Acer Chromebook 15 C910-C453 (15.6-inch HD, Intel Celeron, 4GB, 16GB SSD)

I am very happy with this laptop. First of all, if you do not know what a Chromebook is, make sure you understand that before buying one. I'll try to explain it a little at the end of the review.I upgraded to this Chromebook from the 11" C720: Acer C720 Chromebook (11.6-Inch, 2GB) (which is an excellent device by the way, I just needed a bigger screen). I initially went to the 13" Acer Chromebook: Acer Chromebook 13 CB5-311-T7NN (13.3-inch HD, NVIDIA Tegra K1, 2GB) and I was so unhappy with that one that I ended up returning it (screen was dull, performance was slow, case felt flimsy, and battery life was bad).I am very happy that Amazon has this 15" Acer Chromebook now, because it is exactly the size I wanted, and it so far, feels like a great computer. Compared to the 13" which felt like it was going to crack if you picked it up by a corner, this 15" laptop feels sturdy, and although 1.5 lbs. heavier (at just under 5 lbs.) you are able to lift if with one hand by the corner of the laptop without it flexing much.I wanted the version with the full HD screen (C910-C37P): Acer Chromebook 15 C910-C37P (15.6-inch Full HD IPS, Intel® Celeron, 4GB, 32GB SSD) but there was a 1 - 3 month back order delay for shipping from Amazon, so I decided to go with this version instead. I am very happy with the screen so far. Although it isn't super sharp and bright, it is brighter than the 13" Acer Chromebook, and displays videos well. However, if you plan on using this outside under bright sun, you will might have a difficult time seeing the screen, even at the highest brightness setting.The speakers sound pretty loud for personal use. I like that they are on the front of the computer next to the keyboard, so the sound is less likely to be obscured by the laptop casing. The touch pad is fairly responsive. The computer performance is adequate for regular web browsing.This is my first Chromebook upgrade to 4GB of RAM, and I don't think I noticed too much of a difference between the 2GB of the C720. However, the important stuff works well, and I am currently running with approximately 20 open web tabs (mainly news stories from various sites) and although there is a slight lag when I right-click on a link to open a new site in a new tab, it is handling the load pretty well (and I have had as many as 45 tabs open without too much lag!)Battery life: I'll update if anything changes, but so far the battery life appears to be on par with what I expected. I have been using the laptop during this current session for exactly 2 hours, with the screen brightness at 100%, and browsing the web and checking emails. Starting from a full charge, I still have 74% of battery left, and it estimates 5 hours and 11 minutes are left. So based on that, and on my prior use of the laptop, if you had your screen fairly dim and had the WiFi off (which is impractical unless you are just typing a document offline) I could theoretically see the battery life making it to the rated 9 hours (or more). Otherwise, I think 6-8 hours of battery life can be expected with normal use.I've noticed a humming noise recently, it sounds like a fan. I was under the impression that Chromebooks were fan-less (at least the prior two that I owned were). However, it is so slight that I only noticed it coming on and off very late one night while using this computer (when my entire home was completely silent). I don't really hear it during the day when there is any other noise in the area.Overall impression: This is THE Chromebook that I was waiting for. It is perfect for most computing needs. I still love the C720 for its compact size, excellent battery life, and because it is so lightweight, but for working and extended reading/emails/browsing, this 15" laptop is the way to go. I highly recommend this Chromebook (or the more expensive full HD version if you prefer the better screen).What is a Chromebook?If you do not know what a Chromebook is, or have never used one, be sure to understand it before you buy one. It is not like a regular Windows or Apple computer that you may be used to. The entire computer is based on the Google Chrome web browser. Pretty much everything you do, will occur within the Chrome web browser. So you cannot install programs (like Microsoft Word, or games which come on a CD). However, there are ways to "work around" to accomplish most things that you need. Google Docs has a word processor that is compatible with Microsoft Word documents. The Google App Store has many add-ins and Apps for the Chrome browser that extend the things you can do with a Chromebook (like adding apps to your smartphone). Also, if you are tech savvy enough, the Remote Desktop App for Chrome conveniently allows you to connect to any other of your computers with a Chrome browser installed (and with Remote Desktop sharing enabled). That allows you to access a Windows computer, should you ever have the need while away from home.You cannot currently use Skype on a Chromebook, but you have Google Hangouts, which works very well for video conferencing. You will not be able to install Microsoft's Outlook for email, but you can access Outlook.com on the web. Likewise, you will not be able to install Internet Explorer or any other web browsers, but you have Chrome web browser. Anything that you can do on an Internet web browser, you will be able to do with this Chromebook. The main things that people do can all be done with this laptop: checking email, reading websites, going on Facebook, watching YouTube videos, etc... (However, it does not have a CD/DVD drive, so you cannot rent a movie DVD and watch it on this, but you can rent and stream movies from Amazon Video, Hulu, Netflix, etc).You can manage files to an extent by inserting a USB flash drive or a memory card, so you can transfer and view picture files, but it is slightly different than on a Windows laptop, and since this Chromebook is based on the Google Cloud, it has limited storage space which is meant to be "temporary" so anything that you save to the computer's memory, could be deleted automatically when more space is needed by the system.Overall, this is a very nice, low cost laptop, and I highly recommend it. Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments, and I will try to answer them.

