Chromebook c720 

I have an Acer C720 ($199) and an Acer C720P ($299) and both are amazing machines. If you dont mind plunking down the extra $100 for the touchscreen then go for it but really you will do fine without it and save yourself $100 especially if you are buying these as gifts like I did for others in my family.

Here is a list of the APPS I use on both and it runs them fast and flawlessly:
Facebook, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Chrome Remote Desktop (flawlessly connects to my Windows 7 laptop and I can run any windows program remotely with ease and flawlessly connects to my Office Desktop and I can access all my office records which is key since i am a family doc), Google Cloud Print (easily prints documents to all the printers i have set up), MyBible, Kindle, Twitter, Hootsuite, Weatherbug, Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, Google+ photos (automatically puts all my photos taken on my Iphone over to my chromebook), RUNS ALL WEBSITES INCLUDING BANKING WEBSITES and my mobile hospital app FLAWLESSLY WITH CHROME (including adobe flash player sites which my Ipad and Iphone still wont run)

The only CONS i can find so far are no SKYPE app.....If you want to do video calls then need to use GOOGLE HANGOUTS which is much less intuitive than skype....and you CANNOT hook a printer directly to a chromebook but you can use google cloud print to print easily...needs wifi connection to do most things (this is really not a problem for me as i am always connected and they have developed a number of apps that work when not connected including document writer and email offline

Battery Life Amazing! almost 8hrs of use!
Touchscreen good but not like an Ipad (can't use your fingers to zoom in with pinch)
Touchpad very good! (and really dont need the touchscreen because touchpad works so good)
Keyboard very solid,
Can use any wireless mouse with it. (Ipad still cant utilize a mouse)
Screen brightness great.
Sound adequate but a bit tinny
USB port charges devices and can use flash drives to move and transfer files (another thing I still cant do with my Ipad)
2 years free of 100GB Google Drive (this saves you $120 right there)
12 free wifi passes while on planes (i dont fly much but still a nice convenience and saves you the $10 or so connection fee)
Free virus protection

All in all a great economical way to access the internet with ease and lightning speed and do 95% of what most people use a personal computer for this day and age.

I got my first Chromebook about six months ago, it was Samsung series 3 with the ARM processor. Initially it meant to serve me as a second laptop for occasional light work online, but very soon I realized that I was using it most of the time. My powerful Windows laptop and Mac mini were just sitting there collecting dust, getting my attention only once a week at best. I replaced my Samsung with Acer C720 2 GB RAM version two weeks ago.
Here's a quick breakdown.
- C720 has a slightly better screen than Samsung. Same washed out colors, but contrast and viewing angles are better, and so is brightness level. If you are spoiled by the screens of modern tablets, you might think that 1366x768 resolution would look unattractive. That's not quite right. I should remind you that MacBook's Air 11 screen has the same resolution and the same size. It's just enough to do what it's designed to do.
- The keyboard layout of C720 may not be as good as Samsung's, but I like Acer's feel and key movement better. Unless you have very large hands, it might provide one of the best typing experiences in the price range below $300, and it's definitely better than most Windows laptops for that price. I write quite a lot and C720's keyboard didn't cause any significant discomfort so far. Touchpad is reasonably good, but nothing to be overexcited about. I only wish it was a bit larger.
- C720 is WAY faster than Samsung. Don't be deceived by the name of the processor - this Celeron unit from the Haswell family has more processing power than Chrome OS requires. And 2 GB of RAM should be absolutely enough for anyone, who normally doesn't keep over a dozen tabs running heavy websites simultaneously. The fan would kick in from time to time, but it's very quiet and is never annoying. Boot time is typically impressive for Chrome OS devices and takes around 7 seconds.
- Battery life is one of the sweetest spots of this laptop. To get promised 8.5 hours you don't have to keep the screen brightness at 50% all the time (as you would do with the Samsung to get 6.5 hours). I don't carry the charger with me and never managed to make it run out of juice. In fact, sometimes I would even give some boost to my phone's battery from C720 without worrying that it may die unexpectedly. Also, the battery charges pretty quickly.
- Speakers of C720 are louder than Samsung's, but they don't sound much better - they shoot down at the table (or your lap) and don't really promise anything. But plug in headphones or external speakers and you'll get some decent sound quality for a low budget device.
- The Web Camera on C720 is also superior to the one in Samsung. Promised difference in resolution might not be that visible, but it keeps higher framerate, works better in low light and seems like it captures a wider viewing angle. It is definitely an upgrade. Microphone gets the job done, but it's not very useful in somewhat noisy environment.
- C720 is a little bit heavier than Samsung, but by no means it is heavy or bulky. It is still a portable laptop that could be easily moved or carried with one hand. Its build quality is better than most Windows laptops below $350. Obviously, there's nothing special about the quality of materials, but everything feels solid, the lid mechanism is sturdy enough, and overall it's not bad at all. It certainly lacks some style, but it looks and feels more expensive than it costs.
I love Chromebooks for the ease of use. The first set up takes about five minutes. They are perfect for kids, for elderly people unfamiliar with computers, for students, for writers, bloggers or even programmers. It's amazing how much stuff can be done in a browser. Online shopping, social networking, managing emails, listening to music, watching movies, reading books, video chatting - everything that most casual users actually do on their computers and even more. Offline capabilities are not forgotten - you can watch movies from the local or external storage, listen to music, work with Google Docs and many other Chrome apps or even games that can run offline. One of the greatest things about Chrome OS - there is virtually no maintenance. You have to try really hard to make it work wrong. Updates are seamless and a complete reset of the system with the Powerwash, in case you want to give it away or sell it, takes just few minutes.
I was skeptical when the idea of a Chromebook was introduced to the public. But when I tried one myself and gave it a proper open-minded shot, I wasn't able to go back. Today Acer C720 is my daily driver and I would change it only to a better Chromebook. For $199 it's almost impossible to beat its value. Don't forget, that with the purchase you also get 100 GB of Google Drive space for 2 years. And if you like touchscreens, C720p for $299 is also a very good deal.

