The left-hand USB-C port supports Power Delivery, which, in practical terms, means it’s going to function as the port for the mains adapter most of the time. You get two Type A USB ports and two Type C USB ports – handy if you’re using external drives or peripherals that use the older connection. Paint job aside, the Acer Chromebook 514 weighs a very spry 1.5kg and, as it measures a slim 17mm when closed, it will slip nicely into your bag and take up very little space. Some of the silver paint had come away, making me wonder what this will look like after a couple of years – probably not as bad as the LG Gram 2-in-1, but still.

I’m a little sad to say that the review unit I picked up appeared to exhibit some superficial damage on the top left corner of the display side. The only parts of the Acer Chromebook 514’s body that aren’t made from metal are the screen bezel and the hinge, which are plastic.

While this Acer Chromebook isn’t quite as nice to look at as the Dell or the Google Slate, its lid and chassis are made from aluminium, which immediately makes it feel more premium than a standard run-of-the-mill Chromebook. This changed with the launch of the Dell Inspiron Chromeb2-in-1, Google’s own Pixel Slate and the Acer Chromebook 514. Until recently, Chromebooks have also been fashioned from rather naff-feeling flexy plastic and there hasn’t been much consideration on the aesthetics front. With its metal chassis, the Acer Chromebook 514 looks more expensive than it actually is Acer Chromebook 514 design – It’s a slimline metal laptop that won’t break the bankĬhromebooks are cheap and cheerful laptops running Google’s lightweight Chrome OS, typically priced somewhere in the £300-£500 bracket.

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