Review: Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (Intel, 2024)

Last year, Google trotted out a new “Chromebook Plus” label, ensuring Chromebooks meet specific hardware requirements so that they have a certain threshold of quality and—importantly—a starting price of $400. It's been fairly successful. Chromebooks from companies like Acer and Lenovo perform well for the money—functional, affordable hardware that does the job.

Acer’s Chromebook Plus 514 (model CB514-4H/T) is yet another laptop that achieves this goal. This specific model name doesn’t roll off the tongue, but it indicates that this is the Intel-powered model, not to be confused with the AMD-powered Chromebook Plus 514 (CB514-3H/T) the company launched last fall. It's a bit confusing, and it doesn't help that there's also the similarly named Acer Chromebook Plus 515, which is close in price but has a larger screen and a slightly different processor.

Despite slight differences in port selection and screen ratio between the Intel and AMD variants of the Chromebook Plus 514, expect them to perform largely the same. The grunt work for this machine is handled by a capable 13th-gen Intel Core i3-N305 processor, which is on par with other Chromebook Plus models and a nice bump over Chromebooks of years past. Combined with the 8 GB of RAM and a 512-GB solid state drive on the CB514-4HT-359X configuration Acer sent me for this review, you have a pretty speedy machine for school and work. This model is just $350 at Costco, and weirdly, the 128-GB model is more expensive at Amazon for $380.

Chrome OS is designed to be lightweight, and the Core i3-N305 processor subsequently tears through most tasks with ease. My daily ritual of writing in Google Docs while watching YouTube videos with several other tabs open never felt sluggish or unresponsive. Battery life has held up, getting me through eight-hour workdays, usually with an hour or two of battery life to spare.

Despite pulling from the cloud, Google Photos edits feel very responsive. I had a lot of fun using the built-in editor to tweak my (many) cat photos, and video edits felt nearly instantaneous. Just keep in mind this relies heavily on the speed of your internet connection to pull photos and videos down from your cloud storage, so your experience may vary.

I’ve never found myself drawn to using touch on laptops, but the 14-inch touch panel on the Chromebook Plus 514 grew on me. Chrome OS lends itself to touch, and the smooth matte display feels great to use under your fingertips (plus it doesn’t leave fingerprints). In my week of testing, I constantly found myself reaching out to get a better selection when editing photos in the Google Photos app or when I wanted to more precisely scroll through YouTube.

My one disappointment is that this isn’t a convertible laptop. The ability to swing the screen around to turn it into a quasi-tablet would make using touch more comfortable (and fun), so the clamshell design is a bit limiting. On the bright side, the hinge allows the back of the display to extend downward a bit when opened, propping it up on your table or lap for a more comfortable angle.

Otherwise, the display is fairly mundane. The 1,920 X 1,080 resolution looks crisp, but it’s not vibrant or super bright. Fortunately, the anti-glare coating helps with the brightness, but it feels like it dulls the colors.

A couple of other bright spots are the keyboard and trackpad, which feel fantastic to use for hours on end. The keys are well spaced and have a comfortable amount of travel, while the trackpad is smooth and doesn’t feel mushy like you may expect from laptops in this price range. I just wish the keys were backlit—that could be a dealbreaker for some.

If you find yourself in a lot of video calls, the webcam on the Chromebook Plus 514 is excellent as well. It struggles in low-light situations, but the 1080p, 60-fps video looks phenomenally crisp in a well-lit room, beating out some webcams I’ve used on more expensive Windows laptops in the past. There’s a privacy shutter as well, so you can block the webcam with a quick swipe of the switch.

The port selection is robust, with two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack. It's notably missing the HDMI port that the AMD-powered Chromebook Plus 514 has, but you can still connect to an external monitor with DisplayPort support over USB-C. Besides, trading HDMI for a microSD port is arguably more convenient if you want to add more storage or pull footage from a camera.

As for the design, the Chromebook Plus 514 is about as boring as laptops come. Despite the attempt at a brushed aluminum look on three-quarters of the lid, this machine is a large, gray slab of plastic that screams “basic.” That said, despite a fair bit of flex in the lid, it feels pretty durable; Acer claims it can hold up from drops of up to 4 feet.

When you’re looking at a $350 laptop, design is a forgivable compromise. If you need an HDMI port or want a taller (narrower) display, then it’s worth picking up the Chromebook Plus 514 (CB514-3H/T) with the AMD chip. Otherwise, the Intel-powered model is a great little workhorse I can happily recommend for school and work for anyone on a tight budget.