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In this video I give a full review of the ACER C720 Chromebook.
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hey folks Robbie Pay Here Again with a
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full review of the Acer
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C720 now if you follow me on YouTube and
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or Google+ you've seen the unboxing
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already and we've kind of taken a tour
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of the device uh gotten around just a
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little bit but we'll take a quick tour
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to start things
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off you see the top is kind of
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emblazoned with this matte finish um
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pretty cheap feeling plastic uh it's
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probably impossible for you to see it on
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the video but it does
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do a pretty good job of picking up
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fingerprints even though it's kind of a
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matte finish and then when they get on
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there they're really difficult to get
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off um just a a quick note on the side
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of the device we have USB 3.0 port HDMI
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port power jack and headphone microphone
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slot nothing on the front of the device
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couple LED indicators for charging
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side we have a full sizee SD card slot
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USB 2.0 and then a Kensington lock and
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nothing along the back other than fans
1:10
here uh and this device obviously does
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not support a Sim um any 4G or 3G uh
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there may be some variants out that do
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if not there will be um Acer uh seems to
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do this with the their Chromebook lines
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they'll they'll kind of drop multiple
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variants uh specifically uh just
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yesterday I believe there was announced
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um that there's going to be a
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touchscreen variant of this guy without
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the 4 gigs of RAM um but a full
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touchcreen so it'll be the first
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Chromebook with a touchcreen other than
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the $1,200 Chromebook Pixel so it'll be
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interesting to see how Acer plays that
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and how that screen looks uh if it fair
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is the exact same as this just glossy
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cover on it it'll be an interesting
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thing to see
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this device is packing the Haswell
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class Intel Celeron Processor uh 4 gigs
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of RAM 16 gig internal solid state
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drive 11.6 in display uh 1366 X 768 in
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its resolution it is a matte finish um
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so that's kind of the the specs and the
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rundown I've seen in some other videos
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some some people have asked about
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ethernet ports um the last few
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Chromebook do not have them U so if you
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don't have Wi-Fi I'm unsure at this
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point right now um whether an ethernet
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adapter they make the usb3.0 ethernet
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adapters uh for Windows PCS Mac OS I
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don't know if that would work on Chrome
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I know a lot of other peripherals do uh
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right out of the box so I'm not exactly
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sure if that would work or not but it
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might be worth a try if that's something
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you need uh my recommendation to you
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would be to go buy a $40 router and plug
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it in and let it do its thing um so so
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you can have some wireless internet
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around the house I have turned it off so
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we're going to just see a quick uh quote
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unquote boot up uh even though I'm sorry
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I'm in developer mode so start counting
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from
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now um and we'll see that that
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um 7-second boot up is is more than true
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uh with with Chrome
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OS you can see there's a couple profiles
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on here my I let my wife mess around
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around with it a little bit um she
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currently
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uses
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the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook uh it
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really likes it she gets a little
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aggravated by its performance sometime
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which if any of you own that one or have
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gone with the hp11 um you know what
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she's talking about there there just
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times when the processor doesn't quite
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handle what it needs
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to um but form factor wise this one's a
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lot like the HP as far as the weight and
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the size of it it's a little bit deeper
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this way um than the Chromebook 11 I
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think the almost oop sorry almost the
4:08
exact same uh width left to right so um
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form factor wise it's about the same
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build quality Wise It's nowhere in the
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same ballpark uh this is definitely the
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other than the c710 the c710 was
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incredibly cheap feeling uh this one is
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not that much better uh and by far um uh
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the cheapest build quality of all the
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Chromebooks that I've got my hands on
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thus far um you'll see on the inside uh
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a glossy kind of cheap plastic bezel
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here uh that's just a fingerprint magnet
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I mean that's the one of the areas as
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far as physically manipulating the
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device that's that's one of the things
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you mess with most and it just collects
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the fingerprints uh just the way it is
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um the keyboard uh while the keys are
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plasticky and and again overall
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everything on this thing feels really
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really cheap
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um it actually performs pretty well uh
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didn't bother me there's not a lot of
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flex at all on the keyboard it's nice
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and firm um and responsive I didn't have
5:09
I didn't have much issue at all honestly
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uh with the keyboard typed quite fast on
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it um keys are spaced pretty well for an
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11.6 in machine so I really have no
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complaints with the keyboard they did a
