Acer Chromebook Plus 514 and 515 aim for mainstream PC performance with up-to-date AMD Ryzen or Intel platforms

Acer has jumped on Google's new Chromebook Plus bandwagon with the first 514- and 515-series variants that match up to this new standard with "double the speed, memory and storage of top-selling Chromebooks today".

In fact, the Chromebook Plus 514 has gone a little above and beyond in terms of the new program's minimum AMD requirements, as it can be configured with the Ryzen 5 7520C at most with 8 or 16GB of RAM. Acer has yet to reveal the exact Intel CPUs available to the 515 alternative, although it is assured of getting either Alder Lake or Raptor Lake silicon, to the tune of Core i7 levels, with the same RAM options.

In any case, those "modern" platforms will drive a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display, whereas the 514 will be graced with a "beautiful" 14-inch 1920x1200 panel. Either Plus model will have a hallmark Acer MIL-STD 810H-certified chassis with an Ocean Glass trackpad, a 1080p webcam "with Temporal Noise Reduction" and DTS Audio-enhanced speakers.

The Plus 514 and 515 will also boast Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, USB type-C and HDMI for more of that reasonably standard up-to-date PC vibe Google and Acer is going for here. Accordingly, these new kinds of Chromebook are backed to "maximize productivity and express creativity" as never before by handling apps such as Adobe Express or Photoshop (albeit possibly still in a browser) as well as Google Docs, Sheets or Slides - all with AI augments, of course.

Finally, these PCs are touted to be just as useful offline with a Chromebook Plus File Manager to get at files from the aforementioned Google apps without Wi-Fi. The Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (CB514-3H/T) and 515 (CB515-2H/T) are slated to be available in North America from October 2023, at a starting price of US$399.99.

Buy a Chromebook 514 on Amazon