Acer expands its student Chromebook line with new C740 and C910

Acer has announced two new Chromebook offerings geared towards students today. The new line sticks to the ‘C’ titles and include the C740 and the C910. One being a 11.6-inch screen model and the other being a 15.6-inch screen model.

The Acer C740 is the lower priced and spec’d variant and carriers the more traditional 11.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768. It comes with two RAM options of either 2GB or 4GB and the standard 16GB SSD. Battery life on this little guy is rated for 8.5 to 9 hours.

The C910 is the larger of the two with a 15.6-inch display in either a full HD IPS 1920 x 1080 variant or the slightly less HD 1366 x 766 res display. There will be a 16GB and 32GB variant of the C910, but it will only be offered with 4GB of RAM. Battery life takes a small hit with the additional screen and components with a rating of around 8 hours.

Both devices also will be offered with either a 5th Generation Intel Core i3-5005U processor or next-generation Intel Celeron 3205U processor based on the Broadwell Micro-architecture. The only real thing they have in common is Acer has reinforced the covers to withstand 60kg, or 132pd, of force. They also enforced the corners of the Chromebook to be able to take a 45cm drop without damage. Knowing the rigors of school environments Acer also beefed up the hinges to take on the constant opening and closing that will ensue in their use.

“Acer Chromebooks are already seen as a proven platform for successful student learning, as they are being used by students to collaborate, conduct research and work on projects in exciting new ways,” said Eric Ackerson, senior product marketing, Acer America. “The two new Acer Chromebooks feature newly enhanced durable designs that can handle even more of the rigors so common to the education environment. Also, schools can deploy and manage these new platforms cost-effectively, quickly and securely, so the emphasis stays on student success.”

The new line of Acer Chromebooks certainly gives schools and students a lot of options based on their needs and uses. While we could argue that the Acer Chromebook 13 , the 13.3-inch HD display with the NVIDIA Tegra K1, is much better at $249 and 13 hours battery life, it is really the improvements to the ruggedness of the new line that is important along with the smaller and larger form factors.

The lower end C740’s will start off at $259.99 while the larger C910 will start off at $299.99. Prices will vary based on region, component choices and availability. They are scheduled to become launched in February through Acer authorized retailers.

Source: Acer