Acer Chromebook 317 review

Acer Chromebook 317 two minute review

The Acer Chromebook 317 is the first 17.3-inch Chromebook on the market, and this is going to be one of its biggest selling points because other than its size and a 1080p display, there isn't much about this Chromebook that impresses.

It's available now in the US for $399 (about £279, AU$560), though you can find it for as little as $329 (about £230, AU$460) at retailers like Walmart. Unfortunately, it's not available in the UK or Australia at this time, though we'll update this review if that changes.

As for the Acer Chromebook 317 itself, the build quality never lets you forget you're holding a lot of plastic, and the bulky heft of the 5.29 lbs, 15.1-inch wide laptop will definitely give your wrists a workout when picking it up off a table. 

The display is decent for a 1080p and, hallelujah, it features top-firing speakers, though that doesn't do much to help the sound quality. 

There is a large, tenkey keyboard that gives you ample room to type, which is a genuinely good experience, though its not the most responsive feeling keyboard we've used and the trackpad can sometimes feel like you're running your fingers over double-sided tape.

It does feature the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard though, so you will get decent internet speeds if you've got a good router. 

It also has Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, so you'll be able to connect some basic devices like headphones or a wireless mouse without much trouble.

The battery life was also respectable for a 17.3-inch machine, since larger displays are major drains on a devices battery life. That said, it didn't knock us over, but it lasted as long as a 56WHr battery should last, which can't be said of some other laptops this size.

For a laptop this thick, we expected a lot of ports and the Chromebook 317 does squeeze in a respectable amount, and even though it left out the HDMI port, the USB Type-C does feature DisplayPort output if you need an external monitor.

The inclusion of two USB Type-C and two USB Type-A ports is definitely a plus in the Acer Chromebook 317's column. For a laptop at this price, Acer would have gotten a pass if it had gone with just the two USB Type-C ports, which would have forced you to carry around an additional dock for all your USB Type-A devices and flash drives. Thankfully, Acer spared us on this note.

As for the webcam and microphone, you're looking at the standard 720p webcam that most laptops still use, though it should be noted that there's no physical privacy shutter on the webcam, which really should be the industry standard in 2021.

The microphone is good enough for your voice to be picked up in meetings or class discussions, and to be honest, that's really the extent of what you'd need this Chromebook to do.

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Performance

When it comes to performance, the Acer Chromebook 317 is swinging for contact and it manages to get on base. The Intel Celeron N4500 dual-core processor (at just 1.10GHz) with Intel UHD integrated graphics can't handle much that you throw at it, especially if you throw it at the Chromebook 317 all at once.

But if you're just looking for something to stream movies on your couch or on a flight, or you're looking to do some cloud-based productivity or blogging work, you're going to be able to get it done with the Chromebook 317. 

We really do have to emphasize the cloud-based part of this statement though. With just 4GB LPDDR4X RAM and 64GB eMMC storage, there's not going to be a whole lot you can do locally with this device other than poke around the Google Play Store and see what you can get away with running from the Chromebook 317's flash storage.

Fortunately, the underpowered hardware does mean that the battery life is pretty solid. In our movie test, the Acer Chromebook 317 managed a respectable seven hours 48 minutes on average, but it also managed to get just shy of nine hours in one run.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...