Acer Chromebook 314 CB314-1H-C884 Review and Specs. The Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-1H-C884) is among the few Chromebooks that offer excellent value for money, given its size, performance and price. It’s a perfect size laptop-esque Chromebook in the 14-inch realm that is reliable, easy to use and rocks a nice screen and battery life combo.
The Acer CB314-1H-C884 is unique in its own skin, comfortable, knows its capabilities and limitations, and strikes great balance between design, usability, features and battery life. With a battery life of up to 12 hours, you surely won’t miss out of the solid performance that the 314 offers.
Acer CB314-1H-C884 Performance
Beyond the great design, using the Acer Chromebook 314 is, generally, pure bliss. It is a charming machine to work with and interact with. The obvious and first reason is the tactile factor: it is quite satisfying when you type and click around with the touchpad. The click and clack on the keyboard is unmatched at this price point, and the each push on the touchpad feels awesome.
It packs Intel’s Celeron N4000 dual-core processor, 4GB onboard RAM and 64GB eMMC storage, which is typical of Chromebooks, and somewhat better than most base models. You can use the CB314-1H-C884 for a range of work tasks, casual browsing and watching your favorite movies, and it will handle everything that’s thrown at it. Even the speakers are respectable enough for a laptop of this stature and makeup, meaning its ideal for YouTube rabbit holing and Netflix binging.
Acer CB314-1H-C884 Design
Straight out of the box, the Acer Chromebook 314 looks like a small laptop or notebook. And that’s not a detriment; it’s likable as a result and immediately feels familiar. It is surrounded by a metallic casing, save for the black keys on the board and black on the screen bezels. A nice contrast, and exactly what you’d expect of a sleek Chromebook.
Given that the Acer 314 is on the larger end of the typical Chromebook-size spectrum, and the fact that it only weighs 3.75 pounds is a bonus. Even someone with small hands, it will be easy to lift it up hassle free. This makes it a perfect companion for travel, living or college room browsing machine.
Port options are excellent too: two USB Type-C (supporting Display Port over USB-C and USB charging), two USB 3.1 and microSD Card reader. Connectivity comes via Gigabit 802.11 ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0.
Display & Keyboard
The FHD (1920 x 1080) screen is nestled in a dark frame with thick bezels on the bottom, harboring the logo, two thin lines on a medium and the side one at the top that houses the camera. It’s nicely done, you don’t even recognize it immediately.
At the bottom of the screen, you have the typical restrained Chromebook keyboard that sits in the middle of the bottom pad, and is neatly placed above the large touchpad. The keyboard is effective and simple; for a 14-inch Chromebook, it never feels like you’ll accidentally hit the buttons or the pad, meaning it has a good balance in its layout.
Battery Life
Certainly, the battery life is excellent. It offers up to 12 hours of battery life on a single charge– and sometimes at 50% brightness, it can clock 13 hours– much longer than the marketed 12 hours. This represents roughly two full working days, when constantly used and it will see you through a heap of work and tasks.
Bottom Line
Put simply, the Acer Chromebook 314 (2020) is a great laptop, all-in. So, if you’re shopping in the sub-$ 300 mark, and need to get a great product for your money this is certainly it. Even its design screams laptop, and it is the only Chromebook we’ve reviewed and interacted with that feels and performs like a laptop, for use both online and offline.
Should you need something more tough and can stretch your budget a little further, you can easily nab a premium model like the Google PixelBook Go, which will get you more whistles and bells.
All said, if you’re shopping on a tight budget, the Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-1H-C884) is a great choice.
Acer CB314-1H-C884 Verdict
The Acer Chromebook 314 (CB314-1H-C884) is a perfect definition of a value Chromebook, sweetly balancing price and performance in a beautiful package; that triumphs over a lot more premium notebooks
PROS
- Lovely, laptop-esque design
- Excellent battery life
- Super-bright screen
CONS
- No touchscreen
- No fingerprint readers