Acer R11

Hello,

I’m looking to replace my old acer r11. There are so many choices nowadays it’s crazy. I’d prefer something a little peppier with 8gb ram. Main use is a bunch of tabs, web browsing, streaming, zoom, Microsoft word/excel, and pdfs. I’ve read decent things about the ideapad 5i, but also mixed reviews about the fan. Are there any other comparable choices? Not looking to spend a fortune, even though the 714 looks real nice. I’d prefer to keep it around 300usd.

Thanks!

My beloved Acer R11 Chromebook is about to be beyond the support window, so I am looking for a new one. This tablet (which I bought in 2016 and am typing on now) is exactly what I want, with good battery life, fine enough performance, and lightweight. The only thing that would make it better is charging via USB.

What is my best option? There is another Acer, the Acer Spin 311, that is the same size and same company and looks like basically the same thing. When I bought this R11, I didn't know it would be so durable, so I'm willing to spend a little more this time for a Chromebook that will last six years. But, if I can spend basically the same on this Spin 311 that I spent on the R11 and get another good computer, I would do that.

ETA: I am not a computer idiot, but I also don't have strong feelings or know about Intel vs MediaTek processors, or something like that, so if there's a very specific component I should know is better, please tell me very specifically and treat me like an idiot, and I won't be offended.

Having some indecision between these two and would appreciate some thoughts.

I'll be using it for primarily two things (apart from the typical browsing etc): reading papers / pdf files, and light editing of photos. The tablet orientation mode is basically necessary for reading papers, and the touch screen with a stylus seems much better than a trackpad for precision.

As far as I can see the pros of each are (listed roughly in order of importance for me):

Asus Flip:

• more useful aspect ratio of 1.6 to the Acer's 1.78. Journal papers tend to be between 1.4 and 1.6 after subtracting the margins. Also most cameras shoot 3:2 or 4:3, but the size of the toolbars in image editing programs has to be taken into account here (I'm not sure which aspect ratio is better for that tbh)

• better build quality

• lighter, probably easier to hold one-handed while standing during long subway commutes

Acer:

• larger display size diameter

• full size keyboard. I won't be typing essays on this but it's just nice to have

• integrated SD card reader (not that big of a deal, but a USB card reader is one more thing to carry around)

• possibly less awkward aspect ratio when using Chrome Remote Desktop to a standard 4k display resolution (which has aspect ratio of around 1.90). I don't know how much of an issue this will be, or how much I will need to use Remote Desktop if ever.

There's quite a few comparisons between these two since they seem like the only two decent hybrids, but I couldn't find anything that helped me make a decision. Would appreciate any thoughts from people who've tried similar things.

I ordered the Acer R11 4gb from Costco and it came in yesterday. This was originally going to be a gift for my gf for Christmas she already has the flip but wanted something a bit bigger to type on. I myself have had the Toshiba CB 14 and now the Dell CB 13.

I played around with it for a few hours here are my impressions:

Build: I was definitely disappointed because it looked so nice in the pictures. The lid has a nice Aluminum feel and look to it but unfortunately the rest of the body feels very plastic and somewhat cheap. Compared to the Flip the Flip feels much sturdier, the longer I have the R11 the cheaper it feels to me.I also wante to add if you want to use it in tablet mode with the keyboard folded back it's pretty big and clunky to hold, the Asus flip could get away with it because it was smaller and slimmer but trying to the same on the R11 just feels awkward.

The screen: The screen is bright and looks good, it is a bit pixelated like the review said but not a deal breaker and not unusable. Keep in mind I'm coming from a 1080p display so I'm more sensitive to it, vs my gf who didn't see an issue.

Speakers: I was impressed with the speakers, they are pretty loud and better than the Dell CB 13 and the Flip. Not as good as the Toshiba but I would rank them right behind them and the Dell CB following after.

Keyboard: Keyboard was a highlight, it's good size and I can type just as fast on it as I can on my Dell or desktop. I didn't notice any keyboard flex unless specifically pushed down to create it.

