Acer adds £250 C720P touchscreen model to Chromebook lineup

Chromebook C720P adds touch input capability to Acer's Chrome OS laptop line

Acer has extended its line of laptops based on Google's Chrome OS with a new model that adds touchscreen capability at a price of €299.99 (£250).

Announced on Wednesday, the Chromebook C720P joins the Chromebook C720, which was launched last month, and the existing Chromebook C710. It will be available in early December in the UK, plus Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland.

Acer claims the Chromebook C720P is the industry's first touchscreen Chromebook, apparently unaware of the existence of Google's own Chromebook Pixel that launched earlier this year.

As you might expect, the new model is otherwise similar in specifications to the C720 models, powered by an Intel Celeron 2955U processor based on the latest Haswell architecture with an 11.6in 1366x768 resolution display.

Weighing 1.3kg, the Chromebook C720P has 2GB of DDR3 memory and a 32GB solid state drive (SSD) that enables it to boot up in less than seven seconds, according to Acer. It sports both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, along with an HDMI output for an external display and 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi for connectivity.

Acer said Buyers will be able to access up to 100GB of free Google Drive storage for the first two years after purchase, so files, documents, photos and more are stored safely in the cloud. The firm claims it has a battery life of up to 7.5 hours.

"Our new touchscreen C720P gives customers an intuitive way to browse sites online, enjoy apps, and do more with the Chromebook," said John Miedema, director of Acer's business product unit in EMEA.