Pros: I was a little hesitant to go for a Chromebook but this one had the added benefit of working with Linux so I figured I could fall back on that if I needed to.

I wanted a laptop that was VERY portable. I have to carry around a 17 inch dinosaur of a laptop from the agency I work for but also wanted a light option for personal stuff.

After about six months I found myself using ChromeOS almost exclusively. With the i3 and 4gb of RAM this thing is fast. I'm pretty much always in the vicinity of a WiFi connection and when I'm not I just pay Google Fi the $10/GB they charge me to tether my phone.

The thing is barely noticeable in my bag when added to the 17" monster. When I'm not online I can still work on a Google Doc or email but this has happened only two or three times since I've had this thing.

Cons: Screen. It is cheap and not good but after using it for a year definitely not a deal killer. This screen is like 720p or so. It is matte not glossy and not very bright. I still like watching movies and shows on it though, which is my primary use for it.

Other Thoughts: If Acer built this thing with a 1080p screen that was brighter it would be perfect. People complain that Chromebooks are cheaply made but this thing has stood up to a ton of abuse from me and my kids and works great.

You can upgrade the ssd in this thing which I did mainly for Linux which I haven't booted into for months. If you need to, you can do it.

Pros: Best performing chromebook, aside from the Pixel (which is >$1000).

Cons: High pitched whine coming from unit from the start, which seemed to progress to a noticeably loud "wind-up" noise, 2 months after purchase.

Pros: This little soldier is amazing. The i3 and amount of RAM just chew through anything I throw at it - conventional or not. The battery life is upwards of 8+ hours. The trackpad isn't at all hateful, I don't mind using it once I got used to the odd right-click (two-finger tap). It is reliable, fast, lightweight, the perfect laptop in all but 1 thing.

Cons: Ungh, the screen. Viewing angle is rough if you are trying to show someone else the screen - on the other hand, ChromeOS does a great job w/ a 2nd monitor. Just hard to watch movies in bed with spouse. I find an 11.6" screen hard to do any serious work on, it's just too small. Honestly though, I didn't buy this little rig for a work machine. The fact that I could do graphic work on it is amazing in and of itself.

Other Thoughts: I bought this with the sole intent to try ChromeOS for a couple days, then nuke it and install linux. I wanted a solid, reliable linux laptop. What I've done instead is keep ChromeOS on there and install linux into a chroot via crouton. I can't tell you how amazing this little machine is. I love it. I spend 80% of my time in Chrome and 20% in linux - most of the time playing minecraft with my kids. Let me tell you, this is an amazing little minecraft machine. I am blown away by how well it handles the game. Not only Minecraft, but it also does well with Blender, Gimp, Audacity, Inkscape, and anything else I throw at it. I'm hard on computers - I like to squeeze them for what they're worth and then push them farther. This guy holds up, I can't believe how well it holds up. I had serious concerns about it being as limited as my recently deceased netbook, but this thing is nowhere near as bothersome or as sluggish. 5 eggs and I have the best little laptop I've ever used. Completely satisfied with it!

Pros: VERY fast -- handles anything you can dish up. If you have ever used a chromebook that felt sluggish this is the cure. If you want to run Linux, THIS is the chromebook for you.

Cons: The only negative thing I can say is that the screen is not great. It's almost not 'good enough.'

Other Thoughts: This notebook is smaller than I had ever owned. EXTREMELY portable. If you want to take something from room to room this is great. If you want to go to class or work all day and don't bring your charger you will be just fine. It's a great chromebook but it's not the one FOR ME. I need a bigger sized screen and I need a better quality panel. If you hooked this up to a monitor, projector, etc. then you would be all set.

Pros: Amazingly light weight and thin. Powers up in seconds - it makes the Microsoft start-up time look like a cave man's computer. I use this as sort of a thin client, to connect to my office machine that has the full WIndows suite and all of my development software, using the chromebooks remote connection.

Cons: It is so light and thin, I feel like if I accidentally dropped it, it would be all over. The keyboard takes a little getting used to, also. During remote connections using the Chrome remote desktop, if you accidentally hit the search key, you'll have to end and start your connection again to continue working unless you disable the search key in "Settings", which I've done.

The top row of keys have a number of redundant or useless keys that I would be thrilled to exchange for a "Home", ""end", or "delete" key, but one can live with this, and you can get used to dealing with it.

Printing with Google cloud print can be a little buggy. Sometimes printers show off-line when you're sitting right next to them and they are ready to go, until you start up a windows machine nearby and open up a chrome browser session.

Other Thoughts: If I were to have any trouble with this, I'd love to know what the warranty situation actually is. The item description only says "Limited Warranty agreement applies." That's kind of lame. Is there a manufacturers warranty? Is there a new egg warranty? Why is it a big secret? Somebody got lazy there. How about a link to whatever that really means in the product description, if it takes up too much space? I replaced a $1200 Vista laptop that has always sucked, with this $360 that I can use to accomplish the same work (remote connections to the computer where I do my actual work). It's a no-brainer. We have reached an age of disposable computers. When this breaks, for that price, I can just buy another one, and maybe the top row of useless keys will be replaced with more important ones by then.

