The Acer Chromebook 314 is one of the most outstanding Chromebook laptops with an unusual design. The best part of the notebook is the slim profile, which makes it a very attractive option. Despite the excellent build quality, there are a few things we don’t like about the notebook, such as the hinges. The Acer Chromebook 314 is one of the few Chromebooks that offers an excellent balance between price, size, and performance.
It is a perfectly sized, laptop-like Chromebook in the 14-inch range that is reliable, easy to use, and has a good combination of screen and battery life. Considering the performance, size, and price, the Acer Chromebook 314 offers excellent value for money as a laptop computer. Those looking for the best Chromebook 2021 on the market and expecting long battery life, reliability, a crisp screen, and a case that is small but not too small-after all, it has a 14-inch screen-will appreciate this portable device. The Acer Chromebook 314 is not a monstrous laptop and it knows it well, working within its limitations.
Because of this, it manages to strike a balance between performance, battery life, functionality, usability and design for a well-rounded computing experience. The strengths are a crisp, clear and bright display, and the screen size allows for a spacious display with plenty of room to organize applications, view tabs and documents, which greatly increases productivity. The battery life of just over 12 hours is also a good thing and allows you to take full advantage of the 314’s solid performance. It handles all online work needs, including web browsing, management, and entertainment.
Design
The big advantage of the Chromebook 314-H is that it allows you to upgrade from the 11.6-inch screens of cheaper Chromebooks or laptops to a larger 14-inch display. It is also encased in a thin, lightweight plastic body that, if you squint, could be mistaken for aluminum. The blue coloring helps create the illusion, and aside from the somewhat too flexible lid, it doesn’t look all that cheap either.
To be mean, one could call the design a poor man’s MacBook Air, but for less than 250 euros is that really such a bad thing? Also, with a weight of less than 1.3 kg, it is very easy to carry. It also has more physical connectivity than other smaller Chromebooks, with two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A and two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C ports, as well as a microSD card slot and audio jack. It also supports 2×2 Mu-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi for faster connectivity.
Keyboard and Touchpad
A larger device also means more space for the keyboard and touchpad, and generally more comfortable ergonomics. The keyboard is not bad, with a generous layout and a short but crisp typing experience. It’s not the keyboard of the Pixelbook Go, but it’s certainly easier to use than keyboards on lower-end 11.6-inch devices. The touchpad is also quite decent, with a clean, smooth surface and a square shape that makes it easier to move the pointer vertically across the screen.
Display
In this case you are out of luck, because the Acer Chromebook 314 is limited to a resolution of 1366 x 768, slightly higher than 720p. This low resolution is not ideal for a 14-inch screen and makes things look a bit blurry, as the space between pixels is sometimes noticeable. This is especially noticeable with Netflix and Disney Plus videos and is probably the notebook’s weakest point. In addition, the 314 appears a bit dim on the brightest setting, which could be problematic if you plan to use the notebook outdoors on a sunny day. Colors also appear flat, which results in a passable viewing experience.
However, viewing angles were good when we watched the latest episode of This Time With Alan Partridge on BBC iPlayer, and the fact that it has a relatively narrow bezel on the sides means that the screen area is decent overall. Although this laptop is not ideal for watching video, the 14-inch screen size is great for compact productivity laptops, as anything smaller looks too small and anything larger looks a bit ostentatious. Note that it is not a touchscreen, which is a shame for a Chromebook.
Audio
The sound is not bad. There is no bass and not much body in the mids, which makes the sound a bit tinny, but it is clear enough with surprisingly wide stereo range. Keep a pair of headphones handy, but the audio is perfectly adequate for video chats or occasional streaming.
Graphics
Chromebooks do not have high-end graphics cards. It is therefore not surprising that the Acer Chromebook 314 is equipped with an integrated Intel UHD Graphics 600 graphics card. This graphics card runs at a base frequency of 1.10 GHz and a boost frequency of 2.60 GHz. Unfortunately, this GPU is not equipped with VRAM. To clarify, VRAM is a type of GPU RAM that allows the laptop to process graphics independently of the CPU.
Because VRAM works independently, it is faster and improves the performance of the GPU. To check the GPU performance of the Acer Chromebook 314, the WebGL Aquarium benchmark test was used. WebGL Aquarium is a benchmark that determines the ability of a laptop’s graphics card to handle graphics tasks. In the WebGL Aquarium test, the Acer Chromebook scored 314,500 at 47 frames per second. It outperformed the Acer Chromebook Spin 11, which scored 500 at 40 frames per second.
Performance
The 314 is not expected to outperform the competition, but it performs basic functions well, not only because of its price, but also because it is simply a Chromebook. We are happy to say that Acer’s budget beast performs these daily tasks well, thanks to the Intel Celeron 4000 processor that provides a relatively fast user experience. The 4 GB of RAM is sufficient for web browsing and video viewing, and even opening multiple Chrome tabs at once did not slow down the 314 too much only loading images took a little longer, but overall the slowdown was negligible.
However, as our benchmark results show, one has to be realistic about the Acer Chromebook’s performance. It lags far behind the Surface Laptop Go in terms of speed and is even slower than the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which is basically a tablet. This means that with the Acer Chromebook 314 you will have to limit yourself to the essentials, such as surfing the Internet, watching videos and writing Word documents. We have used this Chromebook for many years and have not experienced any heating problems.
Battery Life
We have a few problems with the Acer Chromebook 314, but battery life is not one of them. To put it to the test, we streamed the third season of Snowpiercer, just under ten hours of video, with brightness and audio at 50 percent, and it withstood all of Sean Bean’s icy nonsense. Expect about 13 hours on a full charge, which is exactly what Acer promises.
If you are working and not watching Netflix all day, this equates to two days of continuous use, which is great if you are going on a long trip or working remotely. This time gets a little longer when you have multiple devices connected, for example, we connected the Intangbo Pablo drawing tablet and a second screen, but you still get more than 10 hours with this laptop. As mentioned earlier, the Acer Chromebook 314 has enough ports to support fast charging via USB-C even when the battery is low.
Configuration Options
Acer’s Chromebooks are among the most readily available in the world, and at the time of writing, the Chromebook 314 is available worldwide, as you might expect. However, it looks like it has to be imported into Australia, so you will have to pay more and it may not be as cheap as elsewhere.
The list price is $300 in the United States and 230 British pounds (about $490 Australian dollars), before any import taxes. The company is a renowned manufacturer of technology and devices, so there is no reason to doubt the quality. And at its price, the Acer Chromebook 314 is certainly an attractive offering.
Conclusion
The Acer Chromebook 314 is one of the best budget notebooks on the market due to its attractive price, good build quality and choice of ports, and exemplary battery life. The main weakness is undoubtedly the screen. The low resolution and flat colors are not up to the standards of laptops with Full HD IPS displays.
Also, although the performance is decent for the price, this means that basic tasks are limited. Nevertheless, it is difficult to find a better laptop at this price. If you want a device with a Full HD IPS panel, Windows features, and more powerful hardware, you need to pay a significant premium to the price of the 314.