I'm a technology addict and I've been following the development of ChromeOS for a while. When it first came out, I totally understood the concept but wanted to wait for it to mature a while and the prices to come down. My trigger price point was $200 so when the 2GB version of C720 came out, I had to have one.

I find it amazing that such an inexpensive device can do so much. After having it a week, it became my favorite machine just because it is so simple and light. After using it, you come to question why we need such big computing power, huge hard discs and RAM just to run a traditional OS when it comes to supporting the use cases for about 90% of what you use a PC to do. Whats even better, the Chromebook is pretty much ready to go out of the box, with an already pretty rich supply of online an offline apps don't cost you anything extra.

Just like tablets came on the market and turned the PC industry upside down because they did 80% of a PC did, and did it with a better user experience, lower price with much less hardware spec. In the same way, I think the Chromebook will have a permanent place in personal tech as the one matching basic needs at the cheapest price - a second PC for around the home, or the "throwaway" unit for travel where you don't have to worry about damaging or losing it because its both cheap and highly secure.

Specific to the C720 - I agree with most that the screen could be much better but it is still quite acceptable considering the price. The trackpad and the keyboard as well - I have no trouble using them and the trackpad is actually better than many more expensive PCs. I think the build quality is actually quite good - it looks professional and robust enough so that it can survive a road warrior's abuse.

The 2GB ram is also the best value in my opinion. I've read a comparison report that showed that the 4GB really has no advantage until you open up 15-20 tabs at once, anything less than that the performance is identical. My own experience (I usually open up only 5 to 10 tabs at once) is that browsing performance is excellent - comparable to my 2013 MacBook Air with 8GB RAM that cost 5x the price.

First, the hardware.

I have two Macbook Pro machines (a 2009 and a 2010 model), so I have relatively high standards. This is not Apple quality, but it is superior to most cheap Windows machines and far superior to netbook machines.

The overall build is 4-star. The keyboard is decent, and short of being backlit, it is almost on-par with Apple's chicklet keyboard. Vs Apple's chicklet keyboard, it has slightly less travel and a different texture, but it is very usable.

The machine itself is solid: it doesn't flex and creak like most cheap machines. It is quite rigid and feels solid for a plastic notebook. It isn't as ugly as photos lead you to believe.