Trackpad: This is the weakest part of the R11, the trackpad is very mushy and requires a lot of depth inorder to achieve the click. You almost have to push down twice in order to get it to click, I would push down hit some resistance and then have to push further down inorder to get the click. I haven't used an Acer before so I'm not sure if this is just how they make their trackpads but this is the worst trackpad I've ever used.

Battery: I haven't used it for a full charge but I'm confident it's around what Acer claims.

Performance: Performance wise I didn't notice any lag or slow downs, I have the i3 Dell and couldn't tell the difference at the same time I'm not a power user I only have a few tabs open. I did notice an issue with taking a bit longer to buffer and load videos vs my Dell CB but not sure if it had to do with the R11 or my internet.

I had high hopes for this Chromebook but sadly my girlfriend prefers her flip much more. If you need touch screen in a larger form factor then the flip then I would give the R11 a try, everyone has different experiences and it's difficult for me to judge the R11 when I use the Dell CB daily. Hope this helps since there isn't too much info on this CB right now but I'm planning on returning it the next few days.

If you are interested I highly recommend you get it from costco.com even if you dont have a membership they charge you 13 more which is still cheaper than anywhere else. They also have a 90 day no questions return policy as well.

Edit: As requested Octane scores & Hardware ID

Hardware class: CYAN D25-C4F-M6A-A6I Octane Score: 5580 as requested I ran it 3 more times since I had the time it came out to : 6395, 8054 and 7194

I am about to purchase a R11 for $100 used here locally. Good deal? My only worry is the trackpad (seems like reviews are pretty negative) on the pad.

How I am looking to use the R11 :

1. Torrents. My work blocked my work laptop from access to any torrent sites.

2. Basic browsing and maybe streaming (Amazon, Netflix)

My last question : is the R12 upgradeable? Such as Ram and HDD?

Thanks in advance!

thinking about getting the 11 and selling my 15, is the 11 decent for video viewing? i know it wont be 1080p like my 15 but the 15 isnt really comfortable for in bed video watching

Earlier today I received my refurbished white Acer R11 4/32GB from the Acer eBay store. I ordered it last Saturday; it was $179.99 which came to $192.59 with taxes. Shipping took a week from Texas to Florida via FedEx Ground service. This is a brief review of the device and vendor. Thank you to for the link to the deal.

Background on me--my primary devices are two Windows desktops, around the house I use my Nexus 6 phone to listen to the news and browse reddit. I have an iPad 3 that I really got a lot of use out of but that has become intolerably slow. The last laptop I bought for personal use was a 12” Dell 700m in 2004. I’ve never seen a Chrome OS device before now.

The shipping carton was a nondescript cardboard box. One end of the power brick cables was tied with a metal twist tie (like you’d find on a loaf of bread,) the other was done up with a rubber band. Some of the protective cling-wrap plastic was still on the brick, some had already been peeled. Aside from that, everything about the laptop and the cord look factory fresh. The laptop feels very well built to me--the action of the lid is smooth, the texturing on the body is really nice, I like the glass on the screen. The touchpad works well, is easy to use--I just wish it didn’t have any sort of button action to it at all. The side closest to the user dips down and really does feel awful in the corners. Those bottom corners feel terrible, loose and spongy but dead-center bottom feels fine to click. I prefer to soft-tap the pad itself anyway, I just wish the touchpad was totally fixed in place.

Signing in was painless, all my extensions and everything were there--pretty cool. I did a powerwash and switched to the dev channel. It came with 18% charge. Tablet mode seems to work well, no issues switching back and forth between them. I’m finding I prefer laptop mode but I still use the touchscreen. After having used an iPad for years, this thing is just too thick and heavy to replace a tablet. The speakers sound great, and they get plenty loud. The LCD looks nice to me--I don’t do TN panels. The backlight gets down nice and dim, too. Battery life seems more than adequate (other reviews obviously cover this stuff in more detail.)