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good job of spacing it kind of right out
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to the edges so that they retain almost
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a full-size keyboard um same goes for
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the trackpad um it's probably impossible
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for you to tell this on the video like
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the corner of my trackpad actually is
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above the casing here so I can run my
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finger there and kind of catch the edge
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of it and pull it up and if I push it
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you'll
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hear it clicks back down into place and
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now it's down in there but the first
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time you click around down here a few
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times it pops itself back up there and
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so again it you just have certain
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expectations when you go into buying a
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200 or $250 laptop it's just the way
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things are they can't use the high
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highest quality everything in in putting
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together a machine like this and so
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there are just certain trade-offs like I
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said it is light um it is it's sturdy
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feeling I didn't feel a lot of creaking
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with the device that's that's not it the
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the cheap feel comes a whole lot just
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from handling it um it it'd be
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incredibly difficult to to explain on
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camera or explain in any kind of written
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review it would be something that you
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just need to go to Best Buy or um
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Walmart or something like that just pick
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one up and just just feel it uh the
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tactile feel of the device is uh is
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pretty cheap feeling other than that uh
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if you were to uh look at my Chromebook
6:41
14 review which you can go down uh below
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the video just click my profile and
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you'll see some other other videos the
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Chromebook 14 uh and this share exact
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similar internals and this is a
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Chromebook and so the software is the
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exact same so we're really just talking
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about Hardware different and really
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they're just external hardware
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differences because internally they're
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the exact same machine and what I found
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is uh this Chromebook is just as quick
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at doing well pretty much anything U
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that the um the Chromebook 14 can do U
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the display is decently usably bright
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it's probably difficult for you to see
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on the camera we'll knock it down a
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little bit just so you can kind of see
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um and the battery life is exceptional
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thanks to the Haswell processor um the
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trackpad though it feels cheap is nice
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and responsive uh it tracks the the
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cursor very smoothly two finger
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scrolling um works just fine no issues
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there I've had some questions in
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previous videos about Java not
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JavaScript but Java um running applets
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and stuff like that uh you're not going
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to get that on a Chromebook um it will
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not run Java uh runs JavaScript
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obviously but um no Java and here's go+
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which is Infamous for being terrible on
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Chromebooks and we can see that with
8:05
Haswell now um that's just not the case
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anymore so um that's pretty cool to see
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uh it moving nice and smooth through
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through difficult things and you'll
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notice uh I don't know if I can catch
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this uh you kind of see the glare on the
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bezel there a lot of glare coming from a
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window um but you don't see any glare
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whatsoever on the screen I did kind of
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like that um even though the screen is
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the most washed out uh of any until I
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got it back next to my Chromebook
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14 I really didn't think it was that
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terrible but it makes the Chromebook
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14's display um look much better um and
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and I'll have a Hands-On or a side by
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side comparison between this and the 14
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coming up soon but it
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uh it really looks washed out uh next to
8:54
the Chromebook 14 and the Chromebook 14
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looks really washed out next to a good
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IPS display such as the hp11 so uh this
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is way down on the totem pole as far as
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displays go but I will say having worked
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with it for a few days being in front of
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it for hours at a time it honestly just
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didn't bother me that bad um again it's
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just like with TVs and things like this
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until you see it next to something
9:19
Superior sometimes it doesn't seem that
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bad so take that with a grain of salt uh
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when you see it on a showroom you see it
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in Best Buy or something like that
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you're going to see the display kind of
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up next to uh something like an hp11 and
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it's going to look like garbage next to
9:34
that it really is um I can't stress that
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enough
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however um it's it's difficult in those
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situations to see it without any
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competition and without competition it's
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it's not that bad it's it's usable it
9:48
really is um and so I'm not going to go
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through showing uh a ton of games and
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all that kind of stuff on here we'll
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load up one thing real quick um murder
9:59
files I've used this in a couple other a
10:02
couple other reviews it's a fun little
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game it's really interesting take on who
10:06
done it kind of thing and um it's a it's
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just a fun game and it it does render a
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lot of 3D stuff so it's nice to see it's
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nice to watch these Chromebooks kind of
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deal with with 3D Graphics kind of let
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you hear the speakers as
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well
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um again not great not not super
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loud um you know they're passable I
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really don't know who sits around and
