We have been testing the Acer C720 Chromebook recently and wanted to see how it would stand up against a more familiar laptop. It came up as great for daily use but despite that the laptop still beats it when it comes to more specific functions.
Web Content
Our browsers usually have 15 to 20 tabs open at the same time. The laptop can handle it without any difficulty judging by the fact it has 8GB of RAM and feared that the Chromebook’s 4GB could not handle it. Not to worry as it didn’t encounter any problem with multiple tabs open.
Microsoft Office
Creating PowerPoint presentations and Word document files is a necessity these days. Google Docs and Office Online can handle some of these tasks but neither of them excels in the sector. This fact foresees a future conflict between Microsoft and Google over dominance of applications in the web browser.
Drafting Documents
While we generally use a laptop for drafting and editing HTML documents, Word Online could do this job just fine as the Chromebook works charms with these features. The clash between Chromebook and laptop is bang on even here with no one having an advantage over the other.
Editing
Editing proves to be a hard sector for the Chromebook as we don’t need audio specific software. When we tasted both devices we used software like Audacity to record but unfortunately we haven’t found a web or tablet equivalent here so the laptop wins by far.
When it comes to video editing we are using Camtasia Studio for capturing and editing content the only downside being its expensive price tag. The laptop trumps again due to its higher utility when it comes to specifically designed tasks.
Hardware
As we previously mentioned the C720 is fast. We were able to stream video content as smooth as possible with absolutely no delay with a lot of tabs open. When it comes to the Chromebook’s operating system it swaps between memory and SSD so fast we haven’t noticed any delays.