So, that’s my first impression of the R11. If you've got any questions let me know.

TL;DR: I’m really pleased with it.

Hey

After spending some time looking for a Chromebook, I decided on the Acer R11 from for $250.

Overall I've been very happy with it. I use the touch screen functionality all the time, and the screen quality is surprisingly good (on par with a 21" external monitor, worse than a 5k iMac but surprisingly not awful side by side).

Performance is snappy and I can run a dozen plus tabs at times without noticeable lag, as well as an Android app or two, like Reddit Is Fun and Spotify.

Battery life is ok, not as good as my old Macbook Pro Retina, despite the much smaller size and hardware demands. Adequate enough though to take it and work for hours at a coffee shop, or watch a movie or two on a full charge.

Functionally, I can do 80%+ of what I do routinely, principal exceptions being audio engineering and word processing directly in MS Office. If I were more inspired, I could probably figure out MS Office online and install Linux to get Audacity on here. But it's not been a prioirty to date.

I occasionally use it as tablet fully flipped back, but not often. More commonly, when not using it as standard laptop, I'll flip it 135 degrees with the keyboard facing down and the screen angled toward me, to display video.

For the pricepoint, I love it. No hesitation about recommending it to anyone looking for a Chromebook in the $200-$300 range,

Thanks to everyone here for the feedback pre-purchase. Hope this is of help to others out there in teh same boat as me,

Had my eye on Chromebooks for a few months now, and have narrowed it down to two: the Lenovo c330 ( 81HY0000US), and Acer R 11 (CB5-132T-C1LK).

Specs seem pretty identical, except for MediaTek vs. Celeron processor and the larger internal storage on the Lenovo.

Would probably be using it for web browsing, android apps (news readers and digital comics), streaming music, and google docs word processing. The Acer would also be from Costco, which would mean a really good extended warranty.

Thoughts? Other favorites I should be looking into? Generally settled on that ~USD$300 price range, but would entertain upgrade picks too if there's good reason.

Thanks!

Finally completed this:

Between the holidays and work, it took much longer than I expected to put the device through its paces, including a Crouton installation.

For those looking for a quick summary only, the R11 is a little bit of an ugly duckling, but over several weeks of use, I've come to admire all the things it does well.

My major concern coming in was the N3150 processor and how this thing would perform. This is the quad-core version of the N3050, which is the dual-core Braswell Celeron in laptops like the Acer Cloudbook 11 and HP Stream 11 2015, two laptops I found to be unacceptably slow in real-world use. Fortunately the R11 is much better. I would say it is a slight improvement over the Bay Trail processors in many Chromebooks, with Octane scores typically in the 8,000 range, but more importantly, it maintains responsiveness and swift page rendering up to about a half-dozen tabs.

The critical test I have, which the N3050 laptops failed, is to have two open Chrome windows, one running an HD video stream, and the other rendering pages like CNN.com or The Verge. The R11 is able to pass this test, with no video stuttering and reasonable page rendering speed even while doing these two things at once. Similarly having music streaming in the background through Spotify or Google Play while browsing the web doesn't have a major speed impact.

The screen on the R11 is an IPS display, and it also has loud speakers and a comfortable keyboard. Paired with its 360 degree screen and the ability to take great advantage of Crouton via the Intel processor, is standard 32 GB local storage, making this a very good choice for a Crouton install. Battery life in the real world is around 8 hours.

Crouton install - XFCE 14.04 - went great. Usual issues with keyboard and mouse going nonresponsive but otherwise I followed the steps in my own install guide and everything worked great. I played Towerfall: Ascension via an Xbox 360 wired controller with no problems I streamed Rocket League for about 20 minutes without any freezes and generally solid performance. Firefox performs very well. Minecraft is around 30 FPS on "fast" graphics and draw distance of 8 chunks, which is not dissimilar to 2 GB RAM Haswell systems.

I do wish it wasn't so heavy (almost 3 pounds), and that it had a more modern design. And, the 4 GB RAM version isn't widely available yet, and both units probably should be $20-$30 less than their MSRP to be competitive with the market.

