In 2013 we saw plenty more Chromebooks get announced than we did in 2012 or prior. We saw great ones from Acer, Lenovo and HP and even saw Google make a crazy Chromebook Pixel. There’s not really a ton of Chromebooks out there to choose from, but I believe that will be changing really soon. Especially with ASUS jumping into the game next year. Acer released about 3 different Chromebooks just in the last few months, along with HP releasing two and Lenovo has their Educational Chromebook. But who owns the best Chromebook of 2013? Let’s find out.
Runner Up: Chromebook Pixel
I know, I know, you’re thinking that this should be the winner based on the specs and such. Well it would be, but I feel the price is just too high for this one. The Chromebook pixel has a nice 12.85-inch 2560×1700 resolution display, with an Intel Core i5 processor inside and 4GB of RAM. Definitely better than some of the other Chromebooks we’ve seen, except for the last few months. But with a price tag of nearly $1500, I just couldn’t place it as number one. The Chromebook Pixel does have a really nice design, and I would definitely buy it. Especially since you get 1TB of free Google Drive space. I really can’t say enough great things about the Pixel. But it always comes back to the price tag.
Winner: Acer Chromebook C720
To be clear, we’re talking about the original C720. You know with the 4GB of RAM. Acer also has two other versions of the C720, one is a touchscreen Chromebook which is still up for pre-order, and the C720-2848 which has 2GB of RAM inside. The Acer C720, which I reviewed not too long ago was one of my favorite Chromebooks. I currently own the Samsung ARM Chromebook, and I felt it was pretty underpowered, especially with only 2GB of RAM. So seeing 4GB of RAM in the Acer C720, it felt much better, especially for multi-tasking. It’s also got a Haswell processor inside which makes the battery last forever. I was able to get, consistently, about 9-10 hours of battery life out of the C720. Which is great news for those looking to pick up a Chromebook.