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listens to stuff at length um just on
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their on their uh
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laptop um without some sort of external
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speaker but a lot of people uh really
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like good speakers and laptops and this
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is probably not going to be the best
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thing in the world but you can see it
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everything rendering real nice um this
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is all 3D all realtime rendering um and
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Chromebook hand it no problem so pretty
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cool but if you haven't played this game
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and you have a Haswell Chromebook uh try
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that guy out it's pretty
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fun other than that guys there's not too
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much else to talk about um and I'm sure
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I'll get a myriad of questions um after
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this video is posted but um you know
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it's a Chromebook so software wise if
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you want to kind of get a better rundown
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of what Chromebooks in general can do I
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go way more into depth on the hp14 and
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hp1 reviews uh and don't feel the need
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to do that here again uh it's a
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Chromebook and this thing can run
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anything that Chrome OS can throw at it
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so really what you're talking about when
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you consider a device such as the Acer
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C720 is form factor weight um screen
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size price is one of the big ones and so
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even though um you know I tend to like a
11:59
lot of the features in the build quality
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say on the hp11 or the hp14 they're both
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more expensive uh the hp14 uh especially
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the one I have is is actually a full
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$100 more expensive than this guy
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because it comes with
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LTE 14in screen but performance- wise
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there really isn't any difference uh you
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know I mean the the the small subtleties
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you know uh clicks on the trackpad kind
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of sound hollow they're not loud not
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obnoxious I used the Transformer book
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T100 for about 2 days and that trackpad
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was obnoxious it was small sounding and
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just clicked so loud U it was it was
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almost borderline ridiculous um you know
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this one has a real Hollow click but at
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least it's quiet um the keys are kind
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of kind of clacky feeling um the the
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overall overwhelming feel of the thing
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if somebody else sees it if they touch
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it if you use it um I can't come up with
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any other word other than it just feels
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cheap um and it is cheap so that's fair
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right um it's a $250 and if you get the
13:08
two gigs of RAM a
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$200 uh laptop so it is cheap um so as I
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said and I've said before Chromebooks
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are at this point in the game
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Chromebooks are give and take uh there
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are you get good things with certain
13:23
ones you you take away things with other
13:25
ones and hopefully uh my hope is that at
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some point in in the next year we're
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going to see some mid-range Chromebooks
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so instead of just the race to the
13:34
bottom hopefully we'll start seeing some
13:36
four and $500 Chromebooks that can
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really pull in some Stellar uh outward
13:41
appearance and design and still maintain
13:44
you know decent internals cuz we're not
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talking about needing i3s i5s i7 aswells
13:49
in these guys this Celeron more than
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takes care of what needs to be done so
13:54
um you know I I don't know if I know the
13:57
the quad core arm processors that are
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out there that are awesome Snapdragon
14:02
800 for instance uh I don't know that
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Chrome can utilize that uh maybe why
14:07
they haven't used it yet cuz all the all
14:10
your
14:11
main uh arm processors are all quad core
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and I don't from what I understand
14:16
Chrome can't utilize quad cord it's can
14:18
only utilize dual core at this point so
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um could be the reason why we're not
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seeing the more powerful arm chips but I
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think either a more powerful arm chip uh
14:27
or stick with this you know this hasell
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seller on it does the job more than
14:31
plenty I mean it just it really takes
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care of business the amount of RAM is is
14:36
fine I've not running with this or the
14:38
hp14 a time where I had too many tabs
14:41
open and I'm talking about opening
14:43
multiple tabs and and I can show you
14:45
that really quick opening multiple tabs
14:47
with with YouTube in it and let me get
14:50
one up and running here and I'll just
14:53
duplicate it over and over again and
14:55
just show you I mean the ram ram is not
14:57
a problem
15:10
um one thing I will say too about this
15:13
one and this would just go with 11.6 in
15:16
devices in general um you know working
15:21
at a desk with it you really kind of
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have to stay leaned forward leaned in
15:25
cuz the the text gets a tad bit small so
15:27
back behind the camera right now um and
15:30
I just had my eyes checked by the way I
15:32
have 2020 Vision so back behind the
15:35
camera um you know some of this text is
15:38
a little bit difficult to make out all
15:40
right folks it's Robbie Pay Here mute me
15:43
there so I'm just going to go and
15:45
duplicate and duplicate and duplicate
15:47
and
15:53
duplicate sorry guys YouTube had a
15:56
little issue there so instead we've
15:57
loaded up uh
15:59
quite a few tabs of The Verge which is
16:01
uh if you're not familiar with it um
16:04
kind of an all-encompassing Tech website
16:06
and they by looking at it here you can
16:09
see it's a very content heavy website
16:13
and so um ends up being a pretty good um
16:17
test for browser speed and so I've got
16:19
it open in multiple tabs and we'll
16:21
scroll to different places and um just
16:24
so you can see it's not having to
16:26
reload uh we'll scroll down a little bit
16:28
with that one and so we see all the
16:30
multiple places we're not getting
16:32
reloads uh and for kicks we'll even
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start this video here as
16:39
well let get going
16:42
and we'll pick one of these and you can
16:45
see it still Scrolls nice and smooth so
16:49
this is a a pretty heavy test uh right
16:52
here going on so you can see the the
16:55
processor in this guy is plenty um it
16:59
it's it's handling everything you needed
17:01
to handle uh does everything you needed
17:03
to do
17:05
and and so to kind of finish my point
17:08
what I was
17:09
saying it would be nice to see a $4 to
17:11
$500 Chromebook where that money is
17:14
spent on aesthetically pleasing
17:16
exteriors uh wellb built uh firm
17:19
construction good keyboards trackpads uh
17:23
fantastic displays and I'm not even
17:24
talking about high res displays I think
17:26
you get up to, 1600 by 19 or by 900
17:29
and it's plenty um it would look great
17:31
on this size or 13 in or something like
17:33
that uh we're not talking about cramming
17:35
more pixels just talking about making
17:37
better use of the pixels that we've got
17:39
already um and then we're going to start
17:41
seeing some some Chromebooks that really
17:42
feel very premium uh hp14 I feel like
17:46
kind of has a lot of those boxes checked
17:48
already uh but this screen still suffers
17:50
a little bit um better than this one um
17:53
but it still suffers a little bit um
17:55
stick around I'm going to have a full uh
17:58
uh side-by-side comparison between this
18:00
and the HP 14 upcoming um scroll down
18:04
subscribe um hopefully we'll see more
18:07
Chromebook stuff in the future uh thanks
18:10
again for watching have a good one
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