{"id":72212,"date":"2023-06-24T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T16:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmileco.com\/acer-chromebook-315-2023-review\/"},"modified":"2023-06-24T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T16:16:09","slug":"acer-chromebook-315-2023-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmileco.com\/acer-chromebook-315-2023-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Acer Chromebook 315 (2023) Review","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acer's no stranger to delivering budget laptops that stick to the bare essentials, selling entry-level hardware with the low-cost ChromeOS to create affordable Chromebooks. Take the Acer Chromebook 315, which has now been refreshed for several generations. The latest revision (starts at $359; $439 as tested in model CB315-4HT-P8PQ) remains firmly in the budget category, with the peak model topping out at $500. This pricing, though, puts it in competition with some impressive machines, like Lenovo's excellent 5i Chromebook, not to mention some Windows-based laptops. We find 2023's Chromebook 315 a less appealing prospect than past efforts, with underwhelming hardware relegating it, at best, to a second-tier Chromebook pick.<\/p>\n
The 2023 Acer Chromebook 315 keeps up Acer\u2019s design ethos from recent years\u2014for better or worse. It has a plastic shell that looks like it might be metal, not terribly convincing but not flimsy, either. Little is notable about the design language, lending it a generic and forgettable feeling. Hard to ignore, though, is the keyboard, which continues Acer\u2019s use of an almost convex keycap that's far more wiggly and wobbly than a keyboard should be.<\/p>\n
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\n(Credit: Molly Flores)
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Acer's keyboard does pack a number pad to one side, a welcome feature, and Acer shrinks the arrow keys so that they\u2019re all an even size and harder to mix up. It\u2019s not the best layout, but it\u2019s about as usable as it can get without taking up more space or offsetting the arrow keys. Unfortunately, you'll find no keyboard backlighting here.<\/p>\n
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\n(Credit: Molly Flores)
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Asus includes a sizable touchpad on this model that\u2019s coated in what it dubs \u201cOceanGlass,\u201d recycled ocean-bound plastics. It\u2019s actually deliciously smooth and has a soft but distinct click when depressed. It\u2019s a pad I\u2019d be happy to have on any other laptop, but it doesn\u2019t get a chance to shine on this one.<\/p>\n
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\n(Credit: Molly Flores)
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At the center of the Chromebook 315 is an unexceptional display. It\u2019s a 15.6-inch, full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) touch screen with an IPS panel. Thanks to the display's anti-glare coating, it\u2019s easy to view under a lot of different conditions, but it\u2019s not terribly sharp for the size, and it's weak on contrast. Acer also uses thick bezels around the display, which has the unfortunate effect of making the rest of the laptop bigger than it needs to be. Much unused space on the laptop base could have been trimmed if Acer went with an updated display and slimmer bezels.<\/p>\n
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\n(Credit: Molly Flores)
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Not only is the Chromebook 315 relatively thick at 0.79 inch, but it feels heavier than it needs to be. You could forgive a powerful gaming laptop its weight because of the extra metal necessary for cooling, but this Chromebook's 6-watt chip doesn\u2019t even have cooling vents. Still, the Acer Chromebook 315 weighs 3.65 pounds\u2014not egregiously heavy, but certainly no lightweight.<\/p>\n
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\n(Credit: Molly Flores)
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The rest of the hardware is rounded out with a middling mix of connections. Acer includes a single USB Type-A and USB Type-C port on each side, providing a way to charge the Chromebook on either side and flexibility for peripherals. The Type-C ports are both capable of 10Gbps speeds, and the Type-A ports are 5Gbps. The left side of the laptop includes a microSD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack, while the right side includes a Kensington cable locking slot. Wi-Fi 6 defines the wireless connection. Turning to the negative, Acer uses a not-great 720p webcam that completely overexposes even in settings that are not particularly bright. Worse even, when it\u2019s not peaking, the image is noisy and lacking in detail.<\/p>\n
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\n(Credit: Molly Flores)
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Acer situates this Chromebook's speakers on the underside of the laptop, though it has plenty of unused space on the keyboard deck that could have housed them for better audio output.<\/p>\n
The Chromebook 315 comes in a few different configurations with only some small variances among them. All models come with the same display, though appear to either have multi-touch or lack it on the touch screen. It\u2019s unclear whether some models include keyboard backlighting, as it appears listed as a default on the product page(Opens in a new window)<\/span><\/a> yet isn\u2019t available on our test unit. <\/p>\n The main differences are in memory and storage. You\u2019ll get either 4GB or 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of eMMC storage. Processors vary, as well, with the cheapest configuration running on an Intel Pentium N4100 while the rest run either the Pentium N5100 or the N6000. (The latter was included in the unit tested.) A key difference between the N6000 and N5100 is in their turbo speeds (500MHz higher in the N6000, at 3.3GHz), and the Intel UHD Graphics, which has 32 execution units in the N5100 to the N6000\u2019s 24\u2014all running at the same speeds.<\/p>\n
\nUsing the Acer Chromebook 315<\/h2>\n