Acer Chromebook R13, review of this laptop with Chrome OS

There is life beyond Windows. There is less left for the Acer Chromebook R13 to go on sale , which will arrive in Europe in October. This is the renewal of the Acer Chromebook R 11 that came out last year. A convertible with a 13.3-inch touchscreen, 12 hours of autonomy and a whole world of possibilities thanks to Chrome OS and Android . We are going to analyze point by point the performance of this beautiful device from Acer .

A Chromebook, four possibilities

The first thing to highlight about this Acer Chromebook R13 is the versatility of its design, which offers the possibility of rotating the screen in 360 degrees, which gives rise to four different options for use. If we leave it as is, we have a laptop to use, with its screen vertically and the keyboard below. Rotating the screen and reversing it can be more convenient for using touch applications. If we place it in a store position we can watch a movie or view presentations in a much more comfortable way. Finally, if we have the screen completely rotated it becomes a large format tablet, an option that we will explain in detail later.

The Acer Chromebook R13 can be used as a laptop, as a tablet, in a tent format or with the screen in reverse position thanks to its 360 degree rotation

Its dimensions are 326 mm x 228 mm x 15.5 mm and its weight is 1.49 kilos , which allows us to take it anywhere without too much difficulty. It has a 13.3-inch screen, with ten touch points, allowing you to take control of the device with up to ten fingers simultaneously. It is Full HD with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and incorporates technology IPS, which allows greater sharpness and the presence of bright colors. In addition, it has an LED backlight system , which allows the correct vision from almost any position. Another characteristic that attracts attention is its silence. This is achieved thanks to its fanless design. As it is a computer that is not designed to work with heavy processes or games, it should not have overheating problems either.

With the arrival of Android, a universe of possibilities opens up

When the Chromebook R11 was introduced about a year ago , it was criticized in many places that it made no sense for it to be a convertible because it could not make use of the main features that a tablet can offer. However, after the arrival of Android application support to Chrome OS , everything makes sense and a world full of possibilities opens up. It is true that in the final version, which will hit stores in October, the Android application store has not yet been implemented . However, it is very likely that in the coming weeks Google will officially announce the landing of Google Play, which with its millions of applications will elevate Chromebooks to a new dimension.

The first Chromebook with a Mediatek processor

As for the heart of this device, it should be noted that this Acer Chromebook R13 is the first Chromebook in which they have dared to introduce a Mediatek processor . Specifically, a MediaTeK M8173C Core Pilot Quad-Core with four cores ( 2 Cortex-A72, 2 Cortex-A53) , which should work very well if they have known how to make good use of the resources it offers. Additionally, we found an Imagination PowerVR GX6250 GPU graphics processor , which sounds pretty good. All this with 4 GB of LPDDR3 type RAM , in principle enough for a Chromebook although we will see when applications ofAndroid . As for eMMC storage , there are three possibilities: 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB .

The ideal autonomy for students or professionals

According to official data from the Taiwanese company, this Acer Chromebook R13 lasts perfectly up to 12 hours on a single charge, more than enough autonomy to take it with you in the morning and when you return home in the afternoon to watch a movie or relax with a PC game . This feature makes it ideal for students and professionals who need a laptop throughout the day. They will not require cables and their moderate weight of a kilo and a half facilitates transport without any difficulty.

Connectivity and peripherals

As was the case with the Acer Chromebook R11 , the R13 is a laptop designed to work connected to the network. Therefore, it could not be missing the compatibility with the WiFi AC protocol. This protocol works with the 5 GHz bandwidth and allows us to achieve greater speed and stability of the signal. It also has wireless 2í — 2 MIMO technology (we will notice a good connection in the case of sharing a network with more computers) and a USB Type-C port (the connector that is going to become the market standard) , a USB port 3.0 that multiplies up to ten times the speed of file transfer, HDMI to watch computer content through television andBluetooh 4.0 . Finally, it has an SD card slot , in case we want to increase the available space.

It must be said that this laptop has a headphone output and microphone input, as well as an HD webcam with 1280 x 720 resolution and HDR technology . This camera is capable of recording audio and video at 720p . It also incorporates a microphone for speaking over the Internet and an HD audio system with two speakers, which are located on the bottom and on the sides.

Price and reviews

To finish, you are probably wondering the price of this Acer Chromebook R13 . The equipment will be available in the month of October and its starting price will be 399 euros . Depending on the storage package that we choose, the price will increase. If the arrival of Google Play is confirmed - everything seems to indicate that it is - we are talking about a laptop and a tablet united in the same terminal and for a more than balanced price.