark grey colouring and slick fashion of the Acer Chromebook 515 make it look and feel an dreadful band more expensive than it actually is . Its aesthetic is similar to that of the more agiotage ( and slightly older)Chromebook 714 , which aid it to look brilliant .
The metals here make the 515 also sense durable , and a modest whang on the chassis does n’t make it sound hollow . It also looks modern , with some slight bezels around the side of the display , although the top one is just buddy-buddy enough to put up a 720p webcam .
A weight of 1.8 kg means this is in reality on the heavier side for a 15 - in laptop computer , but to be honest , the Chromebook 515 does n’t experience , nor look , like it ’s that heavy . Sure , it carries some heft to it , but with a thickness of just 25 mm , it does n’t publicise the fact it ’s a heavy responsibility laptop computer .
The port extract provide nearly everything user will need , with a good selection made up of a singular USB - A , alongside two USB - Cs , an HDMI interface and a microSD card lecturer . A second USB - A embrasure surely would n’t have go wrong here , peculiarly given how widespread the connector still is .
For the price of the Chromebook 515 , its speaker sound comparatively okay . They are a small piece thin and crispy at meter and lack a little chip in terminal figure of their top final stage and overall body , but they should be all right for more casual usage . Much like a lot of other Acer Chromebooks , the unity here are downwards displace , which can can cause muffled sound if placed on a easy surface such as a bed .
The keyboard experience haptic and antiphonal for daytime - to - day working , and the fact it ’s a full size layout provides all the functionality you could need . cardinal travel here is perhaps on the short side , and the keypress is a little soft at times , but it by and large feels good .
The backlight is even and vivacious when turn all the room up , so you could certainly use the Chromebook 515 for some after - dismal working if you desire to . There ’s also a fingerprint proofreader present in the bottom - right corner , which provide a more inviolable login option .
Acer has always been generous with its trackpads , and the 515 is no different . It ’s on the larger side , giving slews of real estate of the realm for your finger’s breadth , alongside tactile buttons to boot . The fact it ’s a Gorilla Glass cover pad too also helps things to feel extra smooth .
Display
Acer has n’t decided to ricochet any surprisal for the Chromebook 515 ’s display . It ’s a tried - and - tested 15.6 - inch IPS panel with a Full HD ( 1920×1080 ) resolution .
It ’s a seemly panel for the damage , that offered good vividness to my eye , while 320 nits of maximum brightness helps to promote the brightness and ensure the screen is visible in shining sun .
Nothing looked particularly washed out or dim , and images also await reasonably detailed with the FHD resolution . This is a matt presentation , intend you could use the Acer Chromebook 515 out of doors if you so wished .
As an IPS display , the viewing angles here prove to be topnotch , and for daylight - to - Clarence Day working , a 15.6 column inch show supply loads of cover real estate of the realm . It is on the larger side compare to smaller 13- or 14 - inch screen , but the redundant couple of inches of blank space makes all the divergence .
Performance
Let ’s face it , Chromebooks have never looked to daze with their performance , and are more designed to do the basic principle well , and that ’s on the dot what the Chromebook 515 does .
For more of a mid - range gadget , it packs some sane top executive , with an 11th gen Intel Core i3 central processor that for certain beats the swathes of Celerons and Pentiums available in more affordable Chromebooks .
The Geekbench 5 scores I record are only half that of more or less pricier window laptops such as theSurface Laptop Go 2and HP Pavilion 14 . However , in Clarence Shepard Day Jr. - to - daylight use , the Chromebook 515 was definitely snappy enough to lead Google Docs and Spotify without a arrest , and open a load of Chrome chit did n’t seem to bumble it , which is help along by the 8 GB of RAM inwardly .
The fact this fussy Chromebook features a 128 GB SSD signify it matches laptop computer that are a fair bit more expensive in term of storage options , and it ’s overnice to see solid province warehousing inside a Chromebook as opposed to the slower eMMC . In examination , the SSD performed fairly well when loading and saving apps on the driveway .
The only issue with the Chromebook 515 is the fact it run ChromeOS , which has always been more of a locked down operating system equate to Window . It feels like a small waste matter of the 515 ’s gift to bung in some great spectacles for the cost and be leave with something that can really be only used for web browsing , work , and the occasional casual game download from the Google Play Store . Most of the major productivity apps are here , but there are some apps such as Photoshop that are n’t useable
Battery Life
Generally utter , a laptop should be able to last for around 10 hours if it ’s engender comely endurance , and that ’s just the figure that Acer quote the Chromebook 515 as being capable to last for .
After dulling the brightness down to 50 % and run a video loop trial , the Chromebook 515 fall a tad brusque of that anatomy , lasting for eight and a half hours before conking out .
This means that , if you ’re able to do a routine of hypermiling with your brightness , that you ’ll be able-bodied to get a full workings day out of the 515 before you call for to charge it up , although you ’ll want to be sure you ’re sit near an outlet if you do get towards the humiliated end of the scale .
This result is a little disappointing , given the fact that similarly priced Chromebooks ( such as those from Acer themselves ) have been able to last for over 10 hours , with some nearly lasting for doubly long as this one .
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Should you buy it?
With an 11th Gen Intel Core i3 processor inside , the Acer Chromebook 515 offers some decent power for the £ 499 asking price , and will be more than capable of handling day - to - Clarence Day working .
A battery life of 8.5hrs will be enough to aid the Chromebook 515 last a working twenty-four hour period , but you may require to look elsewhere if top survival is of major importance when picking out a laptop .
Final Thoughts
The Acer Chromebook 515 looks to continue Acer ’s not bad outpouring of Chromebooks in recent years with a decent overall package for those after a heavy screen Chromebook at more of an affordable price that still pack stack of power .
It adopt attend from more of a high - end auto , while the embrasure selection will be good enough for most people . The showing here proved to be ready to hand for Clarence Shepard Day Jr. to 24-hour interval working , as did the fact this Chromebook have some excellent level of superpower with an 11th gen Intel Core i3 processor , especially when combined with its 128 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM .
It ’s just the barrage life here that proved to be an issue , but you ’ll still be capable to get a working day out of it if you ’re careful .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a serial of uniform checks designed to gauge fundamental things including build character , performance , screen quality and stamp battery biography .
These include formal celluloid benchmarks and scripted tests , plus a serial of real - existence checks , such as how well it runs popular apps .
FAQs
Chromebooks are restricted to downloads via Google ’s app store , so you may not be able to download more obscure apps which are usable via Windows . They also also lack the graphic power for gaming and heavy workload , but make up for that with a low cost and sleek operating organisation .
dead ! A Chromebook can take the place of your Windows laptop as long as you ’re felicitous to stick to introductory workloads and apps such as Gmail , Chrome , Google Docs , Netflix and more .
