Can we just forget about $199 Chromebooks now? Yes, they had dim, dinky, fuzzy screens and barely enough memory and storage—even for ChromeOS's modest needs—and sufficed only for school kids, but they're so seven years ago. Google's new Chromebook Plus campaign brings cutting-edge software features to laptops with five times better hardware starting at only twice the price—$399.99, which is the MSRP of the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 seen here. The Plus 515 isn't a powerful workstation or gaming rig (though it comes with a three-month GeForce Now Priority subscription), but it throws down a hell of a gauntlet to low-cost Windows notebooks.
Configuration and Design: Suitable for School, Home, or Small Office
The Chromebook Plus 515 (model CB515-2H-31NY) has a 15.6-inch, non-touch IPS screen with full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution, which is the minimum for Google's new standard. (Acer has also introduced a Chromebook Plus 514 with AMD silicon and a 14-inch screen with the slightly taller 16:10, rather than classic 16:9, aspect ratio.) The Plus 515 combines an Intel Core i3-1215U processor (two Performance cores, four Efficient cores, eight threads), 8GB of memory, and 128GB of UFS (Universal Flash Storage)—a technology mostly seen in smartphones that, while slower than a solid-state drive, is eight times faster than the eMMC flash in many bargain Chromebooks.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Acer's spill-resistant keyboard is not backlit; Acer promises additional models with that option, along with Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, touch screens, more RAM, and more storage. Meeting the Chromebook Plus specifications, other components include Wi-Fi 6E and a 1080p rather than 720p webcam with temporal noise reduction to improve low-light video.
Clad in conservative Steel Gray with diagonal faux-brushed-aluminum lines covering part of the lid, the Chromebook Plus 515 is relatively trim for a desktop replacement at 0.79 by 14.2 by 9.2 inches and 3.7 pounds. The 15.6-inch non-Plus Acer Chromebook 315 is the same weight but slightly larger (0.79 by 14.4 by 9.6 inches). Like Lenovo ThinkPad and many other business laptops, the Plus has passed MIL-STD 810H torture tests for road hazards like shock, vibration, and extreme temperatures. While you'll feel some flex if you grasp the screen corners or press the keyboard deck, it doesn't feel flimsy or cheap.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Not-particularly-thin bezels surround the 1080p screen; the webcam at top center has a sliding privacy shutter. Upward-firing stereo speakers flank the keyboard. You'll find two USB 3.2 Type-C ports, suitable for the AC adapter, with one on each side of the laptop. The one on the right is joined by an audio jack and a security lock slot, while the one on the left by a USB 3.2 Type-A port and an HDMI video output—an HDMI 1.4, not 2.0 port, so it can drive a 4K external monitor at only 30Hz instead of 60Hz refresh rate.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado) (Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Using the Acer Chromebook Plus 515: New Bells and Whistles
Some of what's new in Google's Chromebook Plus initiative is cosmetic, such as the Material You redesign of ChromeOS dialog boxes—rounded corners and a color palette generated from your choice of wallpaper (two of the prefab wallpapers cycle through four different images for sunrise, daytime, evening, and night). Some is utilitarian, such as better offline file sync that lets you start a new Google Drive document while away from Wi-Fi (if your cloud storage use doesn't exceed your Chromebook Plus laptop's onboard capacity).
Others are genuinely cool, such as Google Photos acquisition of video editing, HDR, and Magic Eraser tools. (No, it's not quite as sophisticated as Adobe Photoshop's airbrushing, but in the past I've moved images from my Windows desktop to my Pixel 7 phone and back for the sake of Magic Eraser.) Webcam video calls now include automatic background blur and lighting enhancement. With the addition of a web version of Photoshop, available Adobe Express, and the LumaFusion video editor, the Chromebook Plus platform isn't just for email, YouTube, and Google Docs anymore.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Speaking of the webcam, the Acer's images struck me as a bit soft-focus despite the boost from 720p to 1080p resolution, but they're well-lit and colorful. Sound from the DTS speakers isn't all that loud even at top volume, but relatively clean and crisp; you'll hear no bass to speak of, but instruments are clear and you can make out overlapping tracks.
