Acer’s Chromebase all-in-one desktop features a 21.5in, 1080p touchscreen
Another day, another noteworthy Chrome OS hardware announcement
No, it’s not an April Fools Day joke: Acer is about to take a shot at an all-in-one Chrome OS desktop, and unlike the LG model that surfaced in late 2013, this one’s got a rather large touchscreen in tow.
The Acer Chromebase features a 21.5in multitouch display, which offers a 178-degree viewing angle. Chrome might not be a touch-centric operating system at heart, but more devices are adding it, and the new ability to easily port over Android apps might make touch even more popular going forward.
Acer says the Chromebase will be powered by an NVIDIA Tegra K1, but specific hardware details are otherwise thin right now – we don’t know how much RAM or internal storage will come with it. However, it’s said to boot up within 10 seconds, so that’s good to know.
It’ll also have two 3W speakers and HDMI-out, USB 3.0, and USB 2.0 ports, as well as 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 compatibility – also 100GB of free Google Drive storage for the first two years. No real surprises there, but again, Acer’s news release is light on some of the other specifics we’re looking for.
According to research firm Gartner, Acer is leading the pack in Chromebook sales, taking 36% of the market share in 2014, so there’s incentive for the company to explore other Chrome OS options besides laptops and its Chromebox models. We’ll have to wait for a price and date, however, but anyone considering a cheap desktop in the near future might hold off until Acer drops more details.
Read More › Chrome comes to the desktop PC
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 