All that said, if you're looking for an 11.6" IPS display Chromebook, there aren't a lot of options. Thankfully, this one is pretty good, and will be especially so as the price drops. Definitely consider it if you like to install Crouton on your Chromebooks.

I opened up the back of the case on my Acer R11 to see what it looked like. I learned that the device does indeed have magnets that hold the screen against the case both when the laptop is closed and when the keyboard is folded back in tablet mode. The battery is 3490-3400 MAh. And the hinges appear to be attached by a relatively thin piece of metal screwed to the case with two three screws. I hope that holds up!

Anyway, I thought others might want to see what this Chromebook looks like on the inside. It is easy to open up with 11 Philips screws. The battery and most of the internal components look simple to replace if needed.

Edit: This is the CB5-132T-C1LK model (4gb ram 32gb ssd eMMC), in case anyone uses this picture as a reference in the future.

Thanks to the Philippines not being very Chromebook-forward a laptop market, I've been unable to sell the R11 I replaced with a Samsung CB+.

What should I do with it / use it for while I'm waiting to find a buyer (which, realistically, could be forever)? What would you do with a surplus convertible Chromebook?

So I had a c720 (2014 model or so) and I loved it to death but unfortunately I spilled some water on it and it no longer works. That being said, I'm currently on the hunt for a replacement and the r11 is catching my eye, but Amazon only sells the 2gb, quad core version. I was wondering if anyone knew what was going on with the 4gb models, are they still making them? Also... How does the 2gb r11 compare performance wise against a 4gb flip

Much thanks!

Thought I'd share my current dilemma (the struggle is real!). Just because. No need for upvotes. Feel free to crack jokes or make snarky remarks, though.

I have about $300ish in Amazon gift cards saved up from Mturking. While I really want/need something like a Dell 13 i3 for speed and upgradable SSD, it's going to take ages to get my Amazon balance up for various reasons, with no guarantee a third-party Dell seller will accept Amazon gift card balances (it's sometimes hit-or-miss). And there's no way I'll be able to afford an HP 13 this year. That leaves me with the option of getting something else that isn't as fancy or as fast and maybe upgrading next year.

Until the new Asus 13" machine is released, there are two devices I'm currently considering. Both are $299 on Amazon:

• Acer Chromebook 14

• N3160

• 4gigs LPDDR3 ram

• 32gig eMMC

• 14" IPS display

• 10-12hrs battery life, probably more like 8-9

• 802.11 ac

• 3.4ish pounds

OR

• Acer R11 C738T (the newest/black version)

• N3150

• 4gigs DDR3L ram

• 16gig eMMC, occasionally can snag a 32gig version, I think, for not much more money

• 11.6" touch IPS display

• Guessing battery life is around 8-9 hours

• 802.11 ac

• 3.5ish pounds

Currently have an aging Acer C720 with 2gigs of ram that needs to be upgraded before it dies. Love the form factor, the keyboard is okay, screen is meh, battery life is killer, you know the drill. Best $120 laptop ever. I'm used to the size.

Touch isn't that important to me, not even with upcoming Android app availability, but I'm not opposed to it. Would probably only be useful to me when scrolling or when scrubbing through videos during playback. May be useful for MTurk surveys, though.

Battery life is great for both.

Will primarily use the machine for lots of typing, email, Mturking, basic photo stuff, professional editing. Plus some Croutoning for network file management, SFTPing, managing WordPress instances, handling a couple VPS installations, doing Raspberry Pi nerd stuff. And, of course, lots of video content - streaming from the usual (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google), watching my own stuff and eventually (HOPEFULLY!) running Kodi when Android apps are available.

Would definitely love the larger screen for video but it wouldn't be a deal-breaker not to have it.

Chromebook 14 is probably slightly faster and has better ram. Has a larger keyboard, which is nice. A tad lighter. But that's about it.