As mentioned, the Plus 515's keyboard is not backlit. It follows the familiar Chromebook layout with a menu/search key in place of Caps Lock and top-row system and browser controls. A large, buttonless touchpad taps and clicks smoothly (though showed a blotch after just two days from finger oils). The keyboard's typing feel is decent but shallow and short on feedback, almost more like a tablet cover than a high-end laptop; I don't hate it, but it's one of two places where the Acer's low price is noticeable.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)The other is the display, mainly because it's rated at a barely adequate 250 nits of brightness when we prefer IPS panels to produce 300 if not 400 nits—it's not really dim or dark, but I found myself frequently tapping the top-row key in hopes of making things brighter or getting white backgrounds to pop instead of merely being not dingy or grayish. The screen's contrast is deep enough and fine details are sharp, while its viewing angles are broad. Its colors are a little subdued but well saturated.
Testing the Acer Chromebook Plus 515: An Economical Overachiever
We have only one other example of the Chromebook Plus platform in our database at this writing, the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34, so I filled out our benchmark charts with three comparably priced systems: the abovementioned Acer Chromebook 315, the 16-inch Lenovo 5i Chromebook, and the HP Chromebook x360 13b convertible. You can see their basic specs in the table below.
Productivity Tests
We test Chromebooks with three overall performance benchmark suites: one ChromeOS, one Android, and one online. The first, CrXPRT 2 by Principled Technologies, measures how quickly a system performs everyday tasks in six workloads such as applying photo effects, graphing a stock portfolio, analyzing DNA sequences, and generating 3D shapes using WebGL.
Our second test, UL's PCMark for Android Work 3.0, performs assorted productivity operations in a smartphone-style window. Finally, Basemark Web 3.0 runs in a browser tab to combine low-level JavaScript calculations with CSS and WebGL content. All three yield numeric scores; higher numbers are better.
The Chromebook Plus duo divided the honors in CrXPRT and PCMark, with the Acer 515 taking the medal with a powerful performance in Basemark Web 3.0—and matching or beating most Core i5 and AMD Ryzen Chromebooks we've tested despite its Core i3 chip. The Acer 315 and HP 13b showed why their weak Intel Pentium and MediaTek Kompanio processors don't qualify for the Google Plus platform.
Component and Battery Tests
Two other Android benchmarks focus on the CPU and GPU, respectively. Geekbench by Primate Labs uses all available cores and threads to simulate real-world applications ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning, while GFXBench 5.0 stress-tests both low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like image rendering that exercises graphics and compute shaders. Geekbench delivers a numeric score, while GFXBench counts frames per second (fps).
Finally, to test a Chromebook's battery, we loop a 720p video file with screen brightness set at 50%, volume at 100%, and Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting disabled until the system quits. Sometimes we must play the video from an external drive plugged into a USB port, but the Acer 515 has more than enough internal storage to hold the video file.
The Acer and Asus Chromebook Plus systems continued to jockey for position in our CPU and GPU tests, though the same-chipped Lenovo 5i Chromebook actually edged them both. The compact HP lasted longest in our battery rundown, but the Plus 515 will easily get you through a full day of work or school plus a little after-hours surfing or video streaming. In the end the Asus Chromebook Plus gets the extra points for lasting longer.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Verdict: Raising the Chromebook Bar
Most of the Chromebooks that we've liked at PCMag have cost around $700, but the hitch is that you can get a decent Windows laptop for $700. You can't, however, buy a really satisfying Windows notebook for $400. The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 would benefit from a brighter screen and a deeper keyboard, but it's a genuinely attractive laptop that's an excellent 15-inch alternative to the Editors' Choice-award-winning Asus Chromebook Plus CX34. For big-screen budget shoppers, this Chromebook Plus is morning in America.
