Google’s new Chromebook Plus scheme is a coordinated attempt to bring better performance and more things to do on the perceptibly lightweight ChromeOS. Last year’s musclier Chromebooks are being repackaged in new bodies, freshened up with sparkly new features, and sold for as low as $400. One such Chromebook is Acer’s Chromebook Plus 515.

It runs on 12th and 13th-gen Intel Core processors with at least 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. In addition to all the web and Android-based tasks you’ll want to run, you’ll also be able to use the Steam beta on this machine – even at the $400 base model configuration, which I’m reviewing here. But what does Chromebook Plus actually mean to the average user? And how does the Chromebook Plus 515 fit into the picture?

Design and display

• 20mm thick, 1.68kg weight
• 15.6in lie flat display, 1920 x 1080-IPS
• Ports: 2 x Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1), 1 x USB-A (3.2), 1x HDMI, 1x headphone
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1

Many devices in this inaugural Chromebook Plus class claim the use of recycled plastics in their material builds as well as MIL-STD-810H ratings for resistance to shock and ingress. The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 is among those soldiering ranks, and they are perfectly good attributes to have as opposed to being glossy, scratchable, and fragile like many of the ancient 11.6-inch clamshells from the bad old days. Interestingly, the 515 features a lie flat hinge design that slides the lid of the notebook below the base, raising the typing surface in your favour very slightly. I pushed down on the keyboard to see if the hinge would give way; it did not, but the top end of the keyboard base did, indicating that it was mostly hollow up around the vents. Considering that Google is supplying up to 10 years of ChromeOS updates on new devices these days, I personally wouldn’t subject this machine to 810H-spec conditions if I can help it.

On a side note, Acer includes a curiously dinky 65W AC adapter (and a rat’s nest of cabling). You can replace it with any Power Delivery-compliant wall adapter of the same wattage, if you so wish. While we’re on ports, the 515 includes two USB-C ports, a USB-A port (all USB 3.2 Gen 1), an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a Kensington lock slot. You’ll find the same slate more or less on the other Chromebook Plus devices this season.

The 1080p IPS panel, which meets Chromebook Plus’s prescribed spec, is fairly average on colour reproduction and brightness. Glare can be a problem, but overall, it’s about what I’d expect. The unit we reviewed did not come with touch capabilities, so I’d hope that the pricier models that do will mitigate reflectivity. The DTS-tuned speakers face upwards from the keyboard and the drivers are capably loud, but a bit thin. They will put up an okay fight against a café radio – apologies to my neighbours.

Software and features

• Free perks: Minecraft, three months of Adobe Express/Photoshop on the Web, others
• Time-of-day wallpaper, two-way Google Drive sync, Magic Eraser on Google Photos

ChromeOS has undergone a facelift over the past few years. Besides a rush of features and aesthetics brought in from or meant to work with Android (including Material You and Phone Hub), Google got buy-in from Microsoft and Valve to stake dedicated Minecraft and Steam clients for the platform. Adobe has also contributed with Photoshop on the Web and Adobe Express. All of that doesn’t have to do with the features that Chromebook Plus brings proper, but if you do buy a Chromebook Plus in the coming weeks, you’ll get three months of Adobe’s premium subscriptions for free, a free copy of Minecraft plus three months of Minecraft Realms, three months of image editing with Pixlr Premium, cloud gaming with Nvidia GeForce Now and Boosteroid, and 25 per cent off the video editing program LumaFusion.

What’s left of Plus, then? Well, there’s a collection (totaling two as of today) of nature-focused Dawn to Dark wallpapers, changing over the course of the day. Mobile users of Google Photos will already be familiar with Magic Eraser, but it’s coming to ChromeOS for the first time. Google Drive will make use of all that extra disk space with two-way file syncing enabled by default, meaning documents you update locally while offline, will also have the cloud version updated once you’re back online. Other items, including a context-aware generative AI agent that will help with images and text, are set to come down with future feature drops. Google recently announced that newer Chromebooks would be getting 10 years of ChromeOS updates, so it’s nice to be assured Acer’s Chromebook Plus 515 will be a long-lived tote in your carrier bag.

Performance and battery

• As reviewed: Intel Core i3-1215U (six cores, max turbo @ 4.4GHz) with Intel UHD graphics and 8GB RAM
• 5 hours mixed-use battery life

Of course, you’ll only be able to use the software if the hardware can keep up. Chromebook Plus devices are advertised with 12th-gen Intel Core, 7000-series AMD Ryzen or later processors along with 8GB or more of RAM and 128GB or more of storage. In addition to a 1080p IPS display, they’re also required to have a 1080p or better webcam.