The trackpad is nice. It is not as flawless as an Apple trackpad, but is responsive and works well. It supports two-finger scrolling (windows-style or "natural"). It also supports navigating forward and back with two fingers, although this gesture is definitely less responsive than with Apple's trackpad. The whole trackpad is a button, just like a Mac. You can choose whether to tap-to-click, or not.

The big (huge) weakness is the display. Resolution isn't horrible compared to a non-retina Mac, but contrast is pretty bad. Unless you tilt the C720's screen perfectly, contrast is abysmal. I would gladly have paid more if it had a better display. It is the one thing that makes me regret this purchase, even at the low price.

Battery life is great. I used this machine earlier this week with streaming music in the background and working on documents for work. It had 20% left after 7 hours.

As is clearly stated in the description, this machine contains an OS that simply runs Google Chrome. You can get a great idea of what works and what does not by simply testing tasks in Google Chrome on a Mac, PC, or Linux box.

It is surprising what can be done with just a browser. It isn't perfect, but you can do a lot.

Below are some of my normal tasks, and how well they can be accomplished with the Chromebook C720.

Browsing: flawless. It is full-featured Google Chrome, and it is fast and responsive. It doesn't choke on any web sites or even web apps that I have found. It can handle ten tabs easily (2gb model).

Creating simple MS office documents: decent. It can create basic office documents (docs, spreadsheets, presentations) and export them for use in MS office.

Editing simple Microsoft Office files: fair. It works with simple spreadsheets and documents. It can "view" simple Powerpoint files.

It isn't great at handling complex MS office files with lots of formatting. You can probably get by in a pinch, but you will occasionally struggle and there are files you will encounter that just won't work at all.

I do not have a subscription to the new "MS Office 365" cloud apps, so I can't speak to how well it handles them. If it works as well as Apple's cloud office apps, you should have no problems with Office 365.

Edited to add: I tried Microsofts free trial of Office 365. Chrome's web office apps are just as powerful as Microsoft's web apps (though Apple iWork web apps are more powerful than both). The big difference between Microsoft web apps and Chrome web apps is the interface. The MS Office 365 interface is similar to modern MS Office with the big toolbar at the top. Google Chrome web office app interface is simpler and more like Office '97. Neither are super-powerful and I actually prefer Google Chrome's we apps to Microsoft's web apps. The Chrome apps make better use of screen real estate. Neither of them can display heavy formatting found in complex documents.

Apple iWork files (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers): great, using Apple's iWork for iCloud. iCloud will warn you that the browser is not supported, but it works great. It works just as well as it does using Chrome or Safari on a Mac. It can't import your iWork files into the offline software, so Apple iWork is a cloud-only online-only option.

Amazon Prime Video: failure. It simply does not work at this time (12/7/13)
Edited to add: now Amazon Prime Video works fine. ??? Perhaps Amazon had some issue or the machine updated itself, but it works fine now.

Netflix: works great.

Network storage using the file manager: failure. There is no way to easily connect to my home NAS server or shared folders on other machines on the network using the file manager.

NAS access using the browser interface: great. I have a Synology Diskstation NAS. I can watch movies, play music, and download files using the web-based interface just fine.

VPN access: failed (using my work VPN). It does have a VPN setup built in, but doesn't work with my company VPN. My company VPN works fine on iPhone, iPad, and almost any computer. This is a big drawback that Google needs to fix.

Printing: decent. I have an HP printer that is fully supported and it prints great (HP Officejet 7500). HP "eprint" printers have an email address and you just give the C720 this address for printer access. I have heard that it struggles with some printers, but I can't speak to it. The print command brings up a dialog to export your file/image/webpage/etc as a PDF file by default.

Photo viewing/editing: very mixed, and mostly awful when offline. One reason I wanted this device was to carry with me along with my camera to view photos on the go. It does have a full-size SD slot (though the card protrudes from the machine and can't be left in the slot for long). The built-in offline image "editor" is a joke. It can only view files fitted to the screen. It can do extremely simple tasks like cropping and brightness adjustment, and that's it. You can't even zoom in on an image to inspect it closely with the built-in photo app. With difficulty, I found an offline image editor app called "Pixir Touch Up" that does a much better job, and will allow you to zoom in on images from your SD card, but it isn't much better than the stock app. Pixir does offer a very full-featured online photo editor that is on-par with Gimp and others. Remember, the display isn't great and isn't ideal for inspecting photos. An iPad and an EyeFi card (or iPad camera connection kit) are a much better choice for toting along on a photography adventure. Even though the display is poor, it's too bad that Google did such a lousy job with the photo app.

