Acer has officially announced two new Chromebooks for education, including the 11.6-inch Acer C740 Chromebook.

If you read this site regularly (hello and thanks) then neither device will be news to you. We exclusively brought you details, specs and pictures of the ‘rugged’ C740 and 15.6-inch Acer Chromebook C910 back in December.

Today, Acer made both models “official” and will be showing them off to prospective buyers at the education-focused BETT 2015 event in London.

Chromebooks for Classrooms

Pretty much all of what we shared in those original exclusives still stands: these are ruggedised devices built for the classroom and powered by Intel 5th generation ‘Broadwell’ processors.

Reinforced hinges and displays can withstand impact of 60 kg in force, while bumperized (my word) corners can cope with drops of 18 inches/45 cm or less.

Both models are pitched at education, the C740 exclusively so. Schools and student programmes are where the bulk of Chromebook sales are made. As the market leader in Chromebooks it’s important for Acer to make a visible impression here. The Acer C910’s large 15.6-inch display is, Acer say, ‘…the ideal size for students to share in classrooms and labs.’

‘The Acer C910 offers an Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM and an IPS FHD display’

Both models are also fairly comparable in battery life, which is nice to see. Acer rates the larger mode good for 8 hours and the smaller model a power socket swerving 9 hours.

For connectivity and ports there’s dual antennae MIMO Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, and the usual smattering of USB, audio, card reader and HDMI ports.

The 15.6-inch Acer Chromebook C910 is priced from $299.99 with 4GB RAM, a 16GB SSD and an Intel Celeron 3205 (Broadwell) processor. Pony up a bit more cash and you can nab a 5th-gen Intel Core i3-5005U processor and a 32GB SSD.

Like the consumer-facing version (‘Acer Chromebook 15’) the C910 is offered with either a full HD IPS (1920×1080) screen, or a standard HD LCD (1366×768).

The 11.6-inch Acer C740 starts at $259.99 with 2GB RAM, a 16GB SSD and an Intel Celeron (Broadwell) processor. Acer intends to sell this model solely at education (but as with previous education-only models, you’ll see it available for sale by select online retailers).