We analyze the Chromebook Spin 514, the first of Acer with Ryzen Mobile

Acer Chromebook Spin 514 is an ideal user model that seeks to enter the Google ecosystem for PCs.The latest version for 2021 announced in the CES of Las Vegas, is a semi -resistant convertible for the mid -range of the market, with chassis and premium finish, good performance based on the Ryzen Mobile of AMD and marketed at a tight price for itsfeatures.

Chromebooks have long been a real alternative to Windows and Macos in almost all fields of use.They are the best-selling Linux base teams, they have been able to beat the almighty Windows in some segments such as the educational one and in 2020 it was the platform that grew the most when the confinements by the Covid pandemic forced to acquire infrastructure for teleworking, study on-Line and leisure at home.

Like Google, the Chrome OS operating system has been improving in the ten years of the Chromebooks, to bring it closer to what a classic desk offers and increasing compatibility with Android and Linux applications, manufacturers who support the platform have also goneincreasing the hardware level.

If in the beginning these equipment used ARM chipsets for entry range, today they use the latest X86 generations of AMD or Intel.In fact, this spin 514 is Acer Chromebook that uses Ryzen Mobile processors.The manufacturer has kindly gave us a unit for test and there we leave you our impressions.

Acer Chromebook Spin 514, specifications

Modelo	Spin 514 CP514-1H (nuevo de 2021)
Pantalla	IPS multitáctil de 14 pulgadas – Gorilla Glass
Resolución	FHD – 1920 x 1080 píxeles – 60 Hz
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3500C
GPU	AMD Radeon Vega 8
Memoria	8 Gbytes DDR4
Almacenamiento	SSD 128 Gbytes
Conectividad	Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.02 puertos USB 3.2 Tipo A1 puertos USB 3.2 Tipo CHDMIBloqueo Kensington
Varios	MIL-STD 810G, Altavoces estéreo, micrófonos
Batería	Iones de litio de 3 celdas 56 Wh
Dimensiones	322 x 225 x 17 mm. 1,65 kg de peso
Sistema Operativo	Chrome OS

Diseño

It is difficult to highlight in design due to the infinite offer of laptops of all fur (and very similar) offered by the industry.This Acer Chromebook Spin 514 tries with a quality finish on an aluminum chassis and beveled edges on the lid (and in the touchpad) that give it a more refined look.It is topped in a ‘Mist Green‘ color, where the green dye is almost imperceptible and more seems dark gray.The lid is printed the brand and symbol of the Chromebooks.For our attractive taste and a great leap on the input level chromebooks where polycarbonate materials abound.

Like any convertible, it has a hinge system that allows you to turn the screen up to 360 degrees to place it on the keyboard and favor the different modes of use of this type of equipment: laptop, tablet or the intermediates of 'tent' for presentations for presentationsor multimedia.

The hinges are perceived robust, in a feeling of solidity at any angle that plays it, which is accentuated since the equipment has the military level certification MIL-STD-810 against blows, falls, vibrations and temperature changes.

Its weight is higher than that of a laptop with the same screen size, but does not differ too much from other mid -range convertibles.The same as its thickness, more ‘chubby’ than a laptop, but in our opinion compensated for its greater versatility of use and the degree of resistance.

The external ports that we will see in the following section are well located on the sides, as well as the two ventilation nozzles next to the hinges where the hot air of the cash cooling system that includes is expelled.

An interesting design feature is that as you open the angle of the screen, the back of the convertible rises.This not only provides additional air flow, but also slightly inclines the keyboard to facilitate writing experience while you are on a desktop.

The lower cover is performed in polycarbonate and can be removed by acting in 10 TORX screws that allows us to access the interior of the maintenance / update equipment.It has four feet support, well located and integrated in the set, along with other air exits and speakers, in a position that is not ideal as we will see later.

Pantalla

The screen offers a 14 -inch diagonal, an ideal size looking for the balance between mobility and productivity.Mount an IPS panel, with multitactile technology, FHD native resolution and 16: 9 aspect ratio.The side bezels are quite reduced, somewhat less the superior when including the webcam and microphones, while the lower bezel has a huge size for a discreet screen-body relationship of 78%.The screen is protected by the Corning Glass Gorilla layer.As for the digitizer, it works very well and the laptop reacts perfectly to the tactile use.

While color treatment or vision angles are adequate, the maximum brightness level (in the 210 nits environments) is too low for exterior use.Nor does it stand out especially in contrast, or support for color palettes, although in this section it was to foresee because the objective of this convertible is not the image edition.On the other hand, the white funds are ‘clean’ and the sharpness is good at the edges of the letters and icons.

