Acer Unveils Ultrafast Convertible Chromebook
Acer is once again aggressively targeting the education market with the first two-in-one 15-inch Chromebook, unveiled Wednesday during the company’s Next@Acer keynote event in New York City.
The Spin 15 and its less expensive cousin, the Chromebook Spin, will join Acer’s educational portfolio just in time for the return to school. Prices were not announced at the event.
Newest Chromebook Powered by Latest Intel Processor
The Spin 15 is a convertible Chromebook with a 15.6-inch touch-screen display that uses a Corning Gorilla Glass touchpad. The superlight notebook — just 4.63 pounds — swivels 360 degrees and boasts a 13-hour battery life. Both the Spin 15 and Chromebook Spin have HD audio and come with the Google Play Store, which means they can run Android apps.
“Design is an important part of our technology; in fact, it’s in our DNA,” Acer CEO Jason Chen said at the keynote. He added that 10 million Acer Chromebooks have been delivered to schools since 2012.
The Spin 15 is powered by the quad-core Intel Pentium N4200 processor, the quad-core Intel Celeron N3450 or the dual-core Intel Celeron N3350. The Spin uses the Pentium N4200, the Celeron N3350 or Celeron N3450.
Tablet Has a Touch of Google AR
Chen also showed off the Chromebook Tab 10, which launched worldwide in May. The tablet pairs with the Google OS to offer a Google Expeditions augmented reality feature, along with a built-in Wacom electro-magnetic resonance stylus and Chrome management console.
“In a school environment, it really brings a session alive,” said Eric Ackerson, senior product marketing manager for Acer America, who joined Chen onstage to reveal some of the new Acer devices for schools, businesses and gaming.
Gary Brantley, CIO for the DeKalb County (Ga.) School District, near Atlanta, also joined Chen to chat about the district’s partnership with Acer, which has delivered 85,000 devices to teachers and students.
“We really love empowering our students through technology,” Brantley said. “These devices provide opportunities for students they would not have otherwise. They can learn anytime, anywhere.”
Chen said the latest educational Chromebooks will elevate learning and collaboration. “What we have done is to make sure that we have integrated the platform and the community and put all our resources together to create an ecosystem based on Chrome where students will be able to learn easier, faster and more enjoyably,” he said.
Acer Is Having the ‘Best Year’ with Microsoft
Another top partner was also on hand Wednesday to talk modernization and growth in education sales with Acer.
Paul Donovan, Microsoft’s vice president of partner devices and solutions, said, “This is our biggest year with Acer. We have awesome stuff across the EDU portfolio.”
Donovan said Acer is Microsoft’s most “innovative and aggressive” partner, and the company is seeing substantial growth in education.
“We’re having one of our best years in recent memory,” Donovan said, turning to Chen. “There’s one reason, and it’s our partnership with Acer. We want to modernize the whole portfolio. With your pen and Windows ink, we can really drive learning up about 10 to 30 percent.”