Pros: THIN
LIGHT
i3, 4GB Ram
Chrome OS

Cons: Screen Resolution

Other Thoughts: I installed a 128 GB SSD I picked up for $55. Ram can't be upgraded, soldered to the board. I found a way to dual boot Chrome OS and Linux Mint. This thing rocks!

Pros: Fantastic Linux machine. It's actually amazing how much of a performer this device is. I'm able to have several web pages open, program, and even play games online.

Anyone that's looking for a cheap, snappy device, this is it.

Cons: The keyboard took some time to get use to. Use gentle strokes or your fingers will be tenderized by the plastic key.

Pros: It was easy to return. If zero stars were allowed, this would get a zero.

Cons: I received this as a Christmas gift. I tried to get it to work for four days, spending many, many hours at a time with it, at three different locations. It worked wonderfully when connected at 5GHz, but let's face it - don't most places have 2.4 GHz routers? At 2.4 GHz, it either would not connect at all, or when it did, it was only for a few moments.

I called ACER support. I spoke with someone who was very polite, but English was obviously a second language for her. I was never really confident that she even understood what the problem was. I think she was trying to tell me that this device would only operate at 5 GHz, but that seems hard to believe. Was she asking me or telling me? What good would an internet device like that be, since most places you'd connect at only use 2.4 GHz?

I spent many more hours researching this on the internet, in disbelief, because how could ACER design something so idiotically? I never found any documentation that stated an ACER chromebook would only operate at 5 GHz. I'm assuming this is a defective unit, and I am grateful that New Egg has an English speaking support group and a reasonable return / exchange policy.

I will try exchanging this, and give it one more try. If the new one does not work, I'm all done with ACER chromebooks, and perhaps chromebooks in general.

Pros: I love this little Chromebook. I loaded up Fedora 20 and added a wireless mouse. It is quick and powerful. I use it for web browsing, Wireshark, and some Python development in Idle3.4.
The fast cpu, 4GB RAM, and 32GB SSD keep performance snappy.

Cons: I can get over the 720P screen because the form factor is so small, but would still prefer 1080p or 1024. I hate all touch pads. Get a small wireless mouse.

Other Thoughts: The 32GB storage is fairly small, but it is an SSD, and is great for your OS, with some fast space left over. We live in an age of external storage. If you need more, use USB sticks, NAS boxes over wireless network, or cloud storage. Some high end wireless routers can be NAS devices. When was the last time you upgraded your home wireless? This thing can be very powerful when used in this manner.

Pros: There are some serious advantages to ChromeOS - especially if you've already sold your soul to Google. I think ChromeOS is perfect as long as your expectations are realistic. You can check out the Chrome Web Store before-hand to make sure it has applications to suit all of your needs.

This thing is really fast and really reliable. While they are overkill most of the time, the i3, 4GB memory, and 32GB SSD are really nice if you need them. (I did, as explained in "other thoughts.")

The battery life is really stellar. It's probably not the absolute best you can do on a chromebook (because of the processor), but I have no complaints at all.

These pros are only really pros for the price range. If I had $550 or more to spend on a computer then I would get something else. For around $350, though, this little guy is extremely functional.

Cons: The external hardware is...really bad. There's no way to sugar coat it. The case is VERY plastic and it has a really...2009 netbook feel to it. The keyboard and trackpad are just awful. I don't mind being a little patient with lost keyboard input and a really flimsy trackpad, but if you value high-quality input hardware then this is not the machine for you.

Note that this is just the reality for a chromebook in this price range. You get to pick between (1) higher internal specs (i3, 4GB memory, and a 32GB SSD) with a flimsy enclosure, (2) weaker internal specs (celeron or...eek...exynos, 2GB memory, and a 16GB SSD) with a nicer enclosure, or (3) lower-quality everything at a lower price point. At the time, this was the best I could do in box (1).

The only ChromeOS con I have is that you can't install printer drivers. If you need to print then you'd better have access to Google Cloud Print or be prepared to get creative.

Other Thoughts: Bottom line: If you're coming from a traditional operating system (Windows/OSX) and you're looking for a cheap computer that does all the same stuff, then this isn't what you want. However, if you understand the advantages and disadvantages of ChromeOS then you will be happy with this purchase.

I bought this computer for one reason: crouton. Crouton allows you to run Ubuntu (I use xfce but I think unity is possible) on top of ChromeOS (when you want it to do so). It's not a dual-boot situation where you need to shut down to switch; Ubuntu and ChromeOS run simultaneously and you switch between them with a hotkey. Few of my technological adventures work EXACTLY as advertised, but crouton is one of them. The installation isn't as hard as I expected (though, there are some mildly technical parts) and there has not been a single hiccup while using it for months.

There's a bigger learning curve with Ubuntu than with ChromeOS, but once you get comfortable, Ubuntu can do anything that ChromeOS can't (light programming, LaTeX, printing, GIMP, FTP) and vice versa (Netflix and ESPN videos). The only things I can't do are Windows/Mac exclusive software like Office (though there is a free Web Store app for a light version of Office), photoshop, and games.

Crouton uses local storage which is not a chromebook's strong suit, so I highly recommend getting a model with a 32GB SSD. Also, I think that 2GB of memory would be pushing it at times so I recommend 4GB. I was originally worried that the really low-end processors used by some chromebooks would be a problem, but I think any non-ARM processor would do fine.