For those looking for a minimal and fast laptop that just concentrates on email, browsing, video and a business suite you can't go wrong with a chromebook. They just work brilliantly well. This model looks stunning in its brushed aluminium case and mac style design. Battery life is phenomenal at well over 12hrs. A great alternative to a bloated windows laptop with slow boot times and more problematic operation. 2GB main memory and 16GB SSD may seem low but as long as your are not planning to use a huge number of apps and play your music and videos off a network or internet there shouldn't be any problems. I configured google print eventually and it works great allowing wireless and remote printing without problems with great results and compatibility. A laptop you can use all day without recharging. Decent 14" size screen, great sound quality and very thin and light it looks like something that cost a lot more than its sub £100 price. Don't forget to go through topcashback for a couple of quid.
The Acer 14 CB3-431 Chromebook is ideal for on the go computing, highly portable with its slim, sleek and compact design. Whether you’re working or playing the Chromebook has you covered with an impressive battery life and with an anti-glare screen you can view comfortably from wherever you are.
Equipped with a 16GB hard drive there’s plenty of space to store your media, watch a film or share music with friends.
STUNNING STYLE & STRENGTH
The Acer 14 CB3-431 Chromebook is absolutely stunning encased in aluminium alloy, giving it style, strength and durability. With a thickness of just 23.6cm and weighing in at only 1.6kg this Acer Chromebook is highly portable and with such a durable design why would you not take it everywhere?
Latest comments (73)
Rathore
18 Aug 17#9
bought the higher spec version from Laptopdirect for £155. Great Chromebook, mostly use it for Kodi and its very light much lighter than my Alienware 17 R3. :grin:
EN1GMA to Rathore
18 Aug 17#22
how do you use kodi on a chromebook? which software version do you download?
bonzobanana to EN1GMA
18 Aug 17#26
I think you can run the google app store in beta mode rather than stable or you could dual boot with a linux installation or maybe you could run a webserver kodi installation on another device in your home.
mrew42 to EN1GMA
18 Aug 17#27
This can access Google play and run Android apps :blush:
Are you sure about this? I have the full HD, 4gb ram and better CPU model and there's no app store support and even Google's website says there isn't any support for it??
bonzobanana to daniielnayylor
20 Aug 17#64
It has server side support so once you enable it on your chromebook (which isn't official yet) it is supported by the play store. Info to do it here;
Not as easy as you can see from the instructions. However it should be available officially soon.
daniielnayylor to bonzobanana
23 Aug 17#68
I just put my Acer cb3-431 4gb model into beta channel and immediately just got the option to use the app store in the settings :grin:
bonzobanana to daniielnayylor
23 Aug 17#69
Great news. Hopefully that's true for the whole range of CB3-431 models.
daniielnayylor to bonzobanana
23 Aug 17#70
Them calling it "beta" should be a warning to people who want to use it though, it's buggy as hell, the app stores interface is awful (I guess because it's designed for smartphones) and every minute it will crash but the apps seem to work perfectly, typed up some work on Microsoft word, played some hearthstone and was watching top gear through the netflix at perfectly.
bonzobanana to daniielnayylor
23 Aug 17#71
I guess once it's registered as an android device on your google account you can just use any browser to send apps to the chromebook or does that not work because its a chromebook and have to use the app store.
bonzobanana to daniielnayylor
24 Aug 17#72
Went to my mother's house today and updated hers so she could use android apps. She can now use Skype. Seems pretty good.
daniielnayylor to bonzobanana
24 Aug 17#73
Yeah it's not bad, all the apps I've used seem to work perfectly and the games run really well
Mine arrived today, not a scratch on it! Thanks op
bonzobanana
21 Aug 17#66
Gone up £20 now. Still a reasonable price but not the bargain it was.
wilson1973
18 Aug 17#41
can someone add a link to the HD version please
bonzobanana to wilson1973
18 Aug 17#44
It's not cheap a new one is about £280 if you mean full hd 1080p version but its also got a processor getting on 2x as fast plus 2x storage and 2x the memory of this one.
Don't for for the £143 model that is not the same model.
