Acer Chromebook 311 (2026) Revew

Introduction

Acer has refreshed its dinkiest Chromebook model for the first time in a while, with the brand new Chromebook 311 (2026).

This new model is one of the first in Acer’s lineup to feature the eight-core MediaTek Kompanio 540 processor, and touts up to 15 hours of battery life alongside an 11.6-inch 1366×768 IPS screen, a solid port selection, a snappy keyboard and more besides.

Prices start at £299/$499.99, which makes it one of the cheaper Chromebooks of its kind, alongside the Acer Chromebook Spin 312 and HP Chromebook x2 11, even if US pricing pushes it up somewhat.

To see whether this dinky Acer choice is one of the best Chromebooks we’ve tested, I’ve been putting it through its paces for the last week or so.

Design and Keyboard

• Compact plastic frame
• Reasonable ports for such a small laptop
• Snappy keyboard, but a cramped trackpad

The Chromebook 311 (2026) is virtually identical in look to its Spin-suffixed brother, with a very portable form factor and compact chassis. The all-black plastic finish is okay for the price, although it is a cheaper one in places, plus there is a bit of flex at the corners when pressed, and on the keyboard deck, too, although, as this is a cheaper laptop, I don’t mind too much. 

It tips the scales at 1.17kg, which is lightweight for any laptop, let alone one this small, and the 11-inch screen size makes this easily portable in a rucksack or bag. On the inside, I’m not a big fan of the large bezels around the screen, though, which give this Chromebook a bit of a dated look.

The port selection on the Chromebook 311 (2026) is serviceable for such a small laptop. Each side is home to a USB-C port and a USB-A port each, plus the right side has a headphone jack, too. The larger Chromebook Spin 312 model I tested last year supplements this with an HDMI and SD card reader, making it a better choice overall.

The keyboard deck of this laptop is a smaller form factor, complete with arrow keys and a function row. The keys themselves have decent tactility to them, and it’s reasonably easy to get up to speed with them. There isn’t any form of backlighting for after-dark working, though. The trackpad is on the smaller side, and owing to the lack of vertical space, can feel quite restrictive before too long.

For the benefit of repairability and because this is a device designed for harsh educational environments, the USB-C ports here are serviceable (a feature borrowed from business laptops that are a lot more expensive than this one, such as the Dell Pro Max 16 Plus), while the keyboard deck is easily replaceable, too. 

The laptop also comes in plastic-free packaging and is somewhat assembled with PCR plastics to give it some sustainability cred.

Display and Sound

• 1366×768 resolution isn’t too brilliant
• Reasonable brightness and colours
• Okay speakers

Acer hasn’t fiddled around with the Chromebook 311 (2026)’s screen on the face of it against the older models, as it’s stuck with the 11.6-inch IPS panel from before, complete with its 1366×768 resolution. This makes it feel very dated against this Chromebook’s rivals, not least with huge bezels surrounding the panel.

This ‘HD Ready’ resolution on offer is what makes this screen feel subpar, not least in 2026. Even the Chromebook Spin 312 and other more compact choices have a Full HD screen with a fair amount more detail. The lower resolution leaves it lacking detail, and it can feel a little fuzzy at times. 

There isn’t a quoted brightness figure for the Chromebook 311 (2026)’s display, although it feels a little dimmer than our usual 300 nit target to my eye when put at full blast. You’ll want to stay indoors with this laptop, though, as it isn’t the punchiest of panels. Colours look reasonable to my eye, but owing to the lower brightness, there is an element of the panel that feels a smidgen washed out.

The dual speakers are downwards-firing and are mostly mids, as you’d expect from a cheaper laptop. They’re okay for casual viewing, but little beyond that. For more extended listening, utilise the headphone jack on the right-hand side.

Performance

• Okay performance for casual tasks
• 4GB of RAM is low in 2025
• eMMC storage is a shame

The Chromebook 311(2026) is one of Acer’s first Chromebooks to ship with the MediaTek Kompanio 540 processor. This is one of MediaTek’s latest low-power mobile chips that features eight cores, including two Arm Cortex-A78 ‘big cores’ and six Arm Cortex-A55 cores, plus a dual-core GPU.

It’s not a chip that’s necessarily designed for outright grunt, and is more for zippy performance for basic tasks where it’s needed. Think of it as a competitor to Intel’s N-series of chips – quiet, but efficient.

The scores that the Chromebook 311 (2026) achieved in the customary Geekbench 6 test were similar to those of an Intel N100 in the same test in the larger and convertible Chromebook Spin 312 I’ve tested in the past. The multi-core result is a bit lower than I expected, owing to the quantity of cores this MediaTek chip has over the N100.

With this in mind, outright speed and performance aren’t the name of the game for the Chromebook 311 (2026). Its purpose is to be a portable and efficient laptop for light productivity loads, which it performs decently well. I didn’t experience too much of a slowdown while using multiple Chrome tabs for Google Docs, Spotify and more in using it for work

My particular configuration comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage, providing solid RAM headroom for multitasking and reasonable storage, considering that most of your work is likely to be in the cloud, rather than stored locally. It would have been nice to see solid-state storage in 2026 on a more affordable device, though. 

Software

• Lightweight and clean ChromeOS install
• No Chromebook Plus features

The first thing to note with the Chromebook 311 (2026) is that it runs ChromeOS, meaning it’s got a clean and lightweight UI with no real bloatware pre-installed, that’s easy to get your way around and jump into apps such as Google’s G-Suite of productivity apps.

This specific Chromebook 311 (2026) model also doesn’t meet the Chromebook Plus minimum spec requirements, although even with those models that do, they’ve made the decision not to designate this laptop as one. This also means we aren’t getting new features such as Help Me Read, the Quick Insert key or Magic Eraser, for instance.

There is one benefit to this being a newer model, as it comes with Google’s new Quick Insert key, where the Caps Lock is, which opens a Spotlight Search-style menu which can be used for everything from inserting a link to looking up files.

Battery Life

• Lasted for 15 hours 56 minutes in the battery test
• Capable of lasting for between one and two working days

The Chromebook 311 (2026) comes with a modest 45Whr battery, which isn’t the biggest, it must be said. Owing to the increase in efficiency that MediaTek has touted from the processor inside this laptop, Acer is quoting up to 15 hours of runtime from this laptop before it’ll conk out.

In running a Full HD video loop test at around 50 percent brightness, this small Chromebook lasted for 15 hours and 52 minutes. Intriguingly, that’s some two hours longer than the Spin variant, in spite of them virtually being identical devices, and longer than Acer’s own claims. It also means you may just be able to squeeze two eight-hour working days out of the device away from the mains, if you can cope with a lower brightness figure.

The Chromebook 311 (2026) also comes with a dinky 45W USB-C charger that’s one of the smallest I’ve seen with any laptop, and it was decent at putting charge back into the laptop’s battery. A 50 percent charge took 40 minutes, while a full charge took 88 minutes.

Should you buy it?

FAQs