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I’ve never been a fan of oversized laptops. That’s likely due to the portability of what we do here at Chrome Unboxed. We’re constantly on the go and oftentimes, find ourselves working from wherever we find ourselves. Toting a 17.3″ laptop on vacation, to the coffee shop, or even Top Golf isn’t something that sounds appealing to me in any way.
That said, I’m not you and you may be all about larger screens on your portable device. I can certainly see some obvious use cases. Perhaps you work in a semi-permanent setup but don’t have the room for a full-blown desktop setup. Maybe you’re someone who works with a lot of spreadsheets and needs all the real estate you can get on a device that you can still pack with you when you’re out and about. Maybe you just like having a massive display for late night Netflix binge sessions in the comfort of your bed. Whatever your reason, ChromeOS does offer some solid options in the oversized laptop niche.
The Acer Chromebook 317 was officially the first 17.3″ ChromeOS laptop to hit the market and it offered up some solid specs at a reasonably affordable price. Rocking a Pentium N6000 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, the Chromebook 317 is equipped with a decently bright FHD IPS display that’s crisp and easy on the eyes. This CPU/RAM combo is powerful enough to handle moderate workloads to include Android and Linux applications, web browsing, and content consumption. It also offers a solid amount of ports along with a MicroSD card slot to offset the relatively slim amount of onboard storage.
At $499, I personally wouldn’t run out and buy the Chromebook 317 but it’s still an affordable price if you absolutely want or need the largest Chromebook money can buy. If you’ve been hesitant to pull the trigger, I have some wonderful news. This massive Chromebook is currently enjoying a massive discount over at Best Buy. You can pick up this giant Chromebook right now and save a whopping $200. That brings the price of the Acer Chromebook 317 down to the very delectable price of only $299 but you better act fast because this deal will be gone before you know it.
