Specs at a glance: Acer Chromebook C720 Screen 11.6" 1366×768 TFT LCD (135 ppi) OS Chrome OS CPU 1.4GHz Intel Celeron 2955U RAM 4GB DDR3 (non-upgradeable) GPU Intel HD Graphics (integrated) HDD 16GB SSD Networking Dual-band 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0 Ports 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, HDMI, SD card slot, headphone jack Size 11.34 x 8.03 x 0.75" (288 x 203.96 x 19.05 mm) Weight 2.76 lbs (1.25 kg) Battery 3990 mAh Warranty 1 year Price $249.99 Other perks Webcam, 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years, 30-day Google Play Music All Access trial

The technology year runs in cycles. CPUs and GPUs, SSDs and SoCs, phones and tablets—once product lines get established, new models tend to come out just about every year or so. Now that Google's Chromebooks are finding their groove, they're falling into the same kind of pattern. Last year we saw an ARM Chromebook, followed shortly after by a cheaper and better-performing Intel Chromebook from Acer. This year we got another ARM Chromebook, followed shortly after by a cheaper and better performing Intel Chromebook from Acer. And so it goes.

Acer's newest Chromebook is only a modest improvement over last year's product in most ways, with one exception: it gains a new CPU based on the Haswell architecture, along with the power-saving enhancements that implies. The original C7 was already faster than both ARM Chromebooks with an older Sandy Bridge-based processor, and by leap-frogging the Ivy Bridge architecture and going straight to Haswell, Acer is only going to widen that gap. Performance isn't everything, though, and the HP Chromebook 11's best selling points were its nice keyboard and great, high quality screen.

To be entirely honest, most product reviews are exercises in minutiae hunting. You’ll go far if you can explain why this 1080p 13-inch Windows laptop from Company X is better or worse than this 1080p 13-inch Windows laptop from Company Y. That's not the case here: comparing the Chromebook 11 to the C720 reveals some refreshingly clear-cut differences.

Body, build quality, and screen

The C720 is unmistakably related to the old C7 Chromebook, but the design has been tightened up and refined. The once removable battery has been moved into the case itself, and that (along with other smaller changes like soldering the RAM to the system board) has allowed Acer to slim the laptop's body from 1.08 inches to 0.75 inches. It's also lighter at 2.76 pounds, down from the 3.0 pounds of the C7.

Aside from being a little more streamlined and a little more svelte, the broad strokes of the C720 remain the same: it's constructed of matte gray plastic on the top and textured black plastic on the bottom. The build quality certainly isn't bad, especially considering the $249 price tag, and while there's a little creaking and flexing throughout the case, it feels pretty solid overall. The hinge and lid in particular are less wobbly and bendy than the ones in the HP Chromebook 11. The design isn't as clean and simple as the one in the Chromebook 11, but it's not bad either.

The new C720 also gives up a couple of ports that the C7 included, most notably the 100 megabit Ethernet jack and VGA port; neither will be missed by most consumers at this point, though businesses and schools with older projectors may grumble at the lack of VGA. You still have more options than the Chromebook 11, though—the C720 includes one USB 2.0 port, one USB 3.0 port, a full-size HDMI port, an SD card reader, a Kensington lock slot, and a headphone jack. It doesn't include the unique and convenient micro-USB port from the HP Chromebook 11, but otherwise its port selection is far superior.

The screen is another story. It's an 11.6-inch 1366×768 TN panel that's in line with the ones from previous-generation Chromebooks. It's bright enough, but colors are washed out, and black levels suffer visibly compared to the Chromebook 11's great IPS panel. Even worse are the viewing angles, which quickly blow out the screen if you're viewing it from very much above or very much below. The panel has the same resolution and pixel density as the Chromebook 11's, but it is in every way the inferior display. The only point to recommend it is that it's matte instead of glossy and will therefore be less reflective if you're outside or in a brightly lit room.

Keyboard, trackpad, and speakers

The keyboard uses a different layout than before, one that makes more concessions to Chromebook convention. This includes not just the Search key where the Caps Lock key normally goes, but the double-wide right Ctrl and Alt buttons and the power button embedded in the row of dedicated function keys. The adjusted layout points to this being a purpose-built Chromebook rather than the tweaked Windows laptop that Acer gave us last year. It remains non-backlit, but that's not a surprise in a laptop in this price range.

The tiny arrow keys we complained about last year have been half fixed—the left and right ones are now full height, but the up and down keys remain smaller and half height. This seems like an odd choice, given that most scrolling is vertical and not horizontal. The general feel of the keyboard isn't as good as the Chromebook 11 (which is admittedly an outlier among cheap laptops) since the keys are slightly smaller than full-size and the travel isn't as deep, but it does feel marginally less mushy than in the old C7 Chromebook. The plastic multitouch trackpad is a little small, but it's reasonably clicky and easy to drag your finger across. It tracked my finger accurately and responded well to the basic gestures Chrome OS supports (tap-to-click, tapping with two fingers to right-click, and two-fingered scrolling are the ones I use the most frequently).

The laptop's two stereo speakers point down at the desk instead of up at you through the keyboard as they do in the Chromebook 11, but they share many of the same properties: both get loud but distort at higher ranges, and both lack much in the way of bass.