Acer Unveils New Chromebook With Thinner Body, Faster Boot Times And Longer Battery Life

Acer has unveiled the newest member of the Chromebook family -- the C720 Chromebook. Powered by Intel's INTC hugely popular Haswell line of processors, the new laptop promises to deliver eight and a half hours of battery life. The machine is 30 percent thinner than the previous model, and features an anti-glare display that reduces reflection for outdoor use. Better still, Acer said that the C720 will boot up in less than seven seconds, and resume "nearly instantly" from sleep mode. "The Acer C720 is a significant step forward for our highly-acclaimed Acer Chromebook line, as it delivers speedy performance, quick boot times, a matte anti-glare display and a slimmer design that is portable enough for anywhere use," Arif Maskatia, Chief Technology Officer of Acer America, said in a company release. "These key advances allow families and students to continue collaborating, learning and playing in exciting ways, all while staying secure since Chrome OS includes multiple layers of protection from online threats." Users will find an Intel Celeron 2955U under the hood, along with 4GB of DDR3L memory and a 16GB solid state drive. Acer built the C720 with schools in mind, so it added a Kensington lock to secure the laptop to a classroom or mobile cart. Other notable features include:

• An 11.6-inch ComfyView HD display with a resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels.
• One USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port and an SD card reader.
• An integrated HD webcam, microphone and dual speakers.
• The C720 measures 0.75-inches thick.

Related: REVIEW: Acer Aspire M5-583P-6428 There will be multiple configurations in the C720 series of Chromebooks, but the first will be available for pre-order at Amazon AMZN and BestBuy.com BBY starting today for $249.99. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