The state of Chromebooks for retail is a pretty sorry state of affairs in Australia, but for the education market business is apparently good. The latest model to hit the education market is the Acer Chromebook 11 C771, a rugged laptop with up to 13 hours of battery life.
The Chromebook will have a number of configurations, with Intel Celeron Core i3 and Core i5 processors, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The 11.6″ IPS display has a 1366×768 resolution and will have both touch and non-touchscreen configs, the display sits attached to the main Chromebook with a 180-degree hinge.
In terms of ports, the C771 has a USB 3.1 Type C connector for fast data transfers as well as two USB 3.0 ports, 3.5mm headphone jack and one HDMI port. It comes with built-in Wi-fi and a HDR webcam with HD Audio support.
The C771 is thin, just 21mm and weighs only 1.35kg, but is built to mil-spec, MIL-STD 810G(4) specifically. With the rubber bumpers it can withstand drops of up to 122cm, and withstand downward pressure on the lid up to 60kg. The mil-spec build combined with a 13 hour battery life makes for a great machine for the education market.
At this stage, the Chromebook is only confirmed for the US market, where it will start selling next month starting at US$279 for the non-touchscreen version. We’ve dropped a note to Acer Australia asking about availability.
