Can you game on a Chromebook Plus?

In late 2022, I had the opportunity to try out the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. At the time, I felt that gaming Chromebooks had a lot of potential but needed more development time if they wanted to truly stand out from other Chromebooks. Roughly a year and a half later, the new Chromebook Plus 516 GE has arrived.

Does the new model — now meeting the Chromebook Plus spec and feature threshold — finally deliver on this promise? At first glance, it might be easy to say no, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair. Like most Chromebook Plus models, this is a good laptop with plenty of power; it just hasn’t reinvented the wheel much as far as Chrome OS gaming is concerned.

Let’s start by comparing the two machines. The Chromebook Plus 516 GE looks almost identical to its predecessor, with only a few minor design changes. The previous model had dark red hinges; this time, they are now black or blue, depending on the angle of the light. This looks more consistent with the main chassis and yet still helps it turn heads a bit.

The keyboard and touchpad feel about the same as I remember from the previous model. The keys are slightly mushy feeling but were fine for typing, and I actually typed this article completely on the 516 GE. There are also backlit keys, though the lighting is a little on the faint side.

Both machines are similarly sized, weigh about the same, and have all the same ports in the same positions. There is a good variety here, with a USB-A 3.2 port, two USB-C 3.2 ports, an RJ-45 port, a headphone jack, and even a full-size HDMI 2.1 port.

The display remains a 16-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600, not that I’m complaining. The colors are vibrant with sharp detail, which is important for cloud gaming in particular. Thankfully, the Plus 516 GE delivers, and I enjoyed gaming and media on this display much more than on my own aging gaming laptop’s display.

In my experience, the webcam was also a bit better than the previous model. Not only can it capture video at 60 frames per second, but it’s also surprisingly functional as a shooter when you need to snap a quick photo in a pinch, such as to ask an AI bot a question using something like ChatGPT.

I tested the Chromebook Plus 516 GE (CBG516-2H), which has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, though there are several configurations maxing out at up to a Core i7 processor and up to 2TB of storage. The base model comes with an Intel Core i5-120U, launched in early 2024, which represents a modest on-paper upgrade over its predecessor’s base processor. However, it’s unlikely to make a substantial difference in day-to-day use for most use cases, at least, and it still makes the cutoff for a Chromebook Plus spec machine.

Just like with the previous model, the new Chromebook Plus 516 GE was great for basic productivity, which included WordPress, Google Drive apps, Adobe Express, and a few other tools. It was also perfect for web browsing and could handle dozens of tabs without skipping a beat. Gaming through Google Play also works great here for Android titles that are playable on Chrome OS.

Although I don’t put much weight into benchmarks, especially for Chromebooks, I did put it through a few different basic tests for curiosity’s sake. First up, it scored 1,961 on the single-thread test and 7,211 on the multi-thread test for Geekbench 6. I also loaded up the mobile version of 3DMark Wild Life Extreme and found it scored 2,326. Both of these stats paint the picture of a machine that’s great for most users, as long as you understand its limitations.

Want more than mobile gaming from your Chromebook? You can access cloud gaming platforms like GeForce Now right out of the box, though you do have to install Xbox Game Pass manually if you prefer Microsoft’s service. The actual experience worked great, though it is obviously largely dependent on your connection at hand.

The whole gaming experience on a Chromebook Plus is going to be slightly faster and more fluid than your typical Chromebook, but you’ll really only notice this during high-demand tasks like photo/video editing and heavy games. That’s where the new Chromebook Plus 516GE shines, especially for Steam.

I’ve been a big proponent of the idea of adding Steam to Chrome, even though the effort has been slow-going and stuck in beta for a long time. When I tested Steam on the original model, it required me to go through several hoops that included setting the OS to beta and changing a few flags before I could even install the also-in-beta Steam application. The experience felt much more intuitive this time around. As long as your hardware is officially supported, getting started with the popular online marketplace is as easy as typing “Steam” into the OS search bar. From there, you follow a few prompts and before long, you’re in business.

While the Steam app itself is still labeled as a beta experience, it felt much more stable. I tested many of the same games I used on the last model and found that while some of the same games crashed heavily, there were more than a few games I got working that I wasn’t able to in the past.

Even the games that worked okay on last year’s model could be prone to finicky behavior. I was able to get Fallout 4 running on the older model, but I had to crank down the visual settings to low and change the resolution to 720p if I wanted consistent frame rates that averaged 30fps or better. It would also run at 1080p if I were willing to accept much harsher frame dips. Anything higher was virtually unplayable.

The new Chromebook Plus can actually run in native resolution at the lowest settings with just slightly worse dips than I used to get on Fallout 4 in 1080p on the predecessor model. It can run in 1080p at medium settings with slightly better performance but a few occasional dips. The game runs best set to low in 1080p if you want the smoothest experience. I played the game for almost four hours in total and had notable issues. I suspect that things like mods would break it in a heartbeat, though.

You might not be impressed that this Chromebook can run a game that’s now about nine years old, but it illustrates that many classic older games and newer indie titles can be played through Steam on Chrome OS with performance that is roughly in line with what you’d get from a similarly spec’d Windows laptops. Games like Stardew Valley worked flawlessly, for example. It’s really just the CPU and GPU that are holding back Chrome OS at this point, and not necessarily the underlying OS.

The previous model drained relatively fast with gaming sessions, but battery life has thankfully improved a bit here. I remember messing around with Steam depleted the previous model in just an hour or so, but this time I was able to play Fallout 4 for about two hours before I had to plug it in. With more average use, like working and watching some YouTube videos, I found it could last around 9 to 10 hours on a single charge.

Aside from the hardware, Chromebook software also continues to improve. This is especially true for Chromebook Plus models, which are built with Gemini Advanced in mind.

Although you can technically use the free version of Gemini, the Chromebook 516 GE gives you a free 12-month trial of Gemini Advanced, which opens up a bunch of new functionality for your Chromebook, including HTML code generation, the ability to make GIFs, help with your writing, and even lets you make wallpapers. The Magic Editor is also onboard here, making it easier than ever to cut out unnecessary background abstractions from your favorite photos. You’ll also find a Gemini shortcut prominently in at least a few places within the UI, such as the apps menu.

If you are interested in a Chromebook that can handle your business and casual needs, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is perfect as long as your apps and services of choice are either available directly through the web, as an Android app, or can be sideloaded through the Chromebook’s Linux compatibility layer.

As a gaming device? Chromebooks aren’t still ready to take the gaming world by storm. Just like I said previously, this is more on Google than Acer. Steam support is still a beta feature that’s sort of “try at your own risk” as results can vary from game to game. Additionally, the death of Stadia makes the whole cloud gaming angle a little harder to sell, even if it plays nicely with all the major 3rd party cloud platforms.

If you really want a gaming laptop, you’re better off sticking to Windows. If you view cloud gaming, mobile gaming, and limited Steam gaming as nice extras that you’ll use on the road but don’t plan on the Chromebook Plus being your main gaming portal? Sure, it’s a wonderful multipurpose machine that’s really easy to recommend.