Who it is for:

College students who’ve hobbies exterior of schoolwork — which we hope is all of you — will benefit from the spectacular cloud gaming and general-use options of the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. It goes on sale usually (though it already sits at a reasonably budget-friendly MSRP), so it fortunately will not break the financial institution after you’ve got already shelled out an entire bunch of cash on textbooks. You may save much more cash when you redeem these candy Chromebook Plus membership perks.

Why we picked this:

Going to highschool should not be all work and no play. The budget-friendly Acer Chromebook 516 GE can fortunately do each.

The inexpensive gaming Chromebook packs in a worthwhile cloud-based PC gaming expertise, plus all of the capabilities that you might want to keep on prime of your assignments. The Chromebook 516 GE breaks the cloud-gaming-only mould by providing spectacular efficiency for normal use and recreation streaming, a very nice show, stable bonus perks, and extra for simply $649 (we have even seen it on sale for $499). Throughout our testing interval, each Sport Move title we loaded up ran fairly easily and confirmed us an excellent time regardless of the negligible loss in constancy, however that is one thing you may at all times count on when streaming video games. We by no means skilled any enter lag or stuttering, both.

Whereas Xbox Sport Move was our platform of selection, it is not your solely possibility with the Chromebook 516 GE. If you choose one up, you can redeem three free months of NVIDIA GeForce Now on the Precedence stage, granting you entry to NVIDIA’s high-end servers with higher decision and body charges. These aren’t the one perks, although — you may additionally financial institution three months of YouTube Premium, a 12 months’s value of Google One cloud storage, and a month of entry to Boosteroid.

This Chromebook can also be only a stable general-use laptop computer that’ll serve you loyally all through the college 12 months. The construct high quality is sturdy and durable, which stunned us, and the laptop computer contains a great-feeling RGB keyboard with anti-ghosting tech. We might see it being perfect for notetaking, doc modifying, and performing your normal, run-of-the-mill duties. There is a first rate port choice, too: USB-C, HDMI, and Ethernet are all right here. Oh, and the show is a showstopper. The 16-inch, 1600p display seems unbelievable and produces clear, vibrant, and vibrant colours (and it helps a 120Hz refresh price).

The one draw back we might discover was the system’s battery life. It lasted round six hours for us, however that was throughout heavy gaming use, so your mileage might range.