Garstonk to bonzobanana
19 Aug 17#45
Processor of HD Acer Chromebook 14 is not twice as fast. N3160 is quad core version of dual core N3060.
bonzobanana to Garstonk
19 Aug 17#46
Your very description pretty much indicates its twice as fast. It's got 2x the same processors running at 1.6ghz so capable of approximately twice the computations when all cpu's are being used. Also all models are HD, 720p is still high definition.
Garstonk to bonzobanana
19 Aug 17#51
I have the N3160 HD version, I also have the Lenovo N22 with N3060. The performance from both machines is about the same...and that is lacklustre. The Acer C720 Chromebook from way back with Celeron 2955U, which I also have, is much faster - it is my benchmark for measuring Chromebook performance. Both N3160 and N3060 provide great battery life but not great performance...alas.
Garstonk to bonzobanana
19 Aug 17#52
Just checked some Octane scores for N3160 Chromebooks, coming in at 8000 - 8200, N3060 comes in slightly better at 8200-8800! zipso.net/chr…le/
bonzobanana to Garstonk
19 Aug 17#53
I was purely writing about cpu processor speed obviously the N3160 equipped models are driving a 1080p screen which is twice the pixels of a 720p model which would slow down the chromebook in many ways making heavier use of memory bandwidth and the gpu.
Garstonk to bonzobanana
19 Aug 17#54
Not according to the Chromebook Specs/Performance Chart - the Acer CB14 1920x1080 N3160 has same Octane score as the 1366x768 N3160 model i.e. 8000 I rest my case.
bonzobanana to Garstonk
19 Aug 17#55
There isn't a N3160 model with a 1366x768 screen on the Acer site. Of the 7 models listed the 2 that feature the N3160 both have a 1080p screen. Again though I would point out that even if the N3160 model was slower overall than the N3060 laptop in that benchmark the cpu itself is still approximately twice the speed overall because its capable of processing twice the data in the same time. The speed at which a computer operates overall isn't just related to the cpu. The real advantages of the quad core processor may come in compressing files, decoding video and other more cpu intensive tasks. The N3160 is a higher end processor than a N3060 you are paying for superior processing power otherwise what is the point.
As I said before, there is no there is no discernible difference in performance between the between HD Acer CB14 running the N3160 and 1366x768 Lenovo N22 with N3060 - both of which I own. The big bump in performance comes when I use my the Acer C720. I also note the Octane score from zipso.net/chr…le/ for CTL NL61 Chromebook 1366x768 N3160 produces an Octane of 8200.
bonzobanana to Garstonk
20 Aug 17#62
Again you are referring to something different to what I originally wrote. This is how the cpu's stack up when compared for cpu performance.
The N3160 has the ability to run more processes without slowing down and also has a 40mhz gpu speed advantage which may help with dealing with 1080p displays. If you are running android apps or maybe have a dual partition with linux as well as chrome os or just use chrome os with a lot open at the same time the quad core cpu will show its advantage over dual core otherwise its pretty pointless.
Garstonk to bonzobanana
21 Aug 17#65
You said the processor was "getting on for 2x as fast" which implied that it would perform better, well, it doesn't, which was my point. How do you explain both Lenovo N22 (N3060) and Acer Chromebook 14 HD (N3160) having the same lacklustre, real-world performance? Octane scores reflect this for all N3060 and N3160 Chromebooks, and N2830, N2840, N2930, etc.. My Acer C720 is much more responsive, including when driving an external monitor at 1080p! It has a passmark score of 1452 compared to 1704 for N3160. The N3160 passmark score does not reflect real-life use, Octane does, in my hands-on experience.
Rickrolled
20 Aug 17#59
I got one and it's faulty. So much for the 25 point inspection! They didn't notice that the battery wouldn't hold any charge.
Also A1 condition doesn't seem to include cleaning sticky marks off it
Now they are trying to get me to diagnose the charger and battery even though the battery is inaccessible and the charger is powering the chromebook.