See what I mean? They're both such great machines at the $300 price point. Gonna take me a couple weeks to really weigh the pros and cons to ultimately make a decision.

edit: nerd formatting

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to buy the acer r11 (or flip if someone has a very convincing argument). Where is the cheapest place to buy one? I was originally just going to go best buy or costco but i read somewhere that ebay might be a lot cheaper (buying refurb). I can't seem to find a cheap refurbished one so could someone help me out? Thanks!

I'm having trouble finding out what's up with this, sometimes I see the weight listed as 2.76lb and others 3.53lb for the same model. Whatever I've held in the store works for me, but that's a significant difference.

Hello all,

In early November my brother popped over for a visit and brought his shiny new Asus Flip chromebook with him. This came at a good time. I'd been getting a bit fed up of my 2011 Macbook Air 11-inch and had just about started thinking of buying a replacement. Now over the last decade or so I have tended to depend on Apple for my computing hardware and Google for software and services. I have an 2008 iMac that continues to be the heavy lifter as far as my professional and personal computing is concerned. I work as a journalist, writer of novels and a mature MA History student at a university here in London. So most of my work involves research, reading, note-taking, PDF annotation, Slack, Trello, Google Docs and the occasional bit of podcast recording and editing. Nothing particularly processor intensive except when I have a ton of tabs open in my browser.

Over the last 12 months or so my Macbook Air was beginning to really show its age. Especially when I had more than 2 or 3 browser tabs open and if one them comprised a large PDF. (Also I was getting a bit bored. Come on man. Six years with the same laptop? Surely there was more to life.)

I was, of course, gravitating towards a new Macbook. But then my brother's Chromebook impressed me very much. And the prices didn't seem too bad either, especially for an experimental device. On Cyber Monday, after much time spent on this subreddit, I purchased an Acer R11 4/32 from the Acer UK store.

And so far I love it.

Pros:

1. Battery life. I spend a lot of time working outdoors, in libraries or cafes. And I hate spending 20 minutes finding a free seat next to a power point. The Acer R11 easily gets me 7 hours of proper use on a full charge. Often much more. I did not initially expect battery life to be such an important factor. But now that I have it, I love it. Game-changer.

2. The minimalism. I love the fact that I can't stuff the machine up with useless applications. And that if I do I can just get rid of them so quickly without worrying about the debris. Also in an odd way the theory of constraints comes into play. The constraints of working with browser apps and extensions have helped me refine the way I work. I have discovered Workflowy, which is great.

3. The keyboard is great. Really really quite good.

4. The touchscreen. I don't use the R11 in anything except laptop mode all that much. But it is nice to have the touchscreen/tent function. When you're taking a break at a Starbucks and want to watch a little Modern Family over a panini, it is good to flip it into tent mode, and get the keyboard out of the way of crumbs and spills.

5. The integration with Google is pretty good. I love the little Search button. I use it all the time to initiate computing sessions. It took me a while to get used to it. But once you do it does seem like a very useful timesaver.

6. Android Apps. I don't use many of them. But the ones I do--Pocket Casts for podcasts, Amazon Music, Sun Football--I am grateful for. They all seem a tiny bit wonky. But still they get the job done. And one hopes that Android apps will only get better on Chrome OS.

7. The hinges are great so far. I was worried about wobble. Not yet.

8. Stable. Even when I am using the Dev builds. Nice and stable.

Cons:

1. The touchpad is... weird. 90% of the time it works fine. And then sometimes it seems... moody. I am not sure how to describe it. The scrolling seems a bit off, and occasionally it will detect a right-click instead of a scroll input. Which is a bit irritating. But let me not overplay this. A month from now I think I will have developed the muscle memory to deal with it. Besides I can always just scroll on the screen.

2. This is perhaps unfounded. But I am petrified of dropping it. It 'seems' flimsier than my old metal Macbook. It perhaps isn't. But the white plastic just makes me feel that way.

So there. I hope this is useful. I've spent so much time scouring this sub that I wanted to make a little contribution of my own. Happy to answer any questions, time permitting.

