Acer is likely building a high-end, larger Chromebook Plus 715

It’s been over 5 years since we ventured up to New York for one of Acer’s hardware previews. At that last event, we got hands on the newly-announced Acer Chromebook 714 and 715 – the lastest Chromebooks from the company that were squarely aimed at the enterprise market.

A lot has changed since then, and both the consumer and enterprise Chromebook market have grown a lot in those years. More and more, manufacturers are seeing the request for larger screens for use on the go from both regular consumers and businesses alike; and we’re just beginning to see some of that reflected in the latest Chromebooks hitting the market.

Obviously, the new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus and Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE spring to mind in this segment, and both are wonderful devices I love having in my backpack and on the desk on a regular basis. But Acer – who has made quite a few larger Chromebooks over the years – has yet to return to the higher-end 700 series in a 15-inch or larger Chromebook since 2019. But it seems like we might finally be in a spot to see a return to form.

Say hello to ‘Kanix’

As you can see in the above-referenced commit, we have a new device that started development in September and is based off an existing device, ‘Karis’. The sheer number of boards and code names we keep our eyes on is staggering at this point, so I’ll save you the time; ‘Karis’ is the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714.

With the multiple Quanta emails attached to the early work for ‘Kanix’ added to the fact that this device is copied from ‘Karis’, it’s pretty easy to nail down ‘Kanix’ as a part of Acer’s fleet. Further digging into the battery being used also adds credence to this notion, so I have no doubt this Chromebook belongs to Acer.

But what would be the point of cloning the lastest Spin 714? It just released in May, and the baseboard is the exact same. There simply would be no reason to do this unless ‘Kanix’ was some other sort of device with a 14th-gen Intel processor inside. And that’s exactly what we’ve found evidence of.

Bigger keyboard, bigger device

Yesterday, I found the keyboard layout for the backlit variant of ‘Kanix’, and there are some keys that should stand out to you from the image above. Namely, the inclusion of a numeric keypad. The minute you introduce one of those, you already know the device is of the 15″-16″ variety.

But then you also see the addition of the dictation, accessibility, and assistant keys. Sound familiar? These keyboard adjustments are identical to the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, and that’s no coincidence. Google told us new devices would ship with this updated keyboard layout, and it seems at least one is already in the works with it onboard.

With this keyboard layout and 14th-gen Intel processors inside, it’s not a big leap to think this could become the latest Acer Chromebook Plus 715 (or the first 716, perhaps). I’ve seen nothing to indicate that this is a convertible, so with the evidence currently available, I’m feeling pretty confident that this device could be a direct response to the sleek, thin Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.

While I still love both the original and Plus-branded 516 GE Chromebooks from Acer, something a bit sleeker and more professional could compete well with what Samsung has put together. If Acer keeps it relatively thin and light (I’m thinking of their existing Swift line of devices), but chooses to keep touch input, offers some beefier specs, and gives us some solid audio, they could have a winner on their hands with this one.

At only a month along, I don’t think we’ll see this one before the end of the year, but perhaps a showing at CES 2025 could be possible. After all, it is built on a baseboard that has been around for over a year at this point, so much of the core development work is done. I could definitely see ‘Kanix’ arriving by the spring of 2025 for sure, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Acer is capable of in this space to compete with Samsung. Stay tuned.