Acer Chromebook 512 pair are designed to withstand classroom hijinks

Acer has unveiled two new rugged Chromebooks specially designed for classrooms, meaning they can be chucked on the floor and flung around by children.

Both the Acer Chromebook 512, and the convertible Acer Chromebook Spin 512, have been designed for young students, and have passed U.S Military Standard (MIL-STD 810G) tests to ensure they are durable enough to survive the classroom. They have also passed two toy safety standards to make sure they're student-ready.

This means the two Chromebooks can handle drops from heights of 122 cm (48 inches) and can withstand up to 60 kg (132 pounds) of downward force.

They both come with a 3:2 aspect radio display, which Acer claims is ideal for education, as it can handle ebooks and media, while also feeling similar to using a pen and paper when used with a stylus.

The 12-inch screens of the Chromebooks have a 1,366 x 912 resolution on each Chromebook, and comes with Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass protection to prevent it being shattered.

The keyboard on both Chromebooks are also child-friendly, offering tamper-proof designs that are easy to fix thanks to mechanically-anchored keys, and are spill-resistant as well.

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Specs

The Chromebooks are powered by up to a quad-core Intel Pentium Silver N5000 processor or a quad-core Intel Celeron N4100 Processor, 32GB or 64GB eMMC storage and either 4GB or 8GB RAM.

The Acer Chromebook 512 is a traditional laptop design, but it can be opened a full 180 degrees to lay flat on a table or desk.

Meanwhile, the Acer Chromebook Spin 512 has a hinge that opens a full 360-degress, so it can be used in tablet, notebook, display and tent modes. It also comes with a Wacom EMR stylus for taking notes, and it can stored safely in a storage slot built into the device.

As is to be expected from the best Chromebooks, these new devices come with impressive battery lives, with Acer promising up to 12 hours on a single charge.

They’ll go on sale to education and commercial customers in the second half of this year, and we’ll follow up with Acer to find out exact prices.

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