Acer unveils £200 Haswell-powered Chromebook C720

Chrome OS laptop available from early November via Currys and PC World

Acer has confirmed its latest Intel Haswell-powered Chromebook, the C720, will launch in the UK in early November costing £200.

Acer toted the Intel Celeron 2955U Haswell processor as a key selling point, promising the architecture will radically improve the Chromebook's performance and battery life. The C720 is listed as being able to boot in less than seven seconds and last up to 8.5 hours from a single charge.

Outside of its Haswell chipset the C720 has an 11.6in, 1366x768 HD display complete with anti-glare technology. The C720 is also thinner and lighter than previous Acer Chromebooks, measuring 19.05mm thick and weighing 1.3kg. The Acer C720 will feature single USB 3.0, USB 2.0 and HDMI ports and an SD card reader.

The C720 comes during a wider push by Google to increase interest in its Chrome OS operating system. Since launching in 2011 running on Samsung and Acer-built Chromebooks, the Chrome OS has enjoyed fairly muted market interest.

Aware of this, Google's chosen to adopt a similar strategy to the one it took with Android and has begun working more closely with manufacturers to create and market affordable Chromebooks, like the C720. The strategy has proven successful and many analyst houses have reported detecting an increase in Chrome OS' market share.

Prior to Acer, HP unveiled its own Chromebook 11. The Chromebook 11 is available in the US now and is confirmed to launch on Amazon, Google Play, HP Shopping, Currys and PC World on 21 October costing £229.

Unlike the C720 the HP Chromebook 11 does not feature a Haswell chipset and is instead powered by an Exynos 5250 processor. For a more in depth look at the HP Chromebook 11 check out V3's hands-on review.