Know what you're buying.I bought this for my parents after their previous computer finally died. Their previous computer was an older one of mine with Linux Mint installed. I showed them how to use it, and their usage requirements were pretty minimal: internet, word processing, Google Earth. I figured this would be an ideal replacement since they also were thinking of getting a laptop to travel with. And I figured that if they didn't take to Chrome OS I could also put Linux on it and have them back in familiar territory. Admittedly, I did not research this much before purchasing -- a quick Google search showed its possible to install Linux, but I did not get into the details before hand.First, their requirements in a computer: Internet, Google Earth, Word (or Google Docs or Open Office). My requirements in their computer: Easy to use, reliable, minimum disruption to routine.Obviously, Chromebook has internet covered. This is basically Google Chrome, it is the internet. But, I figured it would also have some built-in support for running some local programs; namely Google Earth. The fact that it seems the only way to use Google Earth with a Google Chromebook is to stream the application from a remote server that may or may not be always available or free is ridiculous. I wish I would have discovered that before, as this is actually a pretty significant loss of use for my parents. And, of course, since you can't install local software you can't really install Open Office either. But, I figured Google Docs would work well enough for them since word processing isn't something they do all the time; but only occasionally. My mother didn't really take to Google Docs, even though it was pretty similar to Word. But, even if she could adjust, there's another significant issue with Chrome OS that I didn't realize before hand. NO PRINTER DRIVERS!Ok, you have to use Google Cloud print. That is also ridiculous. The main selling point of this computer over a standard laptop you can install Linux on is the price point. But, if you have to replace all your previous equipment just to have things work the way they should that point begins to loose some serious weight.So, I was able to satisfy some of their requirements, not all. And I knew the Chrome OS was going to be reliable. But, to satisfy their requirements I needed to install Crouton. I chose Crouton because of the lower impact to the system and small amount of space required (this only has 16GB). There's two things to keep in mind when installing something like Crouton. 1) You have to keep the Chromebook in developer mode; this creates an arbitrary 30 second delay on boot. Not to mention it looks scary to someone who isn't really familiar with the terminology. 2) To get into Linux its a little bit difficult. Open Chrome, ctrl+alt+t to get to crosh, type shell, then type sudo startxfce4. I made this process a little easier by bookmarking the crosh page and calling it "Start here for Linux", and setup an alias for Linux and have them written instructions to follow. But, it is still disruptive to their routine.For now this is their setup, I know I am going to have to make some future changes and streamline things as much as I can. But, I also live 4 hours away from my parents so it's going to be a bit of a drawn out process. My first step for sustained maintainability is to get remote desktop working -- I installed it in the Chrome OS, but couldn't quite get it working before I had to leave last time.PS: I used the faceted search feature of Amazon to filter out features that I knew I wanted. I selected touch screen as one of those featured I needed, because I wanted to try to get them used to using it for a smart phone or tablet. Though this laptop showed up as a result of that search, this is definitely not a touch screen laptop.I'm still trying to make this a good choice for my parents, but right now it is not the best choice for them. I hope this review helps anyone considering the same. If it's just internet, it's perfect. Otherwise, know it's limitations.