Google Chromecast: great! It works well with my Chromecast. It works just as well as when using Chrome on my Mac.

Ease of use: decent. If you already have Chrome on a Mac/Linux/PC, you know how to use it. All of you settings, bookmarks, and everything else in Chrome on a Mac just downloads right into the Chromebook.

Google Drive storage: fantastic! This machine includes 100GB of Google Drive storage. Google charges $5/month for this great service and Dropbox charges twoce as much for similar service. I am Going to cancel my 100GB Dropbox and save $10/month for two years, which essentially makes this machine free. If you don't know about syncing files between your computers using Google Drive, you need to check it out. It is a bargain at $5, and a steal when free with a usable computer.

The machine itself with the current software is a three star item, but it is a great value. It isn't as high-quality as a Macbook or a modern tablet, but it is so cheap that it should be a consideration if you simply cannot afford a high-end machine, or you need a backup machine. It is better than many Windows machines I have used that cost more than twice as much. It would be 4-star-plus with a better display, better file manager, better network support, and better photo viewer/editor. Hopefully Google keeps working on it and eventually upgrades the weaknesses in the software.

I'm in my last semester (hopefully) of my undergrad and my 4 year old HP Envy quit on me in the first week of this semester. I've had my Chromebook for about a month now, so I think I'm a little qualified to leave a pretty accurate review.

Overall, I absolutely love my Chromebook. It is an amazing little device and I will probably never go back to a PC (I'm not a Mac person at all so I can't compare it to them). Now, as a disclaimer, I am not someone who does online gaming or software video editing. At most, I'll edit some pictures and maybe edit some music files, so I cannot attest to this devices ability to fulfill those needs (though it doesn't seem like it would be very compatible with them). However, as someone who needs a computer mostly for internet, research, email, music, social networking, and document editing, this thing is amazing.

PROS
1. Speed. This thing is a beast. It comes out of a sleep faster than my Kindle will start up (if I shut it down, not just if I wake it up from sleeping). It's kind of incredible how fast it boots. Internet browsing and document editing is awesome, video viewing is great (YES, this OS IS great for Netflix and online streaming, don't believe what you've heard if it is contrary to what I just said).

2. Display. I really like the Chrome OS layout (it's pretty similar to Windows 7, which I liked a lot more than any devices with Windows 8 that I've tried--my phone has Windows 8 and I kind of hate it now that I have my Chromebook). It's intuitive and simple--the whole setup process for me took like ten minutes tops.

3. Sync with Google. I can access all of my stuff EVERYWHERE. I used Google Drive before, but not as heavily. It is soooo so nice to have all of your material on whatever computer you may have access to.

4. Apps. Google has come out with some really useful apps for these devices and they're only making more.

5. Hardware. I love the way this Acer laptop is set up. The sound is surprisingly wonderful for such a small machine, AND it has separate "speakers' and "headphones" settings for sound. No more plugging my headphones in, forgetting I had the volume cranked earlier that day, and having my ear drums blown out. It's a simple but beautiful thing and I don't know why more manufacturers don't do it. The top row of keys is as follows: Escape, Back (internet browser button), Forward, Refresh, Fullscreen, I don't know what to call the next button but if you hit it it brings all the things you have open up on your desktop screen and you can click on what you want to go to, Dimmer, Brighter, Mute, Volume Down, Volume Up, Power. The "programs" button is awesome, I use it all the time to get to something else that I have open but don't want to scroll through everything to find, and having the internet back, forward, and refresh buttons on the keyboard is surprisingly nice. Some people say they're worried about hitting the power button accidentally, but to turn it off you have to hold it for a few seconds, so it's difficult to do it by accident. The screen is matte, so you can still see things if you're outside or by a window, and the trackpad is awesome--two finger scroll, click with two fingers for a right click, and you can enable tap to click in the settings (which I was thrilled with because I hate pushing down every time). Unfortunately, though, there's no zoom feature on the trackpad. That's my only complaint about it. This thing is SO lightweight overall--with my old computer, if I lugged it around campus my shoulders would kill me, but with this one I can barely tell it's in my backpack.

