Remember
the Touchscreen Dream US$299 Acer
Chromebook C720P that came out in October 2013 as I’d written about in
my
blog article
entitled “US$299
Acer Chromebook C720P launched as the Second Touchscreen Chromebook -
Affordable Google Pixel Chromebook clone that’s sure to please this Christmas”.
Well, Acer and Nvidia have tag
Teamed to create what may be the first Chromebook that’s build for Gaming.
This as Acer has used Nvidia’s new Tegra
K1 Processor, 2.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex A15 Processor with a 192-core Kepler
GPU plus and 2GB of RAM as noted in “Nvidia
Joins Forces With Acer For First Tegra K1-Powered Google Chromebook”,
published 8/11/2014 @ 8:00AM, Forbes and “Acer's
Chromebook 13 runs Nvidia's Tegra K1 processor; prices start at $280”,
published Aug 11, 2014 5:00 AM by Melissa Riofrio, PCWorld.
The
specs are impressive for yet another well built Acer Chromebook. Aside from the
Processor, the 13.3” Acer Chromebook 13 is sleek and slender with a thickness
of 18.03mm (0.71”) and weighs 1.5 kg (3.31 lb). However, when compared to the
competition, its whisper quiet in operation and gets 13 hours on a single
battery charge, great for any late night study outside under the stars.
It’s
also great for hanging out on Google Hangouts chatting with your Friends as
explained in my blog article entitled “Google
merges Google Voice into Google+ Hangouts - How to make Free US and Canada
Calls with Google Voice in Hangouts App”!
It’s
a little hefty, but still manageable to lug around in your knapsack. 2GB of RAM
and up to 32GB of SSD (Solid State Drive) Hard-drive to store all those Apps
and files, a HDMI port for watching HD Videos on a flat screen, a 720p webcam
for Skype-ing and two USB 3.0 ports for super fast transfer of large files is
slowly making the Nvidia powered Acer Chromebook 13 look more laptop and less
like a School Experiment.
In
case you think Google's not up to the task, they've thrown in the usual 100GB
of Google Drive Storage plus 2 months of Google Play Premium Service, though
you might want to hurry and get the Google Play Music’s All Access Music
Subscription offer of Free Google Music Streaming that runs from Friday, July
24th 2014 and ends on Tuesday September 30th 2014.
Acer
differentiates the Acer Chromebook 13 into two different models with HD screen
sizes of 1366×768 or 1920×1080. Anti-Glare enabled HD Screens aren't the only Divining
Rod that separates these two (2) models; price makes its mark at this point:
1.
US$279.99 for the 1920×1080, 2GB RAM,
32GB of SSD
2.
US$329.99 for the 1366×768, 4GB RAM,
16GB Model
Nvidia and Acer’s
Gaming Rig – Triple Shipments by 2017 as Cloud Gaming on the Horizon
How
do I know this?
This
is the same Nvidia Processor being used in the Nvidia Shield Tablet as described
in my blog
article entitled “Nvidia
Shield Tablet to launch August 14 2014 – A Tablet with Video Games for All
Seasons with Cover, Game Controller and Stylus needs Content”. Thus it’s
obviously clear why they’ve decided to team up.
Chromebooks,
albeit they’re less than 1% of the Estimated Computing Shipments for 2014, are
on a growth spurt. According to analyst Gartner, their numbers are expected to
triple from some 5.2 million units shipped in 2014 to some 14.4 million units shipped
by 2017 as predicted in my blog article
entitled “Chromebooks
Sales to Triple by 2017 – How Rapid Sales Heaven for PC Makers means Apple iPad
and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 under attack”.
Thus
Nvidia saw this growth potential as an opportunity to put their Processors in
what’s essentially a Laptop that’s got a Browser, Chrome OS, as its Operating
System. Faster Graphics performance will matter to High School and College
Students, especially as many of them, being Millennials (ages 18 to 28 year
old), will be Streaming Video and Audio in the Future as predicted in my blog article
entitled “Nielsen
Stats record continued decline in Music Downloads - Developed World Streaming
will catch on in Developed World once we get 4G LTE”.
Later
on, on their downtime, they may want to dabble in a bit of Cloud Gaming from
even the likes of Steam, which the Google Chrome Browser supports as noted in
my Geezam blog article entitled “Google Chrome
to do Console Gaming – OnLive and Steam in the Cloudy Post-Console Era”.
Nvidia
and Acer are in this together. Like the other PC makers riding the trend of
high volume Google Chromebook sales as stated in my blog article
entitled “Chromebooks
Sales to Triple by 2017 – How Rapid Sales Heaven for PC Makers means Apple iPad
and Microsoft Surface Pro 3 under attack”, they know it’s only a matter of
time before Chromebooks kill the Traditional Laptop as we know it.
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