As for the chromebook itself, it seems quite responsive but the LCD screen has a grainy, low quality look to it. I wonder if the 1080p screen is better?
bonzobanana to Rickrolled
20 Aug 17#61
Sorry to hear that, my mother bought one on my recommendation and loves it. It functions 100%, good screen, battery life claimed to be 18hrs and still claiming to be up to 18hrs a week later. Even when the battery was at 20% it was claiming just under 4hrs of runtime. She's only had to recharge it once despite being retired and web browsing 2-4hrs per day. It was pretty much as new out of the box. It just looked like it had been taken out of the packaging and then put back in the packaging. As for screen this might be user expectations but its a big improvement on her last Acer 720p screen laptop. Hope it all gets sorted for you.
jewelie
19 Aug 17#57
Plus the auto update on this doesn't expire until 2021.
If you have an old laptop knocking about save your money and try this!
bonzobanana to tedjourney
19 Aug 17#49
Yes its a good way to make use of old hardware but not comparable to a new chromebook which has 14hrs plus runtime using the latest technology to make a super light portable design. I've got an old laptop I could use it with but I'd likely get about 20 minutes runtime before it needs recharging and is about 5x heavier than this chromebook. It's not a bad idea just to see if you like using chrome os but if you do you'll probably want to get a properly optimised and designed chromebook.
tedjourney to bonzobanana
19 Aug 17#50
I take your point
captainbeaky
18 Aug 17#25
3 month warranty isn't very generous. Looks like they want you to cough up for extended cover.
plumbob to captainbeaky
19 Aug 17#48
Yes your correct I have ordered one and later the same day I had a call from them trying to sell me an extended warranty.
rumble
18 Aug 17#39
I like my chromebook and haven't used my laptop since I bought it (Lenovo N22 for £100), but no Sky Go and difficulty browsing ebay (very slow) is annoying.
bonzobanana to rumble
18 Aug 17#40
Can't you use the android app or is that not compatible? Also maybe install an adblocker to speed up ebay, it's always operating in the background checking for ebay messages and downloading adverts and can be slow, it seems to be more about internet speed than processor speed but if you cut down what it is downloading it speeds up quite a lot. I use the 'adblock' extension.
kjfrazer
18 Aug 17#35
Just noticed they charge a fee for using credit cards - the last company I noticed doing this did it to dissuade people from getting extra cover from their credit card company.
I won't be using this site.
bonzobanana to kjfrazer
18 Aug 17#38
They get charged to process funds through credit cards, if they are a low margin box shifter they may have to pass on those costs to the customer. Lots of companies charge extra to process credit card payments. This is under £100 anyway so basic credit card liability wouldn't apply.
Already have a slow old laptop? Install Cloudready as a Chromebook substitute -- it's amazing. I have it running nicely on a laptop from 2006 with 2GB, albeit with an SSD to speed it up a bit.
samArsenal
18 Aug 17#34
Back in stock!
dealer221
18 Aug 17#4
Would this be good for using Microsoft office on for writing essays and adding images etc.
Also, the speakers are on the underside of this so only really work if it's sat on a desk. They sound really bad if used on your lap, in bed, etc
jacko791
18 Aug 17#29
I have the higher spec version with HD screen. Bought it online as the reviews seemed OK but haven't been too happy with it overall. The build quality is pretty poor, trackpad doesn't work very well either. A few bits of the case have popped out on mine and had to be clipped back together. The trackpad appears to be glued in and doesn't sit properly flush, also the buttons are integrated into the pad and don't work well at all. You can pretty much push down anywhere on the pad and it will click one of the buttons, rather than just working when clicking at the bottom as they should. The aluminium case is supposed to make it seem premium but it just makes it seem fragile to me. I think it would break if dropped which with my previous chromebook never happened (haven't yet dropped this one to test it though). Also I find about once a day when watching an HD video with 2 or 3 other tabs open the whole system will freeze for about 15 seconds before the screen turning off then everything working again. I upgraded to this from a 2013 HP chromebook. The screen on this is much better as is the battery life, but everything else is worse. The keyboard is worse, as is the trackpad and build quality as mentioned before. Also the processor speed is actually around the same as my old one when benchmarked by myself and in reviews. I still have the old chromebook and on balance I don't have a preference towards either, so tend to end up using my old one as often as the new one.
