Hands-on review: CES 2014: Acer C720P-2600 Chromebook

Acer divvied up a couple of new Android tablet devices earlier this week but also footnoted its announcements with a curiously familiar laptop called the Acer C720P-2600.

Those that missed out Acer's first budget and touchscreen Chromebook, the C720P, should expect practically the same 1,366x768 touchscreen equipped laptop except in a new coat of white. Otherwise the 11.6-inch laptop comes equipped with the same Intel Celeron 2955U processor plus 32GB SSD storage and 2GB of RAM.

Touchy touchy

The touchscreen on the Acer C720P-2600 is one of its most important features and it is there to let you poke at things on your screen. But, that's really just about all it can do. There are not any special gestures other than pinch to zoom or a touchscreen GUI to make the experience any different than using a mouse to click on icons.

On one hand it's a relief that the laptop does not come with any additional bloatware to slow down the quick launching Chromebook users have become accustomed to. At the same time, though, it's a bit pointless without any special features.

What the touchscreen does offer is lag-less tap functionality. Touching anything on the screen seamlessly opened link in the web browser and was perfect for starting web apps web apps from the Chrome desktop.

For now, touchscreen control seems like an extra little touch that would be even better with a Chrome OS powered tablet sans the keyboard and laptop body.

Fast as the web

Navigating through the web was seamless. Even with the menagerie of broadband signals at CES 2014 we easily loaded our Google Drive documents and the TechRadar homepage.

Although the hardware is exactly the same as the previous C720P model, its still more than enough to handle the Google web apps it was designed for.

Externally the laptop is just as functionally designed. The notebook has some suave lines to it as the front tapers to a thin edge. Otherwise the C720P-2600's look is a white understated laptop.

Along the thin sides users will also find a SD card slot along with a USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 port, HDMI output, and headphone jack.

Even for its 11.6-inch screen size the C720P-2600 isn't the lightest at 2.98-pounds (1.35-kilgorams), nor the thinnest with a 0.78 inches thick frame.

Early verdict

There's no way to look at the C720P-2600 and not say it's simply a white washed C720 in "moonlight white." The original C720P was a more than competent and popular Chomebook option with a bit of touchscreen functionality to add the point and pick navigation option. The Acer C720P-2600 Chromebook will be available for a starting price of $299 (about £182/AUS $332) in early January.

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