Google's $1,299 Chromebook Pixel has long been the platform's only laptop featuring a touchscreen, but today consumers are finally getting another, far more affordable choice. Acer has announced the C720P Touchscreen Chromebook, which is priced at $299 and scheduled to go on sale in early December at Amazon, Best Buy and the company's own online store. Aside from a new multi-touch display, the C720P largely resembles the Chromebook model that it's named after. And that's a good thing, as you'll get the same quick startup (7 seconds) and lengthy battery life (7.5 hours) that comes with the Haswell-based Intel Celeron processor found inside.

The C720P Touchscreen Chromebook also features 32GB of flash storage, a slight jump over the 16GB found in other models in Acer's C720 line. Last month, a low-cost $199 version was introduced to complement the original $249 hardware, and now for $50 more you'll get the added benefit of a touchscreen. For end users, that means getting more hands-on with ChromeOS no longer requires forking out the cost of a full-fledged, more capable laptop.