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Acer Chromebook 714 (starting price $499, tested at $649) is a premium-looking business notebook with a sleek, aluminum chassis that will enhance your urban and professional aura as you wear this sophisticated device from one office meeting to another. The laptop has been MIL-SPEC tested, so if you’re the clumsy type with butterfly fingers, you’ll find comfort knowing that this Chromebook can withstand shocks and other traumatic blows. This is our Acer Chromebook 714 Review.
Acer Chromebook 714 also features a unique fingerprint reader that’s rare on laptops running Chrome OS. On the other hand, the Acer Chromebook 714’s display is weaker than that of its competitors. The speakers aren’t impressive either.
Acer Chromebook 714 Review: Design
The Acer Chromebook 714 doesn’t try to impress anyone, and I mean this in the right way. With an all-aluminum, dark grey chassis, this Chromebook says: “I’m a practical looking Chromebook that means business; glitter and gold don’t make a great laptop! The lid features a center-left, silver Acer logo, and a top-left black Chrome logo. The laptop is not sensitive to fingerprints, which I love.
Open the lid, and the interior shows more aluminum goodness, and it feels very nice too. The island-style keyboard has big white letters on big black keys. An attractive reflective upholstery surrounds the trackpad. The side rings are super slim, but the top and bottom rings are thick. The top ring contains a webcam. Almost merging into the background, a muted, silver Acer logo is stamped on the lower bezel.
The Acer Chromebook 714 has been rated for military-grade durability, which means that if you have an accident, you’ll be pleased to know that this laptop has passed multiple MIL-STD 810G tests, proving that it can withstand rain, humidity, extreme temperatures, vibration, and shock. The keyboard deck also features a decent looking fingerprint reader I’ve ever seen; the small oval design is unique. Fingerprint readers are a rare thing in Chrome OS devices, so it’s refreshing to see the biometric authentication on this laptop.
The Acer Chromebook 714 is appropriately ported. On the left, you’ll find a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, a headphone jack, and a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port. On the right, you will find a Kensington lock, a microSD card reader, and another USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port.
Keyboard and TouchPad
I rarely say the L-word, but damn it, I love typing on the backlit keyboard of the Acer Chromebook 714. Students and staff who work on the Acer Chromebook 714 get a great tapping rhythm when they tap this productivity-enhancing keyboard. Unlike the Chromebook 715, this keyboard does not have a numeric keypad. The Gorilla Glass touchpad is just as great as the keyboard. The touchpad has a smooth, smooth surface, so navigating the Internet with the Chromebook 714’s cursor was a piece of cake. The gestures of the Chromebook’s touchpad, such as scrolling with two fingers, also worked like a charm.
Acer Chromebook 714 Review: Display
The 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 touch-screen display of the Chromebook 714 does not win any awards, but it is reliable. I looked at the Antebellum trailer, and when the camera zoomed in on a tired Janelle Monae playing a slavish character, the scene lacked the detail and crispness that you can find on the high-end displays, which cut away the emotion of the scene. The colors shown on the screen were easily accessible; one woman’s bright red lipstick popped, and the display captured Monae’s beautiful mocha tint.
The viewing angles on the screen were quite right. According to our colorimeter, the Acer Chromebook 714 panel covered 66% of the sRGB color range, which was below the category average (76%). The Asus’ Chromebook Flip C434 (93%) and Google’s Pixelbook Go (108%) crushed the Chromebook 714 on this benchmark.
With 254 nits, the Chromebook 714’s display could not exceed the average of the brightness category (256 nits), and it failed to outperform the Chromebook Flip C434 (286 nits) and the Google’s Pixelbook Go (368 nits).
Audio
I listened to The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights,” and I was happy to hear the song fill in while the music came from the bottom speakers. However, as the snappy melody continued, the vocals of The Weekend sounded a bit hollow and a bit rough around the edges. The music lacked that lush, smooth, full quality that more first-class speakers have. Overall, the two-channel speakers were so good – we recommend purchasing headphones for a better sound experience.
Acer Chromebook 714 Review: Performance
If you’re a tabbed laptop user, you’ll be happy to know that Acer Chromebook 714 can handle your incriminating Internet activities. I flooded the Chromebook 714 with 28 Google Chrome tabs; three of them played 1080p YouTube videos. I opened a new document on Google Docs and typed away without a system delay. Don’t worry; this herculean Chromebook can handle your heavy workloads just fine.
On the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, the Chromebook 714 nailed 7,779, crushing the average Chromebook score (6,227). The Acer Chromebook 714 also hammered past the Core m3-8100Y CPU in the Asus Chromebook Flip C434 (6,968) and the Core i5-8200Y CPU in the Google’s Pixelbook Go (6,516).
On our JetStream benchmark, which tests how fast large web pages to load, the 714 103.4 beat the Chromebook average (74.9), as well as the Asus’s Chromebook Flip C434 (76.7) and the Google’s Pixelbook Go (85.9).
Acer Chromebook 714 Review: Battery Life
On our battery life test, which involves regular surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Chromebook 714 lasted 9 hours and 5 minutes. This is sufficient for a full day of work or school, but it falls short of the average Chromebook battery life (10:01). Both the Asus’s Chromebook Flip C434 and the Google’s Pixelbook Go outperformed the Chromebook 714 with runtimes of 9:58 and 11:29, respectively.
Heat
It’s super cool under the hood of the Chromebook 714. After streaming a 15-minute 1080p video for our heat test, the bottom of the Chromebook hit 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which fell nicely below our 95 degrees comfort threshold. The middle of the keyboard hit 83 degrees, and the touchpad reached 79 degrees. The hottest temperature on the machine was 88 degrees, which was on the bottom of the laptop, near the ventilation openings.
Price and Configuration Options
The basic model of the Acer Chromebook 714 costs $499 and has a 2.3 GHz Intel’s Pentium 4417U CPU with 8GB RAM, 32GB of flash memory, and an Intel’s HD Graphics 610 GPU. I tested the $649 model with a 2.2 GHz Intel’s Core i3-8130U CPU with 8GB RAM, 64GB of flash memory, and an Intel’s UHD Graphics 620 GPU. You can also get a $799 configuration, giving you a 1.7 GHz Intel’s Core i5-8350U processor with 8GB RAM, 64GB of flash memory, and an Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU.
Acer Chromebook 714 Review: Conclusion
The Acer’s Chromebook 714 has a sleek aluminum chassis that I can’t stop touching; its aversion to fingerprints and military dullness is another tempting appeal of this professional-looking laptop. Work bees will experience quick productivity on this machine – the clicking keyboard and multitasking friendly system will have users whistling through commands and tasks. Another exciting and rare feature is the snappy fingerprint reader.
However, the Acer Chromebook 714’s display is weaker than the competition’s, and the sound can be better. The battery life lasts a whole day, but there are longer Chromebooks on the market. For $569, you can grab the Asus Chromebook C434, giving you an extra hour of battery life and a lighter, slimmer chassis. Overall, the Acer Chromebook 714 is a great productivity machine for work-intensive users who rely on Google apps to perform their daily tasks and commands. For more Chromebooks, check our list of Best Chromebooks :updated