6. Sleep/Occasional Crash Recovery. Any time I've put this to sleep, turned it off without closing things, or had it run out of memory and need to restart abruptly, I have not lost a single thing. Are crashes desirable? No. Do they happen? Yes. Does this thing deal with them well? Absolutely. On a computer with only 2 gb of RAM I kind of expected a few crashes because I can be a heavy internet browser, but when it restores itself, all my tabs come back and whatever I was working on is safe.

7. Battery Life. Battery life battery life oh my gosh battery life. I am AMAZED with it. One day I was using it to watch Netflix and bum around on the internet and the battery was at about 60% and I didn't have to plug it in for FIVE hours. On a full charge, it will do at least 8 if you're not watching videos, and about 6 or 7 if you are. It's absolutely incredible and if it's the one reason you buy this computer, I wouldn't judge that decision (other than to say it's totally reasonable). It's wonderful and cannot be matched. It's also super convenient when I need to take it to class and am not sitting close to a power outlet. My old HP would get 3 hours MAX when the batter was new. If this computer only lasted 3 hours, I would wonder what was wrong with it. The lack of a need to plug in is a beautiful, beautiful thing and it is definitely unparalleled.

8. Google Docs. At first I was worried about not having Microsoft Word, but honestly, Google's line of word processing programs are so similar that it doesn't even matter. You can save things as .docx or .pdf and then anyone can view them in the "traditional" format. It's absolutely not necessary to have Microsoft Word. Plus, there are plenty of converter apps that Google has to view things from other people and turn them into Google Docs so you can edit them, and then turn them back into pdfs or whatever you need.

CONS

1. Sometimes it crashes. It happens with all computers. However, as I said, it reboots well and I've never lost anything.

2. The fact that all my stuff is on the cloud... I'm a little uncomfortable with it. I have an external hard drive with most of my files on it (especially videos and stuff). I've never had any problems with hacking, but it worries me slightly. However, Google is constantly improving security, so I'm not ALL that worried. The nice thing is that you can set up "2 Step Verification," so when you (or potentially someone else) log into your google account from a previously unused computer, you have to supply your password AND google sends your phone a text with a code to put in. You have to have your phone to log in, but this gives me a little more peace of mind.

3. Desire to Learn (this online software that my school uses for virtually everything) issues. The dropbox on Desire to Learn won't let me upload files. This has been an absolute pain and I have to make sure that I either have my Kindle Fire charged so I can send PDFs to it and then upload them with that, or that I'm on campus so I can use a public computer to turn in my assignment. This is my biggest complaint and I hope I can resolve it eventually, though I don't know how I could do it on my own.

4. Printing. I haven't sat down yet to try to connect my printer to cloud print. I know there are directions, I know you are supposed to be able to print with Chromebooks, but there are so many extra steps that I just haven't bothered with it yet. I've resorted to printing on my campus and my printer has gone dormant. Maybe eventually I'll hook it up and change this to a pro, but for now, it's a hindrance.

5. File Explorer. The file explorer is pretty simple but is sometimes kind of glitchy. Usually if I put my computer to sleep and wake it up again it solves that problem, but it's annoying nonetheless.

FINAL VERDICT
Overall, if you're not a huge gamer or video editor, this computer is amazing. All these great features combined with the outstanding price make it a fantastic choice for those who just use computers for internet and document editing. Contrary to Microsoft's Chrome OS slam commercials, IT IS NOT USELESS WITHOUT AN INTERNET CONNECTION. No, you can't access websites, but you can't do that offline with a PC anyway. You can still make documents and they'll just save to your small hard drive and sync with Google Drive later. It saves the most recent things you've worked on, and if you want more you can use an external hard drive or flash drive (or physically move files to the offline drive) to access more files offline. Honestly, though, I'm so rarely without an internet connection that it doesn't even matter anyway.
I would recommend this computer wholeheartedly (and have many times in the past month). It's compact, intuitive, useful, and does almost everything a common PC will do. If you have any other questions that I didn't address, just ask :)

The Acer C720 is the perfect laptop for students. I just bought this chromebook from Best Buy primarily because I wanted something light and compact to carry around campus. I have a Windows laptop that's fully loaded with a SSD, Core i7, 8gb ram, etc. All of that is fast but my laptop weights nearly 7 pounds and honestly those specs are overkill for what I need. I'm a biochem major so I don't need fancy AutoCAD or photoshop programs. All I need is document editing, browser, and a PDF viewer.