At this price it's a good deal, but you may still be able to find another older model that will do a better job for the same price. Not trying to write off the deal and have voted it hot, just thought I'd give my feedback so people have a better idea about why there may be lots of refurbs available.
iEimis
18 Aug 17#20
Potentially £85 (+£1) with which trial :smile: heat added.
bonzobanana to iEimis
18 Aug 17#24
Only £15 off orders of £250 or more I think.
fishsticks
18 Aug 17#19
"With a thickness of just 23.6cm" My Dad's old laptop from 1991 was only 12cm thick!
bonzobanana to fishsticks
18 Aug 17#23
Good spot on that mistake, I'm sure its meant to be 23.6mm. I copy and pasted from their page.
7day
18 Aug 17#14
Good use this , much better if we know why so many refurbished return
bonzobanana to 7day
18 Aug 17#15
There's always refurbished stock, many people return goods within 30 days and some may have small faults or issues that require fixing. Looking at laptop directs refurbs, HP, Acer, Lenovo, Apple and Asus seem to make up the highest returns but then I guess these are the biggest brands by volume. I think the low price is because 2GB main memory and 16GB storage is seen as too low by many who are used to windows so they are probably unpopular because of that hence the greater price reduction but in fact its a fully usable spec for a chome os laptop.
DonDraper to 7day
18 Aug 17#18
As with many, many 'refurbished' items they are likely to simply be importers excess stocks that they want to sell alongside the full-priced items. In other words they may well be brand new but sold in a brown box or a box that someone's employed to bash about a bit.
It's usually uneconomic to actually refurbish electronic kit like this tbh.
.
kjfrazer
18 Aug 17#17
These are great for parents who want to use the internet but have no awareness of viruses etc - got 2 from Argos for £129 at the start of the year for my parents. Starts up very quickly, no viruses to worry about and Chrome backs everything up for them.
The build quality of these is very nice too, I was very surprised having owned HP and Toshiba Chromebooks in the past.
A 4gb ram version is available but if you're just browsing with a few tabs open then these will be ample.
exeter
18 Aug 17#8
I also have the full HD version of this with 4gb of RAM, it's brilliant
Toutanc to exeter
18 Aug 17#16
Do you have a link / ref that I can look at, I'm not sure what reference it is. I'd go for same specs if I can.
plewis00
18 Aug 17#13
If you can get all your work done on a Chromebook (I can't and use a Surface 3) then this is a bit of a no-brainer. They run ridiculously quick on low-end hardware, are slim, lightweight and durable.
The only annoyance I found is having to use alternatives to Office, no Dropbox offline sync, etc.
bonzobanana
18 Aug 17#11
Cheapish ultrafit usb 3.0 flash drive here if you want to expand storage without it sticking out.
Make sure you read reviews before buying, heard some bad stuff about some of these ultra small USB drives, overheating etc.
bonzobanana
18 Aug 17#10
I actually think the screen is fine, its better than my Toshiba 720p laptop screen and another Acer windows laptop I've seen but yes the 720p screen isn't as nice as having a 1080p screen. I think the main limitation is the 2GB memory which is still fast enough as long as you don't open too many windows tabs. The 4GB option is a good upgrade but I still think this is a fantastic introduction to chromebooks for little money and fit for purpose for most people. While more limited than a windows laptop it just does what it does soo much better. The speed, the hassle free approach and the laptop design and build quality is gorgeous.
mayzi
18 Aug 17#7
I have this same model. Pay the extra. Go HD. The screens not great. Having said that... I never touch my windows laptop now !
I don't think the memory or storage can be upgraded. I think they are solded to the motherboard but not sure. You could however upgrade storage using either of the high speed usb 3.0 ports.
Acer claim up to 12hrs for all models of this series but I think the claim is true of the quad core models, with 4GB memory, 32GB storage and a 1080p display but this model gets a few extra hours so there is a bonus to having a lower spec as it shares the same battery as the higher priced models.
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Opening post
Equipped with a 16GB hard drive there’s plenty of space to store your media, watch a film or share music with friends.
The Acer 14 CB3-431 Chromebook is absolutely stunning encased in aluminium alloy, giving it style, strength and durability. With a thickness of just 23.6cm and weighing in at only 1.6kg this Acer Chromebook is highly portable and with such a durable design why would you not take it everywhere?
