Google announces 11.6-inch Acer C7 Chromebook with 3.5 hours of battery life, for just $199

Google today announced the $199 Acer C7 Chromebook, available tomorrow in the US on Google Play, BestBuy.com, and rolling out this week in select Best Buy stores. In the UK, it’s also coming to Google Play, Amazon UK, PC World, and Currys. Google says it is “working hard” to bring the Acer C7 to more countries soon.

The latest addition to the Chromebook family comes less than a month after Samsung announced the $249 Samsung Chromebook. If you prefer Samsung to Acer, read our first impressions.

As with Samsung’s device, Google has pushed Acer to essentially deliver a notebook for the price of a netbook. Google touts that Acer’s Chromebook “features a full-size keyboard, fully clickable trackpad, an extra bright 11.6-inch display and over 3.5 hours of battery life.” For less than most tablets go for, that’s a steal.

While you shouldn’t expect amazing performance from any Chromebook, especially at such a low price tag, Google is still touting that Acer’s device “is fast” as it boots up in 18 seconds, resumes “instantly,” and plays HD videos “smoothly.” We’ll of course wait to get our hands on it before judging, but according to Google, this device is good enough for most people.

Since it features Chrome OS, most users will be very confused that they’re using an operating system that is essentially a browser. This means they’ll be storing a lot of their stuff in the cloud (Google is offering 100GB of free storage on Google Drive) but the notebook also has a 320GB hard drive, so if you want to avoid the cloud, don’t worry.

For those interested, here are the Acer C7 Chromebook’s full specifications:

• 11.6″ (1366×768) display.
• 1 inch thin – 3 lbs / 1.4 kg.
• 3.5 hours of battery (Battery life may vary based on usage or other conditions).
• Intel® Core™ processor.
• 100 GB Google Drive Cloud Storage (100 GB of free storage is valid for 2 years, starting on the date you redeem the Drive offer) with 320 GB Hard Disk Drive.
• Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Ethernet.
• HD Camera.
• 3x USB 2.0, 1x HDMI Port, 1x VGA port.

The price tag here is very aggressive. I’m not in the slightest surprised that Acer is behind this device: the company is known for low prices (as well as very cheaply made hardware). Even so, $200 is dirt cheap, and will likely be a huge selling point, even if the Acer C7 doesn’t come with Windows, OS X, Android, or iOS.

Image credit: mokra