Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-2H/T)
For an affordable, feature-packed ChromeOS laptop, look no further than the Acer Chromebook 514. It's portable and durable, with a 1080p touch display and great battery life. The entire package just gets better with today's discount.
The Chromebook market has developed a very rich mid-range segment, which features a number of solid laptop options that won't break the bank. The Acer Chromebook 514 is an excellent example of that. It has a 1080p touchscreen display, enough performance to handle most of your apps and tasks with ease, a backlit keyboard, awesome battery life, and right now it's on sale for just $350.
Why you should buy the Acer Chromebook 514
We rated the 514 an 8.5 out of 10 in our review, noting that it made for a simple all-in-one solution for high schoolers or college kids needing a new laptop. The 14" display doesn't flip or spin, but it is a touchscreen, meaning you'll rely less on the touchpad for input. It also doesn't get super bright or vibrant, but the 1920x1080 resolution is more than acceptable at this size and price range. Under the hood is a MediaTek Kompanio 828 chip and 8GB of RAM, which don't make for impressive performance, but it is a very efficient combo that should handle most of your school and enterprise duties without issue.
The Chromebook 514 checks a lot of other boxes as well. The keyboard is backlit, meaning the keys illuminate to help your hand positioning in darker settings, and the speakers are up-firing, so they don't sound muted or muffled. You also get a 720p webcam for Zoom calls, Wi-Fi 6 support for fast and reliable wireless connections, and three USB ports — two type C and a single type A. The real star of the show here, though, is the battery life. While Acer claims up to 15 hours of usage per charge, we were able to squeeze two full workdays out of it before hitting the bottom of the well. And when you do need to recharge, you can do so speedily, as the 514 supports 65W fast charging.
The only real knock we have against this Chromebook is that storage is limited to 64GB, and there's no microSD slot to easily expand it. Otherwise, it's a very solid laptop that should last you several years — automatic updates are promised through June 2029. Get the Chromebook 514 if you need a reliable machine for school, work, or just every day tasks, and get it now while it's only $350. You can save an extra $50 by going with the non-touchscreen version, but we believe the additional input method is more than worth the added cost.