Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE Review - Quick Verdict
The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE model is a Chromebook that comes at an attractive price. The laptop features an excellent display that also doubles as a touchscreen. Being an IPS display it makes this laptop suitable for media consumption and also for photo editing and other related works. The hardware on the laptop can be underwhelming on paper but they do a very good job overall. The battery life is just spectacular at around 10 to 12 hours depending upon the usage. Overall, an impressive Chromebook that can handle your Chrome OS workload and costs very little.
- Excellent overall performance
- Longlasting battery life
- Solid design for a budget laptop
- Gaming is not a good idea
Author's Rating
Are you searching for a Chromebook that works well and doesn’t cost a lot? Then you’re in the right place. The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE is a recent release from Acer that performs quite well and is priced very reasonably.
In this Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE review, we’re going to dissect this new Chromebook from Acer and see how it fares as a device primarily running Chrome OS. When people are on the search for a Chromebook, their needs are entirely different when compared to a regular consumer. Does this laptop satisfy those needs? Let’s find out in the full review below.
Design
The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE comes in a nice silver finish that reminds of the Macbook Air from Apple. The construction of the laptop is solid and it doesn’t feel like a cheap device at all. You can see that the silver color extends to all parts of the device except for the keyboard.
Talking about the keyboard, we have a good one here. The keys are nice to type on with decent travel. They have included backlighting for keys which is a nice addition at this price point. On either side of the keyboard, you can find the speaker grill. Though not that great, they do bring some symmetry to the design. The touchpad is okay and gets the job done.
The hinge in this laptop deserves a special mention. You can lay this laptop flat on the surface making it easier to share ideas with people around you. This smooth operation is mainly because of the hinge. Other Chromebook models allow the user to place the laptop in a tent or stand position, but sadly, you can’t do that here.
With a 15.6″ screen, the laptop is lighter than other ones in the same category. With a weight of around 4.41 lbs, you can easily move around with this machine in your backpack. Overall, this is a neatly designed Chromebook that is perfect for the online folks.
Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE Specs
The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE Chromebook comes with a 15.6″ display that comes with a full HD resolution. With this resolution, you can enjoy crisp pictures on the screen as the display has a good pixel density. You can enjoy viewing online content on this display as the viewing angles are more than good.
Another nice touch to the display is that it is a touchscreen. Usually, Chromebooks do not come with a touchscreen. In this model, you get to interact with a Chrome OS using touch and that’s definitely a wholesome experience. The screen is quite responsive to touch and you can use digital pens on the screen. This is particularly fantastic if you’re an artist or a designer.
Performance
The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE Chromebook runs with an Intel Pentium N3350 processor at its helm. This processor is a dual-core processor that has a base clock speed of 1.10GHz and can go to a maximum of 2.4GHz. Chromebooks usually don’t require a lot of power, so Acer has gone with an entry-level processor for this Chrome OS-based laptop.
This processor is designed for simple, everyday tasks. Since the OS now allows you to download apps from the Google Play store, you can run some powerful applications with this Intel chip as well. The 2MB cache memory does come in handy when dealing with Google sheets or other online-based office docs.
When it comes to dealing with Chrome OS and its applications, the processor does an impressive job. Browsing the web, streaming videos, and other simple everyday stuff are handled well without any hiccups. As Chrome OS is light and a limited operating system when compared to Windows, this entry-level processor seems to be enough.
The memory department comes with 4 gigs of LPDDR4 type RAM. For a Chromebook, 4GB RAM is a lot and should facilitate worry less multitasking for most users. When compared with Chromebooks with 2 gigs of RAM, the Acer CB515-1HT-C2AE does well when it comes to handling two or more apps at the same time.
For storage, you get 32GB of storage in an SSD. Since Chromebooks are online devices, most apps are going to cloud storages so this much local storage is more than enough. Also, Google offers you 100 gigs of cloud storage for free so that you can backup all your work without any problem.
If you have plans to play games on this laptop, prepare to be disappointed. The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE model is not meant for gamers and doesn’t come with any discrete graphics card. You can still play some basic games but anything graphics intensive is not gonna run well.
Battery Life and Connectivity
The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE model excels in the battery department. With light usage, you’ll be able to squeeze out about 12 hours of battery life. If you’re going to do anything heavy, you can expect a battery life of around 8 to 10 hours depending on what you are doing.
Even though this is a Chromebook, it comes with multiple connectivity options to meet everyone’s needs. There is a couple of USB type C ports that are being used in all the pro devices these days. You’ll also find a couple of USB 3.0 ports for those who haven’t switched completely to USB type C. There is a micro SD card reader that can be handy to those who make use of such storages. You’ll also find a headphone jack as well.
In addition to these ports, the laptop also comes with support for WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. So if you want to reduce the clutter on your table, you can easily achieve that.
Bottomline
The Acer Chromebook 15 CB515-1HT-C2AE is an excellent Chromebook for the price and delivers spirited overall performance. The hardware on this device is good enough for what Chrome OS offers and you can do much more as well. The fact that you can download Android apps on this devices only makes it more attractive. The stunning battery life is a welcome bonus. If you’re looking for a wholesome Chromebook experience without spending a lot, then this one is a solid option.