Some might think it’s crazy to own 4 ChromeBooks. My wife certainly does. But I will attempt to justify adding an Acer CB5-132T series R11 ChromeBook to my stable that already contains a 2012 Samsung, a 2013 Acer C720, and a 2014 Asus C300MA ChromeBook (and a 2016 Asus M004U ChromeBox).
First, a bit about the new R11. Newegg charged me $189 for a refurbished Acer CB5-132T-C1LK, which I thought was a very good price considering it’s specs (Intel Celeron N3150 (1.60 GHz, quad-core) 4 GB Memory 32 GB SSD 11.6″ Screen Chrome OS). On top of that, the R11 has a touch-screen that rotates 360 degrees – pictures below. And if you’re still not wow’d, the R11 can get apps not only from the ‘Chrome Web Store’ as did all the previous models, but also from the ‘Google Play Store’, which is where Android devices go to get their apps.
This latter feature wasn’t a big deal for me until I learned that Adobe has started posting a bunch of free apps in the Play Store that this generation of ChromeBook can run including Adobe Photoshop Express, Adobe Illustrator Draw, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop Sketch and more. None of my previous ChromeBooks supported these cloud apps. And I now have access to all the other cool Android apps I’ve been running on my phone and tablets.
Okay, I sense some are still thinking these are lame excuses for spending $189 for a new machine when my other ChromeBooks still work perfectly well. Lame excuses or not, the R11 is an amazing machine for a very reasonable price. If you happen to be in the market for a ChromeBook, I highly recommend getting this model – be sure it’s the CB5-132T-C1LK. There are several models within the R11 family, but this has the best performance for your dollar. I also recommend getting an SD card for additional storage. With mine, I’m running a 64gb Sandisk SD which Amazon sells for around $20.