The webcam is fine. You’ll appreciate the sharpness bump in full-screen one-on-one calls as opposed to gridded team-wide meetings. There’s a privacy shutter for when you’re not camera ready. Chromebook Plus also mandates the use of temporal noise reduction for better picture quality in darker settings. On this front, the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 does fizzle out a little – visually and , as such, literally- so you may want to be seen in a smaller box in that case.

Ever since the Steam for ChromeOS beta opened up, I’ve been turning to my library of games as stress tests for newer Chromebooks. I was not surprised that the 12th-gen Core i3 on my device does well with 2D and lighter 3D titles – examples include Moonlighter for 16-bit roguelike vibes, Donut County for a casual showcase of 3D physics. Cranking the proverbial dial up to 11, I tried playing team shooter MMO Overwatch 2 and, predictably and invariably, faceplanted: I got framerates in the mid-30s with frequent freezing on the lowest possible settings even at 1600 x 900. This was an interesting finding as I’ve previously tested a 12th-gen Core i5 Chromebook and achieved significantly better, playable results. You probably don’t play the same games as I do, so your mileage will vary, but those are the extremes that I’ve been able to capture.

That said, I wouldn’t have imagined playing these games on a Chromebook just a few short years ago, much less on a Core i3 notebook that costs $400.

Google has a defined power load test that Chromebook makers use to come up with their advertised battery life metrics. I can only speak for my own use with the Chromebook Plus 515 and, when totaling up my YouTube binges, image editing and article drafting for Pocket-lint, and the occasional game or two, I averaged five to six hours off the wall compared to the 10 hours I was supposed to expect. This is consistent with my previous experiences on Chromebooks and, to be fair to ChromeOS, the battery meter features a usage time estimate that feels accurate to your current usage, but will change as your power demands increase or decrease.

Price and options

• Touchscreen available on some models
• Processor: Intel Core i3-1215U, i5-1235U, i5-1335U, i7-1335U
• RAM: 8GB or 16GB LPDDR5X
• Storage: 128GB UFS, 256GB or 512GB PCIe 4
• Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1

As of 8 October, Acer is only selling the base model that we’ve been talking about to customers in North America. EMEA regions will see the same device for €499. No word on when the companyi ntends on moving the pricier units which, again, may be equipped with touch displays.

Taking a step back, while Chromebook manufacturers do have to roll down Google’s tracks on some big spec lines, they still have loads of discretion as to what type of memory they use, what modems they put in, what form factors they build, and what inputs they’ll accept. Cutting some of these corners can help them achieve a relatively low price tag with decent margins.

On Acer’s account, it’s all about inner beauty: the company chose LPDDR5X RAM, PCIe Gen 4 storage, and a fairly robust modem with support for Wi-Fi 6E over a glare-free display and a reinforced chassis. It could’ve decided on picking up the Core i3-N305U (the top pick of the first post-Pentium era entry-level processors that Intel released earlier this year) for a $400 model, but ended up going with the more capable if older i3-1215U instead. Of course, the amenities that don’t scale up – such as the display, the build, or the webcam – might detract shoppers from picking up a pricier SKU, but we do think the 515 does occupy a desirable space in the ecosystem.

Verdict

Even with older chips driving the ChromeOS experience, this first round of Chromebook Plus devices is bringing so much more potential to an audience who may have been missing out on it for years – those who couldn’t afford better. These notebooks meet or exceed the minimum requirements for intensive tasks such as triple-A gaming and video editing. The app ecosystem is looking better than ever and, if momentum continues to build, there’s no reason we can’t see more of Adobe’s Creative Suite or complete optimization of Steam and other game distros move into ChromeOS.

The Acer Chromebook Plus 515 seems to take advantage of these myriad of synergies in software and hardware development whether we’re fully aware of them or not – you could say that the 515 is one of many boats being floated by a rising tide. At $400, the entry-level model I’ve used for the past two weeks seems to provide the most computing bang for your inflation-dulled buck, especially considering the Windows laptops at that price generally feature 11th-gen Intel silicon and are taxed with more background work by the operating system. It’s not a superlative physical specimen, but, as our parents have probably told us since we were young, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.