Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 513
A slim and attractive convertible Chromebook, but don’t expect the last word in power
“If you can wean workers off full-fat Microsoft Office and towards web-based apps, then why not switch?”
SCORE ★★★★
PRICE £324 (£389 inc VAT) from ballicom.co.uk
T he seed of the Chromebook’s success was planted in the fertile ground of education. From an IT point of view, what’s not to like about a laptop that updates itself, can easily last a day without being plugged in and needs such minimal setup? Log in using your Google account and everything you need is on tap, with the hardware merely the portal into a cloudy swirl of applications and data.
As we stumble our way into the unpredictable world of hybrid working, those arguments resonate with businesses’ IT teams too. If you can wean workers off full-fat Microsoft Office and towards web-based apps, which typically work better for collaboration anyway, then why not switch? Those who insist on using Word and Excel can download stripped-down versions via the Play Store.
All the major laptop makers can smell the opportunity – expect to see many business-focused Chromebooks in the months to come – and whilst this updated Spin 513 (identified by part code NX.HWYEK. 001) is a minor update of what came before rather than something completely new, there is still much to commend it. Not least the inclusion of Chrome Enterprise, with the additional management tools this brings.
But this laptop’s primary attraction is surely its price. A medium-sized business could buy a dozen and roll them out to workers as a pilot without making a dent in its annual budget. Nor will users feel short-changed: there are signs that it’s a cut-price machine if you hunt for them, but a sleek 15.5mm chassis and light 1.1kg weight lend it immediate appeal. So what if only the lid is made from metal, with the rest relying on plastic? It’s robust enough to survive life in a laptop bag, and if something does go awry then it’s cheap to send out a replacement.
The glossy black bezel around the 13.3in screen adds to the sense of class, although the IPS panel falls behind the best for quality. Coverage of 78% (sRGB) with an average Delta E of 2.02 doesn’t make for dreamy colours, and I found myself pushing brightness up to its 315cd/m2 peak to make it more pleasant to read.
This will shorten battery life, and the Spin didn’t fare overly well here as it is. A time of 8hrs 20mins in our video-rundown test is okay, but we’ve seen Chromebooks that offer almost twice that. Based on my own usage, with the screen at peak brightness, I would expect around seven hours of life.
Despite this, I wouldn’t sling the 280g USB-C charger into a bag on a day trip into town, because two of the benefits Chromebooks offer come to the Spin’s aid: first that they consume little electricity while asleep, second they wake up near instantly on opening the lid. Combined, these traits give you licence to simply close the lid when you’re done tapping.
Which brings us to the keyboard. This is a typical budget offering, with little tactile feedback, no backlight and not much travel. But it’s hard to be too critical at this price, especially when it’s so quiet and the keys are large and easy to hit. Acer even lavishes the touchpad with a coating of Gorilla Glass for added smoothness. The touchscreen will come into play if you take advantage of the 360° hinge that gives this laptop its Spin moniker, although it’s a far better laptop than it is a tablet. My biggest issue is that the screen becomes so slim in tablet mode: a 16:9 aspect ratio and much bigger bezel on one side than the other makes it feel uneven.
That 1.1kg weight soon feels heavy in the hand, too.
Aside from the keyboard, another sign of this laptop’s lo w price is the Snapdragon Kyro 468 processor, which is much slower than Intel Core chips in benchmarks: compare the Acer’s score of 25 in Speedometer 2 to the 108 of the Core i5-powered Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 Chromebook ( see issue
321, p87). But, while I wouldn’t describe this Acer as nippy, it was never aggravatingly laggy.
Other cut-price inclusions are the 64GB of eMMC storage, with no microSD card slot to complement it, and it’s Wi-Fi 5 inside rather than Wi-Fi 6. Nor do you get an HDMI connector. This means the USB-C slots on either side are your only route to video output, but it’s great to see that Acer hasn’t saved a few pounds by making one of them data only. Aside from USB-C, there’s a USB-A slot, a 3.5mm audio jack and a (flimsy) volume control.
These ports mirror those of the Lenovo IdeaPad, which retains its A List spot due to its higher quality screen, an 11-hour battery life and that superior turn of pace. It’s more expensive at £530 inc VAT, but you can see the results. Still, if all you need is the basics then there’s much to like here: the Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 513 is a great machine for the price.
BAT TERY Video rundown, 8hrs 20mins
SPECIFICATIONS
Eight-core 2.1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Kyro 468 processor Adreno 618 graphics 4GB RAM 64GB eMMC storage 13.3in touchscreen 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display 720p webcam 2 x USB-C 3.1 USB-A 3.1 3.5mm headphone jack 2x2 Wi-Fi 5 Bluetooth 5 4,670mAh battery Chrome Enterprise OS 310 x 209 x 15.5mm (WDH) 1.1kg 1yr limited warranty part code NX.HWYEK.001