Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (Intel) Review [VIDEO]

The new Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is a device I didn’t fully appreciate until I actually spent some real time with it; and because of the way things have lined up over the past few weeks, I’ve actually been using this one for nearly a full month every single day. Though it cuts some corners here and there, what Acer has built in this ridiculously-affordable Chromebook is pretty insane, and at just $249 most days since it debuted, it’s 100% worth your consideration.

I say it all the time, but price informs opinion. It just does. And when a device comes out and is on sale for just $249 most days, it affects the way you look at it. Minor issues become non-issues. Thoughtful inclusions become a big deal. And good performance doesn’t go unnoticed. All of this is fully on display with the latest Acer Chromebook Plus 514 and it has made a very deep impression on what I understand can be delivered on a shoestring budget.

And a quick note before we get into all that: I have to say “latest” when I refer to this one because there was a prior Chromebook Plus 514 that was a pretty different device and was the final Chromebook Plus we reviewed from the batch of devices that released last fall. Don’t let that confuse you, though. This one is a different Chromebook in a lot of ways, and it is absolutely worth your attention.

Solid build quality

At the center of this Chromebook, you have all the stuff that makes for a solid experience. It’s a clamshell with a touchscreen, keyboard, trackpad, upward-facing speakers, and solid internals. The primary formula for a good Chromebook isn’t tough to decipher, and Acer has delivered on it with this one.

The build is all plastic, but surprisingly sturdy. It doesn’t feel like the Dragonfly Pro or anything, but it isn’t bending and creaking under its own weight, either. It looks like what you’d expect aesthetically from an Acer Chromebook, and generally gets the job done without a lot of fuss.

Good screen, camera, and keyboard

Crack that chassis open and you’ll see a screen that is surprising for this price range. Sure, it’s 16:9 instead of 16:10, but it hits 300 nits, has an anti-glare surface, and provides touch input. The colors are good, and there’s not a bunch of ghosting on screen when I move windows around. It’s a great screen for this price.

The 1080p camera above the screen is fine, but the colors aren’t great. With Chromebook Plus, you get all the new camera tricks, though, and you can blur your background, improve lighting, access live captions in real time, add noise cancellation, and tap into the new AI-powered backgrounds, too.

The keyboard is surprisingly good, here, though there’s no backlighting. It’s not the best keyframe I’ve typed on, but it has been used to write a lot of posts for me, and I don’t find myself wishing I was on another device every day. And the same is true of the OceanGlass trackpad. It’s large enough and smooth enough for all my daily routines, but the click mechanism is a bit interesting. At the very bottom of the trackpad, things feel great. But moving up even a bit makes the click very firm and nearly impossible above the halfway point. Not a huge deal, but it cheapens the experience a bit.

Speakers and Ports

Flanking the keyboard deck is a set of upward-firing speakers that are decent, but not exceptional. For video calls and some YouTube, they are just fine. I wouldn’t want to watch hours of content with only these speakers, though. And to the sides of those speakers are the ports that get you most of what you need. There’s a USB Type-A and Type-C on each side, headphone/mic jack, Kensington lock, and a MicroSD card for expansion – which is odd, and you’ll see why in a second. Though I wish they would have thrown in an HDMI port, this is a pretty solid selection.

Surprising internals

Now we come to the internals, and things get very interesting. The processor is the very capable Intel Core i3-N305 that gets a decent 8-10 hours of battery life and is paired with 8GB of RAM and a whopping 512GB of SSD storage. Yes…for $249 you are getting a capable Chromebook with a half a Terabyte of storage! And though I have no use for this amount of space on my Chromebook, I’m always happy to have it. And that surprising inclusion along with the solid keyboard and screen highlight what is so great about this device.

Acer has delivered the core things you need to in order to build a great Chromebook experience and they’ve done it on a wildly-low budget while throwing in a few unexpected upgrades along the way. Sure, the MSRP is $349, but this device has been $249 at Costco for almost the entire duration of its life cycle. There are few things you can buy for that sort of money that are this effective at helping you get stuff done, and for the money, I can think of few other Chromebooks I’d recommend at this point over this one. Well done, Acer.