Acer Chromebook Plus 516 review: Affordable and reliable

If you want to pick up one of the best laptops on the market right now, then Chromebooks are going to have a certain appeal: they're lightweight, affordable, simple to use, and perfect for everyday computing – if all you need is a web browser and a few Android apps.

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 is first and foremost a device from a brand name with a lot of experience in laptops, and a lot of experience in Chromebooks too – there's a certain amount of trust and reputation involved even before you've opened up the box.

After a couple of weeks of reviewing the Acer Chromebook Plus 516, I've had the daily experience to provide a very good idea whether or not it's the right fit for you. I've covered everything from performance and battery life, to display and how well the ChromeOS software functions.

Price & Availability

You can buy the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 right now: it's available for around £300 / $400 at the time of writing, though check the widgets embedded above for the most up-to-date pricing. If you're in the UK, you can pick up the laptop from retailers including Amazon and Currys.

Design & Display

One of the reasons to buy the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 over another Chromebook is the big, 16-inch screen.

It's decently bright and sharp – though this is LCD, so not the quality of OLED for those richer blacks – and runs at a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels.

It's a slightly unusual 16:10 aspect ratio, which is better for web browsing and writing, but not so good for widescreen movies. Still, this is most likely to be a word processing productivity machine, so it makes sense enough.

The screen is actually more vibrant and richer than you might expect from a laptop at this price, and I'd say it's a definite plus point: it's going to serve you well whether you're bingeing Netflix shows or trying to work out some calculations on a spreadsheet.

You don't get the luxury of a touchscreen, however, and the bezels are relatively chunky by today's standards. Those are the display's biggest letdowns.

Aside from the display, this is a fairly chunky, plastic-feeling laptop – you do feel the cheapness in some areas, but you won't be embarrassed to pull this out in the local coffee shop.

It tips the scales at 1.7kgs, so considering its size, it's not too much of a struggle to lug it around under your arm or in a bag.

The laptop offers a decent selection of ports, including two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, a 3.5mm combination headphone and microphone port, and a full-size HDMI 1.4 port – so it's simple enough to connect to a television or an external monitor.

There's also a decent 1080p webcam, including a privacy shutter that's embedded in the top bezel, so you get added peace of mind.

Features & Performance

It's worth saying that the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 is available in several configurations. I've reviewed the cheapest and lowest-spec available: an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.

That's fine for most web and Android tasks, but an Intel Core i5 version can be bought too, if you want to spend a bit more.

Even the most basic specs mean this Acer laptop qualifies as a Chromebook Plus model, a badge that Google gives out to laptops that can comfortably handle the latest apps, websites, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Speaking of AI, if you invest in this laptop, you also get a year's free subscription to Google AI Pro (usually £19 or $20 a month). So that adds to the value – although you may then feel stuck in a cycle of paying if you fill it beyond your laptop's on-board storage capacity!

Through all my regular work in all my regular web apps – Gmail, Slack, Google Docs, YouTube, YouTube Music, Feedly – the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 didn't skip a beat, handling everything I threw at it, including a handful of Android games.

Another bonus: the laptop stayed nice and quiet and cool during operation. Okay, you're not going to be able to play the very best games on a Chromebook, but you also avoid the laptop noise and heat that often comes with such tasks.

When it comes to battery life, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 certainly isn't the best out there.

For general use, I was getting around 5-6 hours of use between charges, so you might just about be able to eke out a working day of battery away from a power supply, but not much more than that.

Streaming a movie for 90 minutes with the sound off and the display set to the maximum possible brightness led to a 24% drop in battery life, which averages out to around 6-7 hours of video playback in general.

You can dim the screen to get that higher, of course, but this won't be breaking any battery life records. That's partly down to the processor generation, as these have improved rapidly in recent years.

As for the typing and trackpad experience: I was impressed with the quality in this department, given the laptop's price. It's not the best ever, mind, but it's a good middle ground.

Trackpads can often be a weaknesses of cheap Chromebooks, but this one felt reasonably solid – both it and the keyboard keys have a smooth, reliable feel.

Audio is supplied by a couple of nondescript speakers, and comes across as rather tinny. It'll do a job for you in terms of video and podcast dialogue, and maybe some background music at a push, but if you're at all interested in sound quality then you'll want to connect up a pair of the best headphones.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 review: Verdict

In conclusion, let's start off with the biggest appeal: the price. You won't find many genuinely usable laptops cheaper than this one. That alone makes the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 a winner.

This Acer is more than just 'usable', though, it's actually pretty good in a lot of areas – and that means it's certainly one of the better-value Chromebooks you're going to come across at this screen size.

There are always going to be trade-offs at this grade, though. A Chromebook is no MacBook Air in terms of design and build. The battery life, audio, and build quality are all fairly average, too, while the core spec is somewhat basic – so keep your expectations in check.

However, if you're looking for a lightweight and capable ChromeOS device with a big display, then despite some compromises, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 ultimately won't let you down.

This is a laptop I'd be happy to use myself extensively, for doing work at home, in the office, and on the go, and that's always a good sign when a review period comes to an end. It also does really well at showcasing the benefits of ChromeOS, and the continuing improvements Google is making with its Gemini AI.

Also consider

There are, of course, a lot of Chromebooks and Windows laptop alternatives to pick from. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is more expensive than your average Chromebook, but you do get some extra power and visual style in return.

You can also drop down ever so slightly from the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 to the Acer Chromebook Plus 515. As the names suggest, these models are very similar: the main difference is that the 515 has a 15-inch display and, therefore, a smaller asking price.