Acer’s Chromebook Spin 714 is worse than its predecessor

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 has been on the prime of our Best Chromebook record for a number of years operating now. It’s one of the beloved Chromebooks of the previous a number of years, and it had a laundry record of issues going for it: blazing quick Intel processors, a crisp and high-resolution 3:2 display screen, a beneficiant port choice with Thunderbolt 4, all-day battery life, and one of many higher keyboards you can discover within the Chromebook house. I had very excessive hopes for its sequel, the Chromebook Spin 714.

So it brings me no pleasure to report that the Chromebook Spin 714 is worse than the 713. That doesn’t make it a horrible laptop — and at my Core i5 / 8GB / 256GB unit’s MSRP of $729.99, many of those flaws are extra forgivable than they’d be at a value of, say, $1,000. But I do see it, sadly, as a step again. Here’s why.

The main space wherein this system has improved over the 713 is pace. The 714 is certainly one of few Chromebooks that comes with Intel’s twelfth Gen processors. It is lightning quick. It dealt with my heavy multitasking workload simply superb, and I can’t think about it might have an issue operating issues in Linux, both. Nothing I threw at it — even once I was hopping between 20-25 tabs and apps — generated any warmth or made the followers spin up in any respect. While I examined final 12 months’s Spin 713, the followers have been raging mainly the entire time. So that’s a welcome enchancment.

This can also be, in my view, a barely better-looking laptop than the 713. I received’t go as far as to name it a handsome system — the design continues to be considerably boring and drab, and an “Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass” brand etched into the highest bezel is especially unappealing. Still, there are some good accents across the touchpad that make all the pieces look extra skilled. And the end is high-quality — this system was battered round in my backpack and not using a scratch. Visually and materially, this system is a step up from the 713. (But, I can not overemphasize, it nonetheless seems to be boring.)

And lastly, there’s a garaged stylus. It lives in a tiny slot within the backside proper nook of the system, and it’s very straightforward to slide out and in. Writing with it was a blended bag — the feel was clean, however the hinge isn’t fairly sturdy sufficient to maintain the display screen firmly in place whereas I used to be writing in laptop computer mode or pill mode. I didn’t love the give it had in each instances.

Okay, time to speak about a few of the extra puzzling adjustments Acer made. First, the show. So, sure, the Spin 714’s display screen is barely bigger. However, the Spin 713 had one of the distinctive screens that has ever been placed on a Chromebook. It was 3:2 with 2256 x 1504 decision. It was so roomy, there was zero glare, colours have been vivid, and all of this was a large a part of the rationale that Chromebook 713 was topping Best Chromebook pages everywhere in the web. I’m picturing that display screen proper now, and I miss it a lot. Please come again to me.

Anyway, that’s not the display screen the 714 has. This system sports activities a 1920 x 1200, 16:10 panel. It reaches 340 nits of brightness, whereas the 713 easily passed 400. Look, this display screen is okay, however like… meh. It’s superb.

Second, one of many ports is gone. Acer eliminated the microSD slot that the Spin 713 had. The different ports listed below are superb (you get two USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, one USB 3.2 Gen 1, one HDMI, and one headphone jack). It’s simply that the 713 additionally had all that, plus a microSD slot.

And then we get to the battery life. Once once more, Intel twelfth Gen is displaying shorter battery life than Intel eleventh Gen did. I averaged seven and a half hours out of the eleventh Gen system (which, keep in mind, had a brighter and higher-resolution display screen). I averaged 4 hours and 56 minutes of steady work use, at 50 % brightness, out of this one. And when you could get increased numbers than I did right here relying in your workload, it appears very probably that most individuals will get a sizeably shorter day trip of the Spin 714 than they’d out of its predecessor. (Charging time was speedy, no less than — the 714 juiced as much as an hour in simply 46 minutes, an enchancment over final 12 months.)

There are different minor issues, too — the 714’s touchpad is smaller, its chassis is thicker and heavier, and there’s no fingerprint sensor. And then, all of that apart, there may be the truth that they made the system dearer. This unit, bear in mind, is $729.99 — a Core i5 / 8GB / 256GB mannequin of the 713 was $699. My mannequin is the most affordable one I’ve been capable of finding on-line — I’m additionally seeing a Core i5 / 16GB unit and a Core i7 / 16GB unit each listed for simply over $1,000.

Sure, possibly the included stylus and barely bigger display screen would justify that value improve in a vacuum. But then I have a look at the lengthy record of issues lacking from the 714, the methods wherein it’s a step again, and I’m simply not satisfied.

I don’t wish to brush previous how a lot additional energy the Spin 714 has. The silent followers and chilly plastic have been very a lot a noticeable enchancment. This probably stays one of the highly effective Chromebooks — if not strongest gadgets — you should purchase for $729.99.

But what makes me unhappy is that the Spin 713 was once that. The Spin 713 blew its opponents out of the water with benchmark scores. But it was additionally nice in so many different methods. It had an incredible display screen. It had nice battery life. It had an incredible port choice. Really, the one factor to complain about was the subpar audio (which stays subpar on the 714). The Spin 714, against this, largely has the highly effective specs going for it. And whereas that energy definitely retains it within the dialog, it isn’t in any respect the slam-dunk buy that the 713 was.