Acer Chromebook Plus 514 Review: Handy office Chromebook with good battery life

Chromebooks have a long tradition at Acer. The new Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is the perfect choice if you are looking for a handy ChromeOS device with sophisticated features and long battery life. We took a closer look at the handy laptop in our test.

Technical data

Acer Chromebook Plus 514 review: Robust and a bit dull

• robust workmanship
• simple gray design
• compact and lightweight

As with the previous generation, Acer has also packed the new model in an extremely robust aluminum casing, which has been tested in accordance with the MIL-STD-810H military standard and should therefore survive the odd drop without damage.

This culminates in a robust-looking, steel-grey design with a ribbed display lid, which may not look particularly exciting, but absolutely fulfills its purpose. The 14-inch device measures 319 mm x 227 mm x 19.9 mm and weighs 1.45 kg, which makes it comfortable to carry around.

The rest of the design is standard fare, without any exciting accents. But also without any failures: The Acer Chromebook Plus 514 looks pleasantly high-quality for its price range and is well-built.

Maintenance is possible, whereby ten Phillips screws have to be removed in order to remove the base of the Chromebook. The RAM is soldered in place, but the NVMe SSD can be replaced.

Features and connections

• 8-core CPU; 8 GB RAM
• low-detail 1080p webcam
• good selection of connections

According to the Plus classification, the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 must of course meet certain requirements. These include a 12th or 13th generation Intel Core processor or AMD Ryzen 5000 or 7000, as well as at least 8 GB RAM and 128 GB eMMC or SSD storage.

In this case, the manufacturer is installing an Intel Core i3-N305 processor from 2023, which has 8 cores and clock speeds of 1.8 GHz to 3.8 GHz. There is also 8 GB LPDDR5 RAM and a 256 GB SSD. The graphics calculation is performed internally on the Intel UHD graphics.

In terms of connectivity, modern Wi-Fi 6E with excellent transfer speeds and low latency, as well as Bluetooth 5.2 are included.

The webcam has a resolution of 1080p and a physical aperture that covers the camera. However, the picture quality is hardly convincing, as the image is far too washed out, blurred and lacking in detail.

Acer has equipped the Chromebook with two speakers and two microphones, which also support DTS Audio and are able to address the Google Assistant. In terms of sound, the speakers deliver a pretty good result, even if there is a lack of bass and detail in the treble.

For a Chromebook, the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 has a good selection of ports. USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type C and USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A are available on the left-hand side, alongside a microSD card reader and a 3.5 mm jack. On the right, there is another USB-C and USB-A port with the same specifications.

Matt IPS display, good keyboard

• 14-inch display with 1,920 x 1,080 pixels
• pale color reproduction
• low brightness

Acer equips the Chromebook Plus 514 with a 14-inch ComfyView display. It has a matte coating and is therefore very well protected against reflections. It has a Full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels and offers a refresh rate of 60 Hz.

The matte surface naturally makes it very easy to work with the Chromebook inside. However, we were not completely convinced by the screen. One reason for this is that the colors are very pale and simply lack a certain punch.

At the same time, the white point is noticeably too warm, which results in a less than realistic picture. The screen also lacks brightness, which means that the 300 cd/m² is unfortunately not achieved. This is likely to cause readability problems when working outdoors.

Nevertheless, for a Chromebook, it is a good display that shows details in a pleasantly fine way, especially due to the high resolution.

The keyboard of the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is also very pleasing, with pleasantly generous keys, a precise pressure point and a decent stroke of around 1.5 mm. Only the Enter key seems a little compressed – a larger key would have been desirable here. Instead, Ctrl and Alt could have been given a little less space if there is no Windows key.

The multi-touch-capable glass trackpad also scores with very good gliding properties and offers enough space for gestures at 10.6 cm x 7.8 cm (width x height). It’s just a shame that Acer doesn’t have backlighting on the keyboard.

Practical test: Good performance for office and surfing

It goes without saying that a Chromebook like the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 cannot compete with current ultrabooks. Nevertheless, the laptop performs very well in everyday tasks, office applications or when surfing the web, which is also due to the powerful hardware.

Navigation through the ChromeOS interface, which is based on Android, is pleasantly fast and smooth and even when the device has to work harder, the built-in fans remain mostly whisper-quiet. The cooling is also excellent, meaning that the Chromebook hardly heats up at all under load. I really like that.

The built-in Intel chip also provides enough power to play a game or two outside of normal use. However, with 1,022 points in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, you shouldn’t expect too much.

4.557 points in the Wild Life benchmark. For comparison: That’s around 1,000 points more than the current mid-range smartphone Samsung Galaxy A55 (our test) – one or two more complex games can definitely be realized on the Chromebook.

In the Geekbench 6 test, the Acer Chromebook and Samsung Galaxy A55 are on a par, while the smartphone is ahead in the PCMark Work 3.0 test. All in all, a good performance that makes the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 a convincing companion for everyday tasks.

In addition, the Acer model already supports the new AI features of the Chromebook Plus series, which Google presented at the end of May. The Gemini AI assistant is already integrated into the taskbar and helps, for example, to generate texts, summarize content and much more.

In Google Photos, the functions familiar from smartphones, such as the Magic Eraser or the Magic Editor, are also included, which can be used to remove or move people and objects from images, for example.

In general, the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 cuts quite a good figure in terms of performance, although the built-in Core i3-N305 processor is inferior to the Core i3 of the U-series in terms of performance – but it also works much more efficiently, as we will see in a moment.

However, the performance is more than sufficient for a Chromebook. Apps from the Google Workspace Suite, surfing with Chrome, reading emails and much more at the same time is no problem for the device. Always provided there is an active internet connection or the files have been downloaded beforehand – but that’s just the way it is with Chromebooks. In any case, the Chromebook Plus 514 is well positioned in its price range.

Battery life: Enough juice for a day

According to the manufacturer, the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 has a battery life of up to 9.5 hours, which we can confirm for video streaming. The PCMark Work 3.0 Office benchmark, on the other hand, ends much earlier, although the battery life here is also impressive at 7 hours and 38 minutes.

Charging is done using the handy 65-watt power adapter, which takes a good hour and a half. The Chromebook Plus charges the first 50 percent of the battery in just 30 minutes, which means it can be used for half a working day.

Acer Chromebook Plus 514 test: Conclusion

The Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is a well-equipped Chromebook from the Plus series that scores points with its long battery life and robust construction. The equipment is also quite strong for a Chromebook, while the SSD with 256 GB of storage space is quite generously proportioned.

However, the design is somewhat dull, while the screen is a bit of a letdown with its pale colors and inaccurate color display. Unfortunately, the keyboard also lacks backlighting.

Nevertheless, the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is a compact, lightweight and reliable companion for office tasks, school and university or for entertainment purposes.