Acer is one of the world’s leading PC manufacturers popularly known for producing high-performance, reliable, and quality laptops and computers. Ever since they marked their foray into the world of Chrome OS, the results have been rarely disappointing. Acer’s Spin series, in particular, comprises a bevy of great Chromebooks, in which the Spin 713, 714, and the 514 are a few that pack a top-end Chrome OS experience.
With that being said, the device in question today is the Acer Chromebook Spin 513, unique in the respect that it is the first Chromebook to come out with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor. This component alone is capable enough to thrill consumers all across the spectrum, giving birth to a plethora of questions such as, will it work great on Chrome OS or will it cater to the same great battery life of Chromebooks or not?
Considering all the above, we’ve set out to review this promising machine that marks the beginning of something exceptionally new in the Chrome OS maker space. We’ll make sure to discuss the device’s pros and cons and review it in general so you can decide if the Spin 513 is worth the time or money. But, first, let’s dive in with the technical specifications.
Acer Chromebook Spin 513 Specifications
- CPU: Qualcomm SnapdragonTM 7c Compute Platform
- Display: 13.3″ FHD (1920 x 1080) Touchscreen TFT IPS Display
- Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno 618 GPU
- Hard Drive Size: 64 GB eMMC Flash Storage
- RAM: 4 GB
- Camera: 1280 x 720 Webcam With Super High Dynamic Range Imaging (SHDR)
- Ports: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 3.5mm Headphone Jack
- Battery: 4670 mAh 2-cell Li-ion, 13.5 Hrs Runtime
- Charging Speed: 50% in 45 Minutes
- Weight: 2.65 lbs (1.2 kg)
- Price: $349
Acer Chromebook Spin 513 In-depth Review
Acer Chromebook Spin 513
1. Design
While it’s undeniable that the feature that takes the spotlight is the Spin 513’s Snapdragon processor, but we cannot go on without mentioning its build quality first. Quite fortunately, Acer upholds its reputation and makes sure that this device is head-turning when it boils down to its design. The Spin 513 is sleek, stylish, lightweight, and ultra-portable, weighing in at just 2.65 pounds and measuring to about 15mm of thickness. As soon as you pick this device up, you’ll easily notice how comfortable it is to carry and use it on the.
However, build quality isn’t the best, and there are definitely instances where this Chromebook comes off as cheap. One such area is the keyboard deck which depresses if you apply some pressure on it. This con isn’t anything too drastic, but we just thought it fit to put it out here. On the plus side, the Spin 513 also boasts a convertible form factor and pulls everything that follows reasonably. You can get to watching multimedia content in the tent mode or use it as a tablet effectively – whatever floats your boat. Speaking of which, the touchscreen is responsive, fluid, and is nothing but high-quality as well.
Moving down to the display, the Spin 513 performs respectfully in this section. It affords a 13.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) TFT IPS display that enjoys vibrant colors and great viewing angles. There’s nothing to complain about here, and this is something typical with Acer Chromebooks. A gripe with most devices in this price range and even higher ones is brightness. Thankfully, that isn’t the case with the Spin 513 since it reaches up to 300 nits of brightness, allowing you to use it on a sunny day outdoors comfortably. There’s also USI stylus support, so if you have a digital pen, you can easily draw, write, and do everything of the like on this device.
As always, we are fairly intrigued by the standard of the keyboard on a Chromebook, and it’s safe to say that the Spin 513’s is a decent one. There’s that right amount of clickiness, nice travel, and it’s just overall a good keyboard for long bouts of typing and daily use. The success story continues to the glass trackpad, making navigation smooth, fluid, and outright painless on this device. Next up, we have the I/O talk about, and Acer has delivered satisfactorily here. We have been given two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C ports, a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. As mentioned, nothing too praiseworthy here, but just enough to get you going.
2. Performance
The Acer Chromebook Spin 513, despite accumulating hype and expectations from having a Snapdragon processor, has us severely disappointed. It comes with 4 GBs of RAM and a 64 GB hard drive, not to mention the Qualcomm SnapdragonTM 7c Compute Platform CPU.
Make no mistake. This chipset is more than capable of dishing out fairly average performance with 5-10 concurrent Chrome tabs opened and a few Play Store applications running in the background. Anything more than that, however, and you’re nearing the limit of the 7c processor. Snapdragons are usually implemented in almost all Android phones where they are famous for gaming use-cases.
Acer offers two other configurations with the Acer Spin 513, where the most maxed-out model has 8 GBs of RAM but the same as everything else, including storage, CPU, and display. That version costs about $549 at the time of writing.
3. Battery Life
The battery life of the Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is great. You can get anywhere around 12-13 hours of runtime on a single charge. Acer has incorporated a 4670 mAh 2-cell Li-ion battery inside this device that can charge up to 50% in about 45 minutes using its Type-C charging port.
However, if you were to pump up the brightness up to 100% and then use it, the battery runtime would significantly reduce, coming down to about 10 hours of consistent usage. But then again, people like to keep the brightness to about 50-75%, and that is a range where the Spin 513 can offer you spectacular battery life.
4. Final Thoughts
The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is a solid-looking device that packs portability like no other. Despite our considerable knock with its performance, it has many good things going on for itself. Sleek and light chassis, high-quality keyboard and trackpad duo, all-day battery life, decent port selection, and a satisfying display with reasonable brightness. All these plus points make the Spin 513 an exceedingly enticing device with just one slowpoke area: performance.
When this device first came out, it was priced around $529, and that price range made it quite hard to recommend. However, a couple of weeks after its launch, Acer has dialed down the price, making it come for just $329, as this Walmart listing shows. This changes the whole game for the Spin 513 and makes it an easy recommendation to all those looking for a decent Chromebook without shelling out the big bucks.
