Acer’s new student Chromebooks are affordable, durable, and easy on the environment

Two of them will be available within the next several weeks

Wherever you or your kids go to school — even if it’s not at school — there’s always an opportunity to get in gear for a new season of learning. Acer hopes you or, more chiefly, the IT department in your local district do so with its four new Chromebooks fit for weathering the roughest shocks and toughest messes.

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The Chromebook Spin 311 which runs on a MediaTek MT8183 chipset, an old standby from the past couple of years. It’s also got 4GB of RAM, an 11.6″ IPS touch display at 768p which can pivot a full 360° on its hinge, a webcam, a USB-C port, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, stereo speakers, and an advertised battery life of up to 15 hours. There are two models: R722T comes with modems for Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2 while R723T supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. Data storage is fixed at either 32GB or 64GB with no slot for a microSD card. The Spin 311 will go on sale in March starting at $400.

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Acer also has Intel fare on offer with the Chromebook 511 (C734/C734T, left) and 512 (C852, right). The 511 has options for a Celeron dual-core N4500 or a quad-core N5100 while the 512 adds on a Pentium Silver N6000. The 511 has the same display as the Spin 311 (though touch capacitance is optional). The 512 switches things up to a 12-inch 3:2 display, but the pixel density is about the same as the 511. They’re both stocked with webcams filtered by a glare-cutting lens and refined noise reduction technology, 12-hour batteries, two USB 3.2 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6 support, and up to 8GB of RAM. The good news here is that the 32GB or 64GB of internal storage is expandable by microSD card. The Chromebook 511 should be available within the next week while the 512 will be in inventories starting next month, both selling for $350 and up.

The relatively premium option of the batch is the Chromebook 314 (C934/C934T). It has a sleeker design with 8mm bezels on the 14″ 1080p display, DTS Audio certification, and an extra 128GB memory option but otherwise very much follows the Chromebook 512 spec sheet… well, except for the battery — it’s billed to last 10 hours. Sales begin in the latter half of the year from $430.

What they lack in looks, they have in talent: all of these laptops have been tested up to MIL-STD-810 standards with resistance to drops from over 4 feet high, pressures of up to 60kg, and inundation in sand and dust. The keyboards also feature drainage paths in case of spills and — on the Spin 311, 511, and 512 — have mechanically anchored keys that are touted to be kid-proof. The ports have also been reinforced against wear and tear. Those same three devices also feature post-consumer recycled plastics into their build and all four feature touchpads made of “ocean-bound” plastic.

Durability and earth-friendliness can sometimes be diametrically opposed notions, but they seem to co-exist pretty well along with cost-consciousness in this lineup.

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