Faisal Ghaffar 
Recently, there has been a new trend of launching Chromebooks targeting gamers and Acer has come up with the Chromebook 516 GE in this respect. The ‘GE’ here stands for Gaming Edition.
Design and build
Since it has been designed for gaming, it is understood that the 516 GE is not one of the compact and small Chromebooks. The aluminum chassis weighs around 1.7kg and it measures 357mm x 250mm x 21mm. Thanks to this space, the device boasts quad speakers, a 16-inch IPS display, a large trackpad and a full-size keyboard. You will also find a good selection of ports for plugging a game controller, monitor, Ethernet cable and a number of other peripherals.
It comes off as a cool device due to the iron color scheme. Under the display, there are two large exhaust ports for dissipating the heat and keeping things tolerable during busy gaming sessions. Since it is attractive and has a lightweight chassis, it also doubles as a standard Chromebook because it does not look out of place. In fact, it feels professional and durable and you can easily carry it without killing your shoulder.
Screen and speakers
The Chromebook 516 GE delivers a 16-inch LCD IPS WQXGA panel designed for gaming and it boasts a 120Hz refresh rate and 2560 x 1600 resolution. This kind of display is able to pivot between work and gaming quite seamlessly. The colors are also great and the brightness is also decent, but there is no touchscreen.
There are four speakers for providing sound, with either side of the keyboard boasting grilles as well as on the device’s underside. They have decent volume, but no immersive audio. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack, which means external speakers can be connected.
Keyboard and trackpad
The Chromebook 516 GE coms with a full-sized keyboard, which is comfortable to use and it works both for gaming and work. The colorful RGB backlighting is great for gaming and you can choose the color you want. It has a healthy size trackpad that quickly responds to gestures. If you plan on playing real-time strategy games or FPS, then you might need a gaming mouse. Otherwise, the trackpad is a solid one for day-to-day activities.
Specs and performance
The 12th-gen Intel Core i5-1240p processor that has 12-cores powers the Chromebook 516 GE, which is combined with Intel Iris Xeintegrated GPU, a 256GB SSD and 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. You can enjoy excelling gaming performance with this combination and there is absolutely no choppiness.
Battery life
While the battery life of the 516 GE might not be spectacular, but it is good enough. It can give you around five to six hours if you continuously use it for gaming. It also has a decent charging time, which works in its favor, as a full recharge does not take more than 90 minutes.
The Verdict
The large, colorful and sharp display, comfortable keyboard and excellent gaming performance makes the Chromebook 516 GE a good pick for its price of $649.99.
