Engadget - Whether rightly or wrongly, Chromebooks have earned a reputation for being the new netbooks. Slowly, though, things are starting to change. The designs are starting to feel less cheap -- at least if you're Samsung. Battery life is getting longer, sometimes even better than on full-fledged laptops. And now, performance is getting stronger, too: Acer just became the first company to release a Chromebook with a Core i3 processor, one that can better withstand multitasking, gaming and whatever rich websites you're likely to visit. The C720, as it's called, is actually the same 11-inch Chromebook Acer's already been selling, just with a beefier CPU inside, and theoretically longer battery life -- 8.5 hours, up from 7.5.
Maximum PC: Chrome OS and Chromebooks are a perhaps the thinnest main-stream consumer client you can get today. Hell, next to Chrome OS, Android, IOS and even Windows RT, look positively fat with their full service OS functionality. No, make no mistake about it, Chrome OS is pretty much a browser in a box.
Maximum PC: Acer just made it a little more tempting to jump aboard the Chromebook bandwagon. With the holiday shopping season getting underway, Acer expanded its C720 Chromebook line with a new $200 entry-level model. Like the $250 SKU, it's built around Intel's Haswell architecture (albeit a Celeron 2955U processor clocked at 1.4GHz), has a 16GB solid state drive, and sports an 11.6-inch display with a 1366x768 resolution. So, how did Acer manage to shave $50 off the price?
