{"id":458,"date":"2013-04-24T02:30:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T02:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/?p=458"},"modified":"2013-04-24T02:30:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T02:30:25","slug":"perfect-travel-companion-acer-c710-chromebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/perfect-travel-companion-acer-c710-chromebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfect travel companion: Acer C710 Chromebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re still finding our way in the post-PC era and so far gadget-makers have produced a few duds along the way. Apple’s slick iPad still sets the standard when it comes to striking a good balance between portability and usability, but Acer’s AU$299 C710 Q1V2C Chromebook proves that the traditional notebook form factor has plenty of life left in it.<\/p>\n

Brimming with potential and priced to sell, Acer’s stripped-down C710 Chromebook is the perfect travel companion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At $299 the Acer Chromebook is pitched more as your secondary laptop computer and a perhaps travel companion rather than your everyday workhorse.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Acer-C710-Chromebook\"<\/a>The Chromebook runs Google’s Chrome OS, which is basically a stripped-down version of Linux designed to do little more than run the Chrome web browser. That’s not as inconvenient as you might think in this age of web apps and cloud services.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Acer’s $299 hardware is surprisingly impressive considering the budget price tag. The 11.6-inch, 1366×768 LED screen is bright and crisp, while the keyboard is firm and well-spaced. The notebook weighs in at only 1.38 kg and comfortably slips in a travel bag, while you’ll squeeze three to four hours from the Acer As10d31 Extended Life Battery<\/a>. In terms of connectivity you’ve got three USB 2.0 ports, an SD card slot, Ethernet, VGA, HDMI, webcam, headphone\/mic jack and 802.11b\/g\/n wi-fi.<\/p>\n

Overall the Chromebook puts every budget Windows netbook I’ve tested to shame. In the last few years I’ve seen Windows netbooks and laptops which cost much more, offered much less and were far less pleasant to use. To be fair, this isn’t the only Chromebook to reach our shores. We’ve also recently seen the launch of the $349 Samsung 11.6-inch Series 3 Chromebook in Australia. The $399 HP 14-inch Pavilion 14 Chromebook is also coming, so if you’re sold on the Chromebook concept you’ll want to weigh up the Acer’s hardware against these alternatives.<\/p>\n
\nThe Chromebook is not for everyone. Like all post-PC devices you need to go in understanding its limitations or else risk serious disappointment. Last year I weighed up all my options when looking for an international travel companion and decided that the $399 HP Pavilion DV6<\/a> running Windows 7 was the best fit for my needs. If I was forced to make that decision today I believe it would lose out to the $299 Acer Chromebook. Your mileage may vary but, short of spending more than $1000 on a Macbook Air, I’d say the Acer C710 Chromebook is the best fit for my travel bag.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re still finding our way in the post-PC era and so far gadget-makers have produced a … Perfect travel companion: Acer C710 Chromebook<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[320,322,321],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batteries-technology","category-battery-wiki","tag-acer-as10d31-extended-life-battery","tag-acer-aspire-5630-battery","tag-acer-c710-chromebook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461,"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aussiebatt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}