The screen leaves us bittersweet sensations.The necessary cost savings to bring the convertible to the mid -range may have influenced the choice of panel.Demanding users who seek something better in this section will have to opt for the upper model, a Chromebook Spin 713 with remarkable screen, which also offers an aspect ratio 3: 2 much more suitable for daily production tasks.

Teclado, conectividad y autonomía

The keyboard is one of the components that we liked most about Acer Chromebook Spin 514.The concave keys help keep the fingers in place, while the soft touch finish facilitates the task to which we have to ‘pound’ intensely.Very comfortable to use with a 1.6 mm key tour, allows you to write without failures and we get good results with the 10Fastfingers test that we use for the tests.

It also has backlight, automatically igniting when you play it.Its design follows the Chromebooks standard, with a dedicated search / menu key, browser controls, brightness and volume.The touchpad accompanies the keyboard.It is large, and it is fast, sensitive, precise and soft.Although surely add a mouse for laptops to the equation when you work on the desktop, the input peripherals of this Acer Chromebook Spin 514 shine at a high level.

The connectivity section also leaves us mixed results.External ports and exits are adequate, but it is not reasonable that a convertible (mid-range up) arrives in 2021 without updating a standard as important as Wi-Fi 6.Don't misunderstand us;The double-band Wi-Fi 5 does not work bad.

Nor can lte mobile broadband equip.This function is always an option, but it would not have been badly offering it taking into account the internet approach and the Chrome Os.The lack of Thunderbolt 4 is less important for a Chromebook and the full -size HDMI output that it incorporates is enough to connect the equipment to an external screen.

On the left side we find a USB type-C port used for energy food, a USB type A port (3.1), a combined connector for 3.5 mm microphone / microphone, a microSD card slot and the ignition button.

On the right side we have another USB port C (USB 3.1), a Kensington lock slot, the HDMI digital video output, a second USB-A port and volume control.Enough.

Acer Chromebook Spin 514 has stereo speakers at the bottom of the equipment.Its sound is clear, but quite metallic, without serious and tends to distort when you upload the volume, something that on the other hand is typical in most laptops.We use headphones and get better performance.

Nor does the webcam stand out with simple HD resolution.Taking into account the increase in the use of videoconference, it would not be more than manufacturers to pay greater attention to this component, but we already say that - except honorable exceptions - and as in the case of sound, the lack of quality affects themajority of laptops segment.

We liked the autonomy offered by the convertible.In reproduction of YouTube videos we approach the figures promised by the 10 -hour manufacturer, while for general tasks with 70% brightness we get half 7 hours of use on average.Obtain a complete 0 to 100% load will need just over two hours.There are other better chromebooks in this section, although they are not convertible or set up the AMD CPUS.

Rendimiento

The choice of a Ryzen Mobile is a success.It is the first time that Acer Monta this architecture in a Chromebook and the best thing we can say is that he has offered us a solid and sufficient performance for any task of a team under Chrome Os.

And that the Ryzen 5 3500C is not the latest or the most advanced AMD for laptops, but has four nuclei and eight native processing threads with frequency work of up to 3 up to 3.8 GHz, 4 mbytes of third level cache and a Radeon Vega graph with eight execution and frequency units of 1.2 GHz, which as in the CPU section is more than enough to move this convertible with solvency with solvency.

This helps the 8 gbytes of RAM that mounts.Welcome taking into account the ‘tragon’ that is Chrome in the memory section when we have many open tabs in the browser.And we have had many in the tests.Internal storage based on PCIE solid state storage also remarkable.A great advance against EMMC storage that Chromebooks use in the low range and that should be banish as soon as possible.

Although Chrome does not need as much hardware level and Windows to perform tasks and beyond the results of the synthetic tests, we were more interested in the real experience of use that we will see in the next section, we have executed some tests such as Geekbench obtaining resultssimilar to those of other teams with the same processor and - obviously - much superior to that which a chromebook can ob.

The same with the work 3.0 Mark PC, which scores rendering or searches on web pages, image edition and video to different resolutions and frames per second, documents or presentations, file loading.PDF, data manipulation in spreadsheets and other tasks in which we work normally.

We already say that the general behavior of the team has been remarkable and the Ryzen Mobile, without being from the latest generation of AMD is a very suitable chip for this team.

Experiencia de uso con el Acer Chromebook Spin 514

The implementation of the convertible is as simple as that of any Chromebook and Trivial for anyone who uses a Google application, since you only need to introduce your credentials.Once the language and keyboard to be used, we connect to a wireless network for Internet access and define the profile (labor or personal) that we are going to use starting session with a Google account or a phone, in a similar way to how we wouldWhen using the chrome browser.

