A new, upgraded Acer Chromebook Plus 515 arrives already $180 off

I didn’t have this one on my bingo card today. As I’ve said in a prior post, the dearth of new Chromebooks is being felt in the heaviest of ways as we enter the final parts of Q1 2025, so anything new in the Chromebook world is worth getting excited about. And though this isn’t a “new” device, it is a brand new configuration of an existing Chromebook arriving in consumer channels; and it gets some sweet upgrades and a fantastic sale price to kick things off with.

The device we’re talking about is the Acer Chromebook Plus 515, and most of you are well aware that it has been around since the inception of Chromebook Plus back in the fall of 2023. At a year and a half old, no one is really getting excited by Acer’s solid-but-uninspiring 15.6-inch Chromebook these days.

But a new configuration with a couple great upgrades for a really nice price is interesting, right? We reviewed the 515 pretty favorably and I remember that device growing on me quite a bit more than I expected it to.

I have to admit, the amount of internal storage wasn’t really a gripe of mine, but I’ll take double the room any time it’s an option. With this new model, we’re not only upgrading to 256GB of storage; we’re going from UFS to NVMe SSD and that’s a quality jump worth getting a bit excited for.

Secondly, this updated version is adding a touchscreen to the mix, and that is a much bigger deal to me (and I’m sure many of you). While we’ve had a few bigger Chromebooks leaving off touch input, I think the 515 could become a great value for those looking to get a bigger display with the option to leverage touch as well.

Finally, Acer is also adding keyboard backlighting this time around, and that’s a big addition, too. It seems like a simple thing, but adding a bit of backlight to the keyboard really helps the device be far more usable in different environments. These days, in my opinion at least, it is sorely missed on even the most affordable Chromebooks when not included.

So, taking all of this in, I think the $100 price hike is justified, and the sale price right now just makes this all a lot sweeter. At what Best Buy is saying is $180 off, you can score this upgraded Acer Chromebook Plus 515 for $319, and with the upgrades, this becomes a phenomenal deal. There’s little this Chromebook doesn’t get right, and those things are easily overlooked when the price is this low. Also, don’t forget you can save an additional $50 by recycling an old, busted laptop, too.

Interestingly, Acer lists this exact model on their website at $449, so Best Buy’s listing may end up being adjusted to show a $130 savings at some point. Either way, this is a great deal on a new device that is going to be in the conversation quite a bit moving forward. And while I hope deals continue on it for quite some time, it’s new and we have no idea how that will go. But I do know it’s heavily discounted right now, so don’t miss it!