As we reported multiple times last year, AMD has entered the Chromebook arena and Acer is now first out of the gate to bring us an AMD-powered Chromebook. The Acer Chromebook 315 debuts as a parallel announcement from AMD with HP also jumping on board with their own AMD device.
Acer Chromebok 315
Building on Acer’s ever-growing 15’6” lineup, the AMD-powered Chromebook 315 appears to take its cues from the recent Chromebook CB514 that is powered by Intel’s Apollo Lake processors. This is fitting as AMD’s A4 and A6 APUs bring benchmarks similar to the Pentium N4200.
The Chromebook 315 will come in a few different configurations including a touch and non-touch display with resolution up to 1920 x1080 FHD or 1366 x 768 on the base model.
Ram and storage come in the usual options of 4GB/8GB and 32GB/64GB respectively and the starting price will be an impressive $279. As usual, the 15.6″ Acer will sport the upward firing speakers we have grown to love in this model line up.
Now onto the processors. The 7th Gen AMD A-series APUs powering these will go head-to-head with Pentium processors from Intel’s Apollo Lake line up. They should perform decently enough but bear in mind that these are still going to be “budget” devices.
This may come as a disappointment for those like myself hoping to see some serious GPU power come to Chrome OS but AMD’s goal was to combine their mobile-centric processors with the lightweight nature and long battery life that is inherent to Chrome OS.
Apart from the above, the Chromebook 315 is practically identical to its Intel sibling. MicroSD card, a couple of USB-C ports and two USB 3.0 and of course, the headphone jack. Acer is shooting for a February launch of the 315.
Here’s a closer look at the new AMD Chromebook 315 by Acer:
We’ll be getting up close and personal with the Chromebook 315 later this week and are looking forward to giving you our first impressions. I really hope that this will open the door to more “premium” AMD Chromebooks that bring high-end chipsets to Chrome OS. When Linux apps can fully leverage the GPUs in these processors, the game will forever be changed.
Stay tuned for up-to-the-minute coverage of CES 2019 as we make our rounds here in Las Vegas.
