Acer Chromebook 516 GE review: A cloud gaming powerhouse

Gaming Chromebooks feel like a concept that should have died with Google Stadia, but they’ve persevered. That makes more sense than it seems. Stadia is gone but its competitors, like Nvidia GeForce Now, PlayStation Now, and Xbox Game Cloud, are thriving, and they all work well on Chrome OS. They make the 516 GE a viable gaming machine and, despite a few imperfections, it’s also a pleasant laptop for casual use and office productivity.

Looking for more options? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best Chromebooks.

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Specs and features

The star of the show is the Core i5-1240P processor. Although it’s now a couple of generations old, it has 12 processor cores and a maximum clock speed of up to 4.4 GHz. It’s paired with a reasonable 8GB of RAM and a 256 GB solid-state drive. 

• CPU: Intel Core i5-1240P
• Memory: 8GB LPDDR4x 
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Xe Integrated
• Display: 16-inch 2560×1600 120Hz LED
• Storage: 256GB 
• Webcam: 1080p
• Connectivity: 2x USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 1x HDMI, 1x Ethernet, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capacity: 65 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.0 x 9.8 x .84 inches
• Weight: 3.75 pounds
• MSRP: $649.99

The 516 GE, with an MSRP of $650, is towards the high end of Chromebook pricing but remains affordable. This is the only configuration Acer currently offers. 

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Design and build quality

My first thought when I unboxed the Acer Chromebook 516 GE was, “Wow, this feels old-school.” Chromebooks are typically associated with portable, lightweight, and inexpensive systems, but the 516 GE is a beefy laptop with a 16-inch display. It’s also far from the slimmest laptop at 0.84 inches thick, and it measures 14 inches wide. Weight deviates from the script, though: at just 3.75 pounds, the 516 GE is light for its size.

It all makes for a laptop that feels a bit outdated, but there are benefits to this design. The most obvious is the build quality. Though it retails for $650 and can at times be found for quite a bit less than that, the 516 GE is solid. The chassis is rigid and even the display lid allows little flex when the laptop is opened and closed.

I also think it’s a handsome laptop despite its old-school vibe. I like the shade of gray chosen for the laptop, and the materials used have a nice metallic luster. I also enjoy the subtle matte stripe that adorns the display lid, giving the laptop a slight flourish without looking garish. 

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Keyboard, trackpad

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE has a spacious keyboard without a numpad. Ditching the numpad means Acer can keep the keyboard aligned with the center of the laptop and provides plenty of space around and below the keyboard to make it comfortable. I usually prefer this design, and it feels especially good on a Chromebook, as the operating system’s focus on the web browser makes the numpad less necessary.

Key feel, however, is merely OK. Each key provides a reasonable amount of travel and activates with a thunk, but key action is soft and lacks a pleasant, tactile snap. It’s also quiet, which some people may like, but I prefer more audible feedback from a keyboard. It’s a serviceable and comfortable keyboard but average on the whole.

The same is true of the touchpad, which measures about 5 inches wide and 3 inches deep. That’s enough room to navigate Chrome OS and to activate multitouch gestures, but it’s not a large touchpad for a modern 16-inch laptop. I do appreciate the well-defined border around the touchpad, which made it clear when my fingers had reached the edge of its limited surface.

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Display, audio

Acer ships every Chromebook 516 GE with a 16-inch display boasting a resolution of 2560×1600 and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The display uses In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology and has a conventional LED backlight. 

The display’s contrast and color reproduction are enough to make games look reasonably vibrant and pleasant. However, with OLED displays now coming to laptops sold for well under $1,000, there’s definitely superior image quality available from laptops just slightly above the 516 GE’s price bracket. Compared to an OLED display, the 516 GE’s IPS LED display lacks a sense of immersion and dimensionality, and has particular trouble with dark scenes.

On the plus side, the display is bright and has a matte coat instead of the glossy finish of most OLED panels. It’s also a sharp display with a pixel density of approximately 189 pixels per inch (PPI), which is higher than a 27-inch 4K display. All of the above makes the display easy to use day-to-day. Glare is rarely an issue and small text is rendered as legibly as possible.

Let’s not forget the price. It is true that an OLED display can be found in a laptop that’s a couple hundred dollars more, but a couple hundred dollars can feel like a lot if you’re shopping in this price range. Most laptops sold at this price have a 1080p display, which is fine, but definitely not as sharp as 1600p.

What about motion clarity? It’s not bad. Upgrading from 60Hz to 120Hz is a significant improvement that helps games look crisp when they achieve high frame rates. That is certainly possible with cloud gaming through Nvidia GeForce Now, which supports 1440p at 120Hz (at some paid tiers). 

