Acer Chromebook 514 review

The Acer Chromebook 514 makes a convincing case for itself with a fantastic 14-hour battery life, a solid set of speakers that really impressed our cynical ears, and passable performance packed into an economical package.

Acer’s Chromebook 514 is a luxury Chromebook with a 14-inch screen. Acer’s Chromebook 14 offers increased portability, a sleek aluminum design, and the ability to use touch input technology. Add in the backlit keyboard and long battery life, and it becomes an attractive alternative to budget notebooks in its price range. Despite the Intel Pentium processor, this Acer is snappy enough for demanding uses thanks to Google’s elegant Chrome OS operating system.

Provided the operating system meets your functional needs, the Chromebook 514 offers a top-notch way to get things done without spending a ton. We take our best choice garland for consumer Chromebooks from the 14 and hang it on the 514. Despite some shortcomings related to its overall hardware, its value for money and overall quality in aspects that really matter to Chrome OS make it the best Chromebook for seniors and the best Chromebook for writers on a budget.

The Acer Chromebook 514 is a mid-range Chromebook that punches well above its weight in terms of build quality and display. The base Celeron model is not particularly outstanding, but the Pentium model offers a solid mix of quality and performance at an affordable price for a Chrome OS machine.

Design

The simple aesthetic of the Acer Chromebook 514 will appeal to minimalists, but it won’t do much for those who love pizazz in their laptop designs. Silver hue of the lid is pretty much its only distinguishing feature, and while it looks generic, the sleek elegance is urbanely pleasing. This is also accompanied by a reflective Acer engraving and a dark gray Chromebook logo above it. Opening the lid reveals two speakers on the left and right side of the black keyboard.

There’s a silver touchpad with a glossy finish to distinguish its edge, while a sticker on the bottom right shows the laptop’s many features. This includes, but is not limited to, the promise of 15-hour battery life and slim bezels. Upper frame houses a 720p webcam; the lower bezel features another reflective logo.

The left and right bezels aren’t huge, but they aren’t narrow either. We find it amusing that the bottom bezel of the display is equipped with a glossy sticker with the text “FULL HD 1080”, as if the minimum expectation was something to celebrate. There may also be another sticker next to it that says “WILL RUN CHROME”. There are Chromebooks with displays at a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, but that’s usually obvious from their size.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The black keyboard of the Acer Chromebook 514 is a bit smaller than others we tested, but it worked well for me. As the previous laptop we tested had a huge keyboard, so we would underestimate the placement of the keys and end up with confusing phrases full of nonsense. But with the Acer Chromebook 514, we felt right at home typing. we took the typing test at 10FastFingers.com on the Acer Chromebook 514 and managed to reach 88 words per minute with its keyboard.

This is lower than when we ran the test on a keyboard we know and managed to reach 107 wpm. This mainly had to do with my inability to get used to replacing the Caps Lock key with the search key. While this is the Chromebook way, it is one way we will never appreciate. Otherwise, the keyboard size worked well for me and the key travel had enough depth to be satisfying. The touchpad of Acer Chromebook 514 is not good.

The traction is unsatisfactory, as we have to struggle against its surface to move the cursor. Also, when pressing the touchpad, the cursor remains stationary in limbo for half a second. This quickly interrupts the flow of our work and makes productivity a bit more difficult. We strongly recommend using a real mouse and connecting it to the laptop if you intend to use it while working.

Display

The 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display of the Acer Chromebook 514 is a disappointing deal. Outside of the FHD sharpness provided by this budget hardware, those who have a keen eye for display quality won’t be impressed. We saw the Jurassic World: Dominion trailer and immediately noticed how dim the Acer Chromebook 514’s display is. At maximum brightness in a dark room, there seemed to be a transparent black layer on the display.

Even during a daylight scene where a giant crocodile dinosaur chewed on a cage in the sea, it seemed held back by the lack of hardware nits. Saturation also felt really off, with the faces looking unrealistically cold with little depth of color. Colorimeter tests on the Acer Chromebook 514 show that the display is truly lacking, covering only 46.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

This is significantly below the Chromebook’s average of 70% and only slightly worse than Lenovo Flex 5 (47%), but it did slightly better than the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (42.8%). The Acer Chromebook 514 did not do much better in our screen brightness test, reaching a low average of 224 nits. Again, this is significantly lower than the Chromebook’s average brightness of 294 nits and Flex 5 (260), but it did better than the Spin 514 (209 nits).

