While not the overall best Chromebook of the year, the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 definitely goes down as one of the most surprising to me. If you recall, we had a prior Acer Chromebook Plus 514 with AMD processors inside at the end of 2023, so when another Chromebook Plus 514 arrived with some small changes, I wasn't expecting much.

To my surprise, however, I really enjoyed this different spin on the 514 from Acer. Corners were cut, sure, but the overall experience of using this Chromebook shocked me with how great it really is. Versus the version that came before, it loses keyboard backlighting and moves to a 16:9 instead of a 16:10 screen. But the rest of the story is about improvement.

While the original 514 had a dim 250 nit screen, this newer model swaps that out for a 300 panel. The Core i3-N305 feels like a bit of an upgrade, too, and jamming 512GB of storage inside it means it is by far the cheapest Chromebook with this amount of space without question.

With a punchy, bright touchscreen, decent keyboard, and large, smooth OceanGlass trackpad, this Chromebook quietly gets the important stuff right. It's not a mind-blowing device that jumps out with multiple superlatives; but it does all the stuff that you need to make for a great experience.

While it was marked down to $249.99 for a while when it first debuted, that deal has given way to the full $349.99 MSRP most days. At that price, it's still a great buy, but any time it dips even a bit, this Chromebook is really worth considering.

Right now at Walmart, the price has dropped by $25 (It was down $37 a day ago) and with the way Walmart moves prices around, it could dip a bit more at any given moment. So if you are looking for an understated Chromebook that is primed to deliver a fantastic experience and comes packed with all sorts of storage space, you should check out the Acer Chromebook Plus 514. You won't regret it.