The first thing I tried once I bought this little guy was opening up my PDF textbooks. I put the text books on my flashdrive, transferred them to the onboard storage and it worked! The textbooks open up offline in Chromes PDF viewer. It's brilliant! That was my main concern. I uploaded my entire iTunes library (about 4,000 songs) on to Google Music. It took several hours to upload but now I have all of my music on the cloud and it's ALWAYS with me. Yes, you will need an internet connection to listen to it but my campus has wifi everywhere. I even get connection outside between buildings.

In terms of hardware, this chromebook is much thinner in person than it appears in the pictures. It is also quite a bit smaller than I was expecting but that's not a bad thing. The keyboard is slightly smaller than I would like and the keys are extremely shallow. It doesn't bother me but it'll take me a little bit to get used to. People have been saying that the trackpad is loose but I don't find that the case. I actually find it rather pleasant to use and it has many gestures that come on Apple computers. The screen is awesome on this. Sure it's not an IPS but this matte display has ample brightness, clarity, and size. I quite enjoy it. The speakers were surprising. I was expecting something sub par but for a $199 laptop, they really deliver. The bass could be stronger but I think they sound nice as they are. Lastly, the batter is awesome! The computer had no charge when I got it but it took less than an hour to charge to 100% once I plugged it in. When I unplugged it, it should 9:42 till empty! WOW! That's with two tabs open.

For those wondering how the 2gb compares to the 4gb, I've got to say that the 4gb is overkill unless you open more than 30 tabs some of which are all playing video at the same time. Who does that though? I typically have 4-5 open. Occasionally, I could get up to 10 but that doesn't slow this machine down at all. I'm glad I went with the 2gb as I would never find use for the extra 2 gb of ram.

This is definitely a great buy. I was really hesitant for about a month. I just couldn't decide but with Best Buys holiday return policy, I decided to give it a try. I definitely will not be returning this. In fact, I think I will be using this way more than my Windows laptop.

My laptop experience is quite disappointing.

After an Acer laptop lasting 2 years, a Toshiba lasting another 3, and some cheap HP lasting 6 weeks (no joke), I ponied up the cash and bought a Macbook. Surely that was my problem all along, and I would be happy like everyone else. I even put the apple stickers on my car. That $1300 laptop lasted 1 1/2 years. I'm sure I got a lemon, but it had been giving me problems from day one, and finally it just yielded up its expensive spirit.

I couldn't justify buying yet another $1300 laptop, but PC's are no better and I really hate Windows.

So I decided to get a cheap chromebook, just to get me through the post-holiday financial dry spell and to buy me some time to decide which costly, crappy road I should take - PC or Mac?

My chromebook arrived in the mail in one day. My expectations were fairly low. I had already used chrome for just about everything. There are just a few programs I use, like excel, but by some fortuitous chance, my company actually switched to a cloud-based accounting program instead of excel. There's actually nothing (right now) that I need another laptop for.

As others have noted, the case does feel a little cheap. That's probably the only downside. The set up feels very, very user-friendly (if you've been using chrome, then this laptop already feels made just for you!).

It's super fast, too. When you open the screen, boom. There's your stuff. Are you ADHD like me and you can't focus on 2 or 3 tabs at a time? No problemo. Open up all 12, you multi-tasker. And if you honestly feel like this portal to the land of all-knowingness slows down when you do that, then be reasonable and work with fewer tabs.

There aren't a whole lot of bells and whistles. If you want to watch cute kitty and puppy videos on youtube, this is your machine. If you need top of the line graphics, keep looking. If you want a loud, bulky, hot laptop, also, keep looking.

This thing charges FAST! And the battery life is 10-14 hours on a full charge. Go ahead, pick your jaw up off the floor. I was amazed, too.

Overall, if you need a quick little machine that's cute and tiny like a tablet but functional like a laptop, this is your deal. It's also not a bad idea to have if you transport a nice, expensive laptop back and forth from work, school, whatever. You'll probably feel a lot less heartbroken if this one bites the dust!