A pair of upward-firing speakers line each side of the 516 GE keyboard and hint at good audio performance, but they don’t live up to expectations. Audio is clear and direct at low to moderate volume but becomes muddy and harsh at high volume. The speakers work well enough for listening to music in the background, but gamers are going to want to put on some headphones or attach external speakers.

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE’s 1080p webcam looks good on paper, but it’s mediocre in practice. Despite the increase in resolution, video still looks soft and grainy, and it’s nowhere near the image quality I’ve seen in many recent laptops with a 1080p webcam. It’s fine for Zoom, but that’s it.

I was disappointed by the microphone array, which is not up to current standards. The microphones allow a lot of background noise to creep in. It works well enough if you’re in a quiet room, but if there’s any sort of background noise in your space, the people on the other end of the video call are likely to hear it.

Biometric login is not available on the 516 GE, which is expected given its price. Few laptops sold around $600 have a fingerprint reader or support facial recognition.

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Connectivity

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE doesn’t skimp on connectivity. It features two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports, both of which support USB Power Delivery for charging and DisplayPort for connecting an external monitor. These ports are conveniently located, one on each side of the laptop, which is helpful when you have a charger with a short cable.

The USB-C ports are complemented by one USB-A port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. That means it’s possible to use a wired keyboard, mouse, monitor, headset, and Ethernet simultaneously without relying on an adapter. 

Wireless connectivity is solid, too, with Wi-Fi 6E alongside Bluetooth 5.2. It’s technically behind the state of the art, since Wi-Fi 7 is now certified, but it’s not expected at this price point. Wi-Fi 6E is more than adequate for cloud gaming when it’s paired with a powerful router. 

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Performance

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE I received had an Intel Core i5-1240P processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid state drive. These are technically outdated specifications for a laptop sold in 2024, but that’s less relevant to a Chromebook, as games are played in the crowd. And it turns out the 516 GE’s performance is actually rather good for the price.

• CrXPRT 2: 203
• Speedometer 2.0: 304
• Speedometer 3.0: 16.2
• Basemark Web 3.0: 1477.56
• Kraken: 455.8
• Jetstream 2: 261.094

Our usual slate of browser-based ChromeOS benchmark returns excellent results on the Chromebook 516 GE. It outruns other gaming Chromebooks we’ve recently reviewed, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook, as well as premium alternatives like the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook. 

What about game performance?

First, I want to be crystal clear: the 516 GE is not designed to play games locally. Instead, it’s meant to be used with a cloud gaming service (like Nvidia GeForce Now, PlayStation Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Amazon Luna) or with a service that streams gameplay from another PC on your local network (like Parsec and Steam Remote Play). 

A few games are playable on ChromeOS, but they’re mostly titles made available through Android emulation, and they don’t offer a great experience. In fact, the 516 GE is a bad choice for Android emulation because it lacks a touchscreen, which many Android games require.

Because of this, the 516 GE’s excellent performance doesn’t really matter. All it needs to do is display a video stream at up to 1600p resolution and 120 frames per second, and that’s little challenge for an Intel Core i5-1240P with Iris Xe graphics. Gameplay felt perfectly smooth in my testing, and Nvidia’s GeForce Now diagnostics panel flagged no problems.

Ultimately, your experience playing games on the 516 GE depends more on the strength of your Internet connection and the capabilities of the cloud gaming service you use than on the hardware inside the 516 GE. 

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Battery life

A 65 watt-hour battery powers the Acer Chromebook 516 GE away from a socket. It’s not especially large, but ChromeOS sips power, which helps the battery stretch its life to a healthy 14 hours and 21 minutes.

That’s a bit less than the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook, which came just four minutes shy of 16 hours, but it remains a respectable result. The 516 GE should handle a full eight-hour work day in nearly all situations, and will often have some juice left in the tank.

The 516 GE’s real-world battery life also benefits from the lack of local tasks that might greatly tax the hardware, which tends to improve real-world battery life. 

Gaming on a local GPU often spells doom for battery life: in some cases a Windows gaming laptop with an RTX 4080 or 4090 GPU can suck down a full charge in about one hour. That’s not a problem for the 516 GE, however, because gaming happens in the cloud. It’s no more demanding than watching YouTube or streaming Netflix.

Acer Chromebook 516 GE: Conclusion

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a solid choice for fans of cloud gaming services and a good all-around Chromebook for anyone seeking a large display or performance that punches above the average Chrome OS machine. It suffers a few shortcomings, such as a mediocre keyboard, surprisingly bad speakers, and a display that, while extremely sharp, lacks contrast and immersion. Still, with an MSRP of $650 and sale pricing that often dips a bit below that, the 516 GE is a good value. It’s a fit not only for fans of cloud gaming but also ChromeOS die-hards looking for a larger, more powerful, yet reasonably priced Chromebook.