Cheerio chaps.

Im ready to pull the trigger on a refurb R11....N3150, 4GB RAM, 32GB storage.

Is there any new models coming in the next month that are more powerful then this, convertible and near the $199 price tag?

With FTL on sale I figured it'd be worth to grab it for $2.50 to be able to play it on my r11 even though I already own it on Steam. But when I go to play it it just gets stuck on the downloading screen and is also stuck calculating in the settings menu when I check it in Chrome on my windows pc it runs fine. I'm on the beta channel for my r11 running 57.0.2987.32, javascript is running, and I have no idea why it's not working D:

Edit: Chrome on PC was 55.0.2883.87 just updated to 56.0.2924.87, cleared the game data, re-downloaded fine, but is now not launching

Hey all, I'm trying to figure out if the grass is greener on the other side. I picked up an Asus Flip (4gb RAM) last week from Best Buy because I like the convertible form factor and aluminum body. The size is a little smaller than I'd like and I wish it had a few more things going on (full sized HDMI out, USB 3.0 ports...) but I'm happy with it for now. However, I keep looking at the Acer R11 chromebook (N3150, 4gb RAM, 32 gig), which has some of the things that the Flip is missing. Is there a noticeable difference between the Intel processor of the R11 and the RK3288 in the Flip? The Flip is a little bit slower in loading programs and web pages than I would like but I'm not sure if the R11 is any faster. I'm a teacher so the bigger size of the R11 may help out the productivity point, but I really like the aluminum body of the Flip (I'm also a Mac user). How does the R11 feel in the hands? Anyone use both and have a preference one way or another? Should I stay or should I go now...? Any insight would be great, thanks!

I bought myself an Acer r11 last week (Celeron N3060, 4GB RAM) and have been testing out its capabilities as a gaming machine over the weekend. While I didn't buy it primarily to play games on, I have been pleasantly surprised by what it can do.

Access to the Play Store gives access to at least as many games as an Android tablet and, other than the odd hiccup when resizing the screen, playing android games works perfectly. I tested The Bard's Tale using an Xbox 360 controller (which works when you plug it in without any additional setup) and I've had no problems with performance so far.

It's also nice that I can side load Android apps without going through the Play Store. I'd bought an Android games Humble Bundle a week or so ago, and after changing the Android settings to allow installation from unknown sources and installing an Android File Manager (Solid Explorer), installing the apks was straightforward. I tested Shadowrun Returns, which again worked perfectly, and benefits from the larger screen on the r11 compared to a smaller android tablet or phone.

So far so good, but the real star of the show is the ability to run Linux using Crouton, which allows you to install Steam. This was much more straightforward than I thought it would be, with the following guide giving step by step instructions to get crouton up and running:

There are quite a few Steam games with Linux support - I downloaded and tested Stardew Valley, which worked very nicely.

Finally, to get more graphically intensive games working on the r11, I tried out Steam streaming from my desktop pc to my r11. After resolving an issue with my Steam clients not being able to see each other (solution here: ), I got FarCry 3 streaming with pretty decent performance. I also managed to get Diablo III to stream by adding it as a non-Steam game.

Obviously the Acer r11 is not built for gaming, but it's surprisingly capable for what it is, and it does give you a few options to get games up and running on it.

Ordered the R11 from Amazon when it dropped in price. Opened it for xmas and as soon as chrome opened to go online I keep getting a black screen, and the browser crashes.

Now just looking at the desktop wallpaper it crashes... About every 30-45 seconds. Anyone else have this issue?

It's the 4gb version by the way.

EDIT : so I was able to sign in as a guest and there's been no problems. As other users have said it must be an extension on chrome from my previous chromebook and needs to be disabled from a different machine.

EDIT 2...And I'm fully up and running. For anyone with a similar issue try starting up in guest mode, go to settings, then about chrome os and check for updates. Completed all the updates and the computer runs fine now. Thanks to everybody for the suggestions.