14 DAY TRIAL // Back in August, Acer marked an industry first when it rolled out its Chromebook 13 which is the first of its kind to take advantage of NVIDIA’s latest powerhouse, the Tegra K1.
Even if the device has been officially announced, the product hasn't been yet made available for purchase. However, present on the grounds at IFA 2014 in Berlin, Acer has put the device on display and provided us with a little walkthrough, too.
For those of you who are new to the party, we are taking an opportunity to tell you the new Chromebook 13 comes with a 13.3-inch display and customers have the option of choosing between a full HD (1920 x 1080 pixel res) option and the lower 1366 x 768.
Back when it announced the device, Acer said owners of the Chromebook 13 would be able to experience a “first-rate multi-tasking experience when keeping multiple tabs open, playing and doing more at once.”
To prove this wasn't just another bold marketing statement, NVIDIA had us witness a demo comparing performance on a Netbook with Bay Trail and the Acer Chromebook 13 running the Tegra K1.
We were shown both laptops running The Hobbit Trailer and while the K1 product could easily run the video on YouTube in full quality with a huge spreadsheet loaded in the background, the Bay Trail model stuttered badly, meaning it froze after five seconds or so.
From what we could see and compare, the Tegra K1 Chromebook performs quite beautifully and is certainly above the quad-core Bay Trail version and the Samsung 8-core Exynos, so it might really be worth the money.
The product is made of plastic and overall not the sleekest you’ll see, yet you can still handle it with one arm.
The lower-res model sells for $279 / €208 with 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM. Just an extra $20 / €15 is needed if you want to upgrade to the high-res model.
A model with 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM will bump things up to $379 / €283.
If you’re not a big fan of Acer as a product manufacturer, you should know HP has also announced the Chromebook 14 which takes advantage of the same ARM-based NVIDIA chip.
We’re not quite sure whether the HP lappy will come equipped with FHD, plain HD or both options. However, the laptop’s base price starts up from $300 / €232 so opting for the Acer model will save you a few bucks.
