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My daughter starts her GCSE’s in September, studying design, so I thought it would be a great idea to get her a laptop she could throw in her school bag. Now obviously a Mac would be nice but I was unwilling to spend Apple prices as all she really needs is access to the web and her files so a Chromebook seemed like a decent compromise. Now I’ve had a few experiences with Chromebook's, most recently with one I got for my father in law (Acer Chromebook 14) so knew it would be a great solution and that an Acer was a good bet.

As it isn’t my laptop and as she uses it day to day the majority of this review is mainly written with the assistance of my daughter who I thank greatly for her help.

Below are the questions I asked her along with her responses.

What do you think about how it's built?

It is built very well. It is the perfect size to carry around school and it’s very lightweight, but is still heavy enough to feel how strong it’s built and what properties are inside.

What do you think about the screen?

The screen is very clear and on average brightness settings, it’s not too dark and I find when it’s near to a higher brightness setting the highlights and the shadows don’t overwhelm the background.

Is it fast enough?

It is very fast when you turn it on, the laptop takes you straight to Chrome and pages load very quickly and apps install faster than iOS.

What do you think about Chrome OS?

I really like it, it’s the fastest device I have and you can personalise and categorise your profile how you want it so it fits your needs.

What is your favourite thing about it?

It has all the tools I need and you can get apps that aren’t just in the store. I use Google Drive to share files across all of my devices.

Thanks Hermione now back to Dad

One things that did impress me is how flexible Chrome OS is. On the second day of owning it my daughter brought the laptop in and showed me the GIMP download page. My heart sank. I had to explain that she couldn’t download apps as she had with previous laptops, she had to use what was in the cloud. But she is a clever flower and found that GIMP does run as a cloud app. Phew! She then went to plug in the Wacom tablet I got her last year. Heart sinks one more time but to my amazement it integrated perfectly! Double phew!

So if you are looking for something sub-200-quid that does most of the things you would need it to do then this is it, especially if you are looking for something small, light and portable. One thing that does P me off is that they have reduced the price by 50 quid in the last week since I bought it, then that is good news for you if you’re interested.

If you liked this review then please comment below. Hermione, I’m sure, would love to hear if you liked what she had to say?

Author

Paul Wright

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