Latest comments (73)
iggy82.blogspot.co.uk/201…tml
community.acer.com/t5/…369
Not as easy as you can see from the instructions. However it should be available officially soon.
A quick check shows this one on ebay.
ebay.co.uk/itm…994
and these on amazon at amazon warehouse.
amazon.co.uk/gp/…sed
Don't for for the £143 model that is not the same model.
zipso.net/chr…le/
I rest my case.
acer.com/ac/…k14
I also note the Octane score from zipso.net/chr…le/ for CTL NL61 Chromebook 1366x768 N3160 produces an Octane of 8200.
cpubenchmark.net/com…762
The N3160 has the ability to run more processes without slowing down and also has a 40mhz gpu speed advantage which may help with dealing with 1080p displays. If you are running android apps or maybe have a dual partition with linux as well as chrome os or just use chrome os with a lot open at the same time the quad core cpu will show its advantage over dual core otherwise its pretty pointless.
You said the processor was "getting on for 2x as fast" which implied that it would perform better, well, it doesn't, which was my point.
How do you explain both Lenovo N22 (N3060) and Acer Chromebook 14 HD (N3160) having the same lacklustre, real-world performance? Octane scores reflect this for all N3060 and N3160 Chromebooks, and N2830, N2840, N2930, etc.. My Acer C720 is much more responsive, including when driving an external monitor at 1080p! It has a passmark score of 1452 compared to 1704 for N3160. The N3160 passmark score does not reflect real-life use, Octane does, in my hands-on experience.
Also A1 condition doesn't seem to include cleaning sticky marks off it
Now they are trying to get me to diagnose the charger and battery even though the battery is inaccessible and the charger is powering the chromebook.
As for the chromebook itself, it seems quite responsive but the LCD screen has a grainy, low quality look to it. I wonder if the 1080p screen is better?
support.google.com/chr…=en
I won't be using this site.
moneysavingexpert.com/sho…ses
products.office.com/en-…ine
photoshop.com/tools
No, but you do have the option of using Office online
The build quality is pretty poor, trackpad doesn't work very well either. A few bits of the case have popped out on mine and had to be clipped back together. The trackpad appears to be glued in and doesn't sit properly flush, also the buttons are integrated into the pad and don't work well at all. You can pretty much push down anywhere on the pad and it will click one of the buttons, rather than just working when clicking at the bottom as they should.
The aluminium case is supposed to make it seem premium but it just makes it seem fragile to me. I think it would break if dropped which with my previous chromebook never happened (haven't yet dropped this one to test it though).
Also I find about once a day when watching an HD video with 2 or 3 other tabs open the whole system will freeze for about 15 seconds before the screen turning off then everything working again.
I upgraded to this from a 2013 HP chromebook. The screen on this is much better as is the battery life, but everything else is worse. The keyboard is worse, as is the trackpad and build quality as mentioned before. Also the processor speed is actually around the same as my old one when benchmarked by myself and in reviews.
I still have the old chromebook and on balance I don't have a preference towards either, so tend to end up using my old one as often as the new one.
At this price it's a good deal, but you may still be able to find another older model that will do a better job for the same price.
Not trying to write off the deal and have voted it hot, just thought I'd give my feedback so people have a better idea about why there may be lots of refurbs available.
My Dad's old laptop from 1991 was only 12cm thick!
It's usually uneconomic to actually refurbish electronic kit like this tbh.
.
The build quality of these is very nice too, I was very surprised having owned HP and Toshiba Chromebooks in the past.
A 4gb ram version is available but if you're just browsing with a few tabs open then these will be ample.
The only annoyance I found is having to use alternatives to Office, no Dropbox offline sync, etc.
ebay.co.uk/itm…821
ebay.co.uk/itm…774
Having said that... I never touch my windows laptop now !
ark.intel.com/pro…GHz
Acer claim up to 12hrs for all models of this series but I think the claim is true of the quad core models, with 4GB memory, 32GB storage and a 1080p display but this model gets a few extra hours so there is a bonus to having a lower spec as it shares the same battery as the higher priced models.