Acer Aspire One Cloudbook (14-inch) Review

Acer Aspire One Cloudbook (14-inch) Review
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With a 1.6-GHz Intel Celeron N3050 CPU, 2GB of RAM and just 64GB of storage, the Cloudbook was never going to be a processing powerhouse. However, if you need it just to browse the Web, check emails, or fiddle around in a spreadsheet or two, Acer's Cloudbook is totally capable. When I had 10 more or tabs open in Chrome or Edge (Microsoft's replacement for Internet Explorer), some lag started to appear, such as waiting slightly for text to appear when typing in a search bar.
Using Geekbench 3, which tests overall system performance, a 1,646 score from the Cloudbook trailed both the Lenovo Ideapad 100 (2,446 with an Intel N2840 CPU) and the 2014 HP Stream 13 (1,802 also with an Intel N2840 CPU).
When put up against Toshiba's recently revamped Chromebook 2 with battery like Acer Aspire 2000 battery, Acer Aspire 2016 battery, Acer Aspire 2200 battery, Acer BATBL50L6 battery, Acer TravelMate 3000 battery, Acer BATCL50L battery, Acer Aspire 9500 battery, Acer TravelMate 291 battery, Acer TravelMate 290 battery, Acer Aspire 5943G battery, Acer AS10C7E battery, Acer UM08A73 batteryusing the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark, the Cloudbook took longer to complete the test, at 432.4 ms, versus 324.9 ms for the Toshiba. However, it did beat the HP Stream 13 from 2014, which had a time of 522.3 ms.
On the bright side, the 64GB of eMMC storage recorded transfer speeds of 48 MBps, which were faster than those of the IdeaPad 100's 500GB HDD (34.4 MBps) and the 2014 HP Stream 13 (27.2 MBps).
When we used OpenOffice to match 20,000 names and addresses, the Cloudbook finished in 15 minutes and 8 seconds. That's almost exactly the same as the HP Stream 13 from 2014 (15:12) and a few minutes faster than the IdeaPad 100 (18:06).
We then timed how long it took the Cloudbook to open a 69MB Word document in OpenOffice, and the Cloubook's time of 36.5 seconds isn't bad. In a recent roundup of sub-$500 notebooks, the average time was 40.2 seconds. However, when we repeated the test, this time with our file-copy test also running in the background, the Cloudbook took a much longer 1 minute and 39 seconds.
When we tested graphics performance, the Cloudbook scored 18,605 in 3DMark's Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark, which was better than the IdeaPad 100 (15,481) and the HP Stream 13 (10,084). When I played Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, I was able to get through a game at 1366 x 768 and medium settings with only a few instances of lag or stuttering.
This is the standout feature of Acer's Cloudbook, a battery that lasts almost 15 hours on a charge. To be exact, on Laptop Mag's Battery Test (Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 100 nits), it took 14 hours and 43 minutes for the 14-inch Cloudbook to finally run out of juice. That's more than 4 hours longer than Toshiba's revamped Chromebook 2, which already has an impressive life of 10:05, double the battery life of the 2014 HP Stream 13 (6:26) and almost triple that of Lenovo's IdeaPad 100 (4:45).
Our $250 14-inch Acer Aspire One Cloudbook is the most expensive model in the range, featuring an Intel Celeron N3050 CPU, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of flash storage. If you can do with less onboard drive space, there's a cheaper, $199 model featuring just 32GB of eMMC memory. For those who prefer a smaller and more portable machine, Acer also offers an 11-inch Cloudbook starting at $170, although it comes with just 16GB of local storage.
The Cloudbook features a standard one-year warranty and comes preloaded with a superclean install of Windows 10. To help make your transition to the cloud easier, Acer also includes a free one-year subscription to Microsoft Office and 1TB of storage on Microsoft OneDrive. And because you're running Windows, you aren't limited to apps from Google's Web store like you are on a Chromebook.
Acer's Cloudbook really makes you wonder: Why get a Chromebook? The best thing Chromebooks had going for them was their low price, but with the Cloudbook you get nearly 15 hours of battery life for $249, or less. Besides, if you need Chrome in your life, there's nothing stopping you from installing Google's Web browser and getting the same basic experience, but with the added flexibility of full Windows compatibility.
A little more RAM would help smooth out some of the stuttering, and I wish the screen were a little more colorful. But the comfy keyboard and solid, if uninspired build quality make for a great budget machine, whether you're working offline or in the cloud.