The authentication of two factors incorporated sends a notice to your smartphone to improve security.Acting the Smart Lock function, you can unlock the computer account without writing your password.After selecting the synchronization elements, in a second you will find yourself in a desk as minimalist as a familiar if you use the Google browser.Not for anything Chrome is the version of the browser "with steroids" and support for web applications, although in recent times it has been approaching what a more traditional desk offers.Without the bloatware that abounds in Windows, by the way.

The purchase of any Chromebook has exclusive advantages in the purchase of Google or third -party apps or services.You have a free year of the Google One (100 GB capacity) cloud storage service;Three free months of the Stadia Pro or three months Game Service of YouTube Premium.Approve them if you estimate it.

The team starts cold in about eight seconds.Most of the time of use we have passed it in the Chrome browser sailing through dozens of open eyelashes and this convertible passes the test with solvency.It also complies with computer productivity, creation of documents or presentations, or in the multimedia section, reproducing videos and others in what is its preferential use.

We have taken advantage of the Subscription Gift to Stadia Pro to resume the Google Game Platform.This Acer is a team of sufficient benefits for streaming services, in cloud, on demand and in general online for games on platforms such as Stadia that work independently of any operating system or even hardware.Google Stadia is still ‘Green’, but in a few years, once the new game distribution methods are consolidated, the Chromebooks will save the distance that a team offers with Windows.

And of course Android.If Microsoft is on the way to supporting it in Windows 11 with the new Android subsystem, here comes standard with the support for play store and install and run apps and games of the Google mobile system is as simple as we do in a smartphone.

And if you use an Android mobile you can check how the union with the Chromebook is total.For example, the Phone Hub function has an integrated control center that brings key telephone capabilities, you can see the tabs you opened for the last time on the mobile;respond to messages or calls;authenticify the equipment from the mobile;Verify battery life and cell signal and a long etc.And for the future it is expected that Fuchsia a Chrome OS and Android in a single system.

And also Linux ... "All Chromebooks will be ready for Linux in short term," said Chrome OS Product Management Director in the Google I/O 2019.Taking into account that Chrome is based on a personalized Linux kernel, the strange thing is that the announcement that "Chromebooks will be Linux portable" does not arrive before.

Its execution by virtual machine with Debian, is integrated with Chrome to so that when you install a Linux application it appears next to the rest in the chrome tan.There is no doubt: Google ‘Add muscle’ to its platform with all this increase in support under which the very expected ‘Game Mode’ will also be offered to support the Steam de Valve.

Conclusiones

We liked Acer's convertible.Although it is not perfect (without wifi 6, screen brightness, webcam and regular sound, thickness and weight ...) is a good sample of the level increase that the chromebooks are reaching leaving behind the wrong idea that they were intended for the input range.Next to the improvement of Chrome OS in all sections, it makes it a very real alternative to its counterparts with Windows.

The Acer team is well built and finished;It is tremendously versatile with its convertible format;It has outstanding components such as the keyboard and the Ryzen Mobile (even of previous generations) is a solvent processor for this equipment.

The proven version of Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (New Model of 2021) is the one that offers the upper hardware configuration.It has an official price of $ 599 and is available in Spain on the manufacturer's web portal for 649 euros.Acer also markets versions of this same model with 4 Gbytes de RAM and 64 Gbytes of Flash EMMC storage.

If you are looking for an approach to Acer Chromebooks at the cheapest price, you can find versions of the same model marketed in previous years with Intel Celeron processor from 254 euros, although you will not get the same experience with less memory and storage EMMC.

Closer to what the proven configuration offers (which we recommend) is the one used by a Ryzen 3 and that you can find for 510 euros.

There is much to choose from the big retailers and if you value other alternatives you can check our last Chromebook purchase guide.

Valoración final8.2NOTA NOS GUSTA Construcción y acabadosRendimiento sólidoFantástico tecladoPotencial Chrome OS A MEJORAR Brillo y contraste de pantallaSin Wi-Fi 6 RESUMENAcer Chromebook Spin 514 confirma el aumento de nivel de los equipos bajo Chrome OS. Un convertible versátil que ofrece varios modos de uso, bien construido y acabado con chasis de aluminio, con un fantástico teclado y por primera vez en un Chromebook de Acer motorizado por los procesadores Ryzen Mobile de AMD.Diseño y calidad de construcción9Rendimiento8.5Conectividad7.5Autonomía8Calidad/Precio8