Audio

The front speakers of the Acer Chromebook 514 are surprisingly good, delivering crisp, clear audio in most of the songs we’ve launched. A song we tried didn’t go very well, but most of the music will be high quality, so you won’t need to use one of our best computer speakers or best wireless headphones. But if you’re willing to spend the extra money, it will still offer a great upgrade.

We listened to Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)”, and what struck me immediately was how loud and clear Bush’s voice came from the speakers. Ambient synths had their ethereal quality perfectly captured in contrast to its highs and lows, but as the track increased in intensity, some sounds were lost against each other.

Performance

Since the Chromebook 514 is more of a budget Chromebook, we weren’t expecting much in terms of performance, other than getting the basics right. That said though, this Chromebook packs an Intel Pentium Gold 7505 inside which offers solid performance, especially for a Chromebook. You should be able to perform basic tasks at decent speed, whether it’s browsing the web, reading emails, or streaming video.

This more pronounced speed is also supported by some decent scores in our Geekbench 5 processor benchmark test, which beats the competition and slew of low-priced Chromebooks out there by some margin. In terms of storage, this Chromebook 514 configuration has been equipped with a 128GB SSD which is quite generous considering many of the more affordable options opt for lower capacity eMMC storage.

The choice of adequate solid memory is also a major improvement, although you can get twice the storage capacity elsewhere for similar price. That said, included MicroSD card slot allows you to expand memory if you need more space. Also, the fact that it runs ChromeOS is especially useful, considering that the OS is lightweight and perfect for productivity and casual computing. It is ideal for young children and those who are not interested in downloading obscure software.

Battery Life

So far everything seems normal for the Acer Chromebook 514, but, unfortunately, the battery life is insufficient. In our video loop test, it only took seven hours and a bit before we decided to go out. That’s almost half as long as some Chromebooks we’ve tested in the past, and it’s beaten even by a number of cheaper laptops.

If endurance is a priority for you, you can easily find an alternative laptop that will last at least 10 hours. That said, the Chromebook 514 should last a working day, so it is still a useful option for students and office workers, as long as you make sure to recharge the battery every day.

Heat

Acer Chromebook 514 doesn’t run particularly hot, but parts of it have passed our comfort threshold. Its touchpad remained at 79 degrees Fahrenheit during use; its bottom has reached a minimum of 85 degrees. At its maximum, our tests showed it ran at 101 degrees at one point on its bottom, which is slightly above our recommended 95-degree comfort threshold. Regardless, we didn’t notice that this Chromebook was very hot during our tests.

Price and Availability

The configured Chromebook 514 is currently on sale for $499 (about 380 pounds, $710 Australian dollars). At this price you get an Intel Pentium N4200 processor, 8 GB of memory and 64 GB of storage. Variants of the Chromebook 514 can be found at a lower price, but these models ditch the Intel Pentium processor for an Intel Celeron chip and halve the amount of memory and storage. Given the performance issues listed below, we do not recommend considering these more affordable options.

Final Words

The Acer Chromebook 514 is very solid machine for its price. Its full HD screen is great for the price, the build quality is great, and the ability to run Android apps helps get around the poor compatibility of Chrome OS programs. It would have been nice to see an Intel Core M or Core U processor at this price, as it is not uncommon for similarly priced Windows machines to have such hardware.

George Southwell
George Southwell
George Southwell is a seasoned content editor at Bollyinside, renowned for his expertise in simplifying complex tech topics. Specializing in "Tips and Tricks" articles, he excels in breaking down iPhone, Android, hardware, and software insights. George's insatiable curiosity fuels his hobby of testing the latest tech updates, keeping him on the cutting edge.

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The Acer Chromebook 514 is a very solid machine for its price. Its full HD screen is great for the price, the build quality is excellent, and the ability to run Android applications helps overcome the poor compatibility of Chrome OS programs.Acer Chromebook 514 review