Acer Upgrades $199 Chromebook Model with Faster Storage

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Be on the lookout for new Chromebook models.

Psst! Hey, you there. Yes, you, the one browsing Acer's C7 Chromebook. Which would you rather have, capacity or speed? Speed, you say? Well in that case, go ahead and take that Chromebook out of your shopping cart and head over to Best Buy. It's there that you'll find the first of several planned new models in Acer's C7 Chromebook line, including an upgraded version of the $199 model you were holding.
Acer swapped out the 320GB mechanical hard disk drive (HDD) for a 16GB solid state drive (SSD). You don't need to be a math major to figure out that there's a pretty big discrepancy in storage space there, but keep in mind that Chromebooks are all about living in the cloud. What you lose in capacity, Acer says you make up in performance.
The new Acer C710-2833 follows in Samsung's footsteps by switching to an SSD, only the price remains unchanged, so Acer's model is still $50 cheaper and the least the expensive Chromebook model around. In case you need a refresher on the other specs, it boasts:

• 11.6-inch display (1366x768 resolution)
• Intel Celeron 847 processor clocked at 1.1GHz
• 2GB RAM
• 16GB SSD
• Intel HD Graphics
• 2-in-1 memory card reader
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI
• 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi; 10/100 Ethernet LAN
• 4-cell battery
• Google Chrome OS

It's not a bad buy for the money if you're looking for a secondary PC to surf the web with, or need a machine for the kids. You can't run Windows software on it, obviously, but there are tons of apps available, plus you can access Google's various services like Docs, Gmail, and so forth. It's